kevinandamy Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Just purchased the starter 16 channel starter kit. Now I'm wondering if this will be able to put on a quality light show. We were hoping for multiple arches, the large tree, 6 windows, 4 bushes, our garage doors and some other misc. items. Will the 16 channels be able to handle this? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santas Helper Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Kevin or Amy, Never a dumb question around here. AND Welcome aboard the LOR wagon. With all the items you are mentioning, one controller may not be enough.I'm saying that IF you are using a channel for each window, each bush, large tree, garage door and misc stuff. If you skipped out on the arches this year, then one controller should be fine.Arches and Mega trees are channel eaters.If getting another controller is not an option for this season, I would not do arches and focus more on the rest of the display. Again, that's sticking to one controller. That's just my thoughts in the matter. Again, welcome aboard. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 As stated, arches, megatrees and etc., are channel eaters because the more channels you use on them, the better they look. I have four arches which use two controllers, 8 channels each arch, plus a megatree that is 32 channels or two controllers. So for me, four controllers right there. I use three controllers for the house, fixtures and props along with a single CCR and its controller, so I'm up to 8 devices and haven't even got into the DC stuff yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeA Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I would recommend a 16 channel mega tree and static lights on the rest for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keepaofdagr00ve Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Why are arches channel eaters? do you need 16 channels for an arch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gc75067 Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 you can run different props/fixtures together to save some channels.. example: lots of people say use an odd number of channels for arches.. lets say you go with channels 1-5 for the arches.. you would connect the first string of each arch back to channel one. 2nd to channel two etc... you could probably even get creative if you had to and stagger them (ie - channel 1 goes to first string on 1st arch, 2nd string on 2nd arch, 3rd string on 3rd, 4th string on 4th and 5th on 5th... then channel two could go to 2nd string on arch 1, 3rd on arch 2, 4th string on arch 3, 5th string on arch 4 and 1st string on arch 5) although staggering might create a major pain in sequencing or it might not (havent tried it). that leaves you with 11 channels left 1 channel for the big tree 1-2 channels for windows 1 channel for bushes 1-2 channels for garage doors ( i would only use 2 max but probably only 1) rest of the channels left for other stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santas Helper Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Why are arches channel eaters? do you need 16 channels for an arch? Because for a good smooth chasing/fading arch, you need (IMHO) about 7 channels each arch. So two arches per controller basically. Some do it with less, some do it with more. And that's just one color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mitchell Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 (edited) Quite a lot can actually be done with 16 channels. GC gave a good example above. Putting items together on a channel on opposite sides of the yard is also a good way to look like you have more channels. Most people wont notice they are tied together. I suggest you go onto the LOR website and look at the 16 to 32 channel videos. Lots of great ideas there. Edited November 7, 2013 by Brian Mitchell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santas Helper Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 I suggest you go onto the LOR website and look at the 16 to 32 channel videos. Lots of great ideas there. That is probably the best suggestion right there. See what others do with that number of channels.Good call Brian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mitchell Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Looks like all the older videos are not available on the LOR site any more but I did a youtube search for 16 channel lor and found this video. It's an excellent 16 channel display. Great Job whoever it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santas Helper Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Looks like all the older videos are not available on the LOR site any more but I did a youtube search for 16 channel lor and found this video. It's an excellent 16 channel display. Great Job whoever it is. Good grief,Why in the world would anyone want or need more than one controller?That's it, I'm selling all other controllers but one. Very nice and well planned out display for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCas4380 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Someone spent a lot of planning on that for only one controler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santas Helper Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Someone spent a lot of planning on that for only one controller Yes, but they spent more money on lights than they did on planning. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Polenchar Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 This is what I did my first year. I made up 2 five channel each leaping arches. This is a total of 10 channels. In order to balance out the yard I needed 2 more five channel leaping arches. I made the second set of arches but to conserve channels I mirrored them. Arch 1 Channels 1thru 5 Arch 2 Channels 6 thru 10. Total of 10 channels. Arch 3 and Arch 4 were wired backwards to arch 1 and 2.Arch 4 channels 1 thru 5 Arch 3 channels 6 thru 10. By doing it this way it looks like you have more channels then you actually have. The arches ran backwards of each other giving the illusion of 4 five channel arches. EG. If arches 1 and 2 were chasing left to right arches 3 and 4 were chasing right to left. Just a suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCas4380 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 This is what I did my first year. I made up 2 five channel each leaping arches. This is a total of 10 channels. In order to balance out the yard I needed 2 more five channel leaping arches. I made the second set of arches but to conserve channels I mirrored them. Arch 1 Channels 1thru 5 Arch 2 Channels 6 thru 10. Total of 10 channels. Arch 3 and Arch 4 were wired backwards to arch 1 and 2.Arch 4 channels 1 thru 5 Arch 3 channels 6 thru 10. By doing it this way it looks like you have more channels then you actually have. The arches ran backwards of each other giving the illusion of 4 five channel arches. EG. If arches 1 and 2 were chasing left to right arches 3 and 4 were chasing right to left. Just a suggestion.this is what i still do but with a 7 channel arch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duckie24 Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 I wanted to maximize what I was able to get on one controller last year, so made a megatree that was 4 channels, then put several bushes each on other channels, then various other things had their own channel. As the above video shows, you can make it work, theirs had volume of lights on their side....as well as good planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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