SparkDr Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 First year LOR and with the exception of burning through partial sections of Green LED strings on a nightly basis early on (solved by reducing intensity on controller with only one failure since - Thank you Mr. Talley!) things have gone flawlessly until last night. People would stop to see the show but weren't hanging around for the whole thing. I peeked out the side door a couple of times to make sure the lights were going - Yep, no GFI trips. I turned on the radio in the house to check the music & transmitter - Yep, all is good there too. Maybe folks aren't staying since they can't really pull entirely off the road anymore now that we have snow banks? Maybe it's just too damn cold? Or maybe it's because I'm just a moron? BINGO - that's the answer. We have our scrolling LED message sign hung inside our picture window facing out with show times, tune to info, etc on a switched outlet in the living room & we turn it off each night after the show. I was running late in getting home last night so one of the kids had turned the sign on before I got there. You guessed it - I hustled in the house, flipped the switch and inadvertently turned the sign back off. I never thought to peel back the blackout blinds to make sure the sign was actually on. Apparently, we ran the whole evening without anyone knowing where to dial the radio to. Needless to say, I had my answer and aha moment when I pulled out of the garage this morning to find the sign on after I was certain that I turned it off last night. Anybody else have a self-sabotage moment to share? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Not yet here, but I'm sure I will! We all have "Duh attacks" from time to time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LORisAwesome Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Sounds like a Griswold problem. lol In the movie, Clark was trying to get the Christmas lights to turn on and he had the entire thing plugged into a switched outlet that was turned off... He couldn't figure out why the lights wouldn't come on. Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulXmas Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Could be solved by controlling the sign via one channel on a controller.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparkDr Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 I might've had a puncher's chance of figuring this out last light if the living room circuit wasn't controlled by 3 way switches on opposite sides of the room. "Up" isn't always "on" with 3 & 4-ways. Thankfully, I split-wired that room so that the top half of each receptacle always has power & the bottom half is switched at the wall. We're gonna leave the sign on 24/7 for the remainder of the season. With our Southern exposure on that side of the house, the sign won't be visible through the direct sunlight during the height of the day anyways. And PaulXmas, how dare you suggest giving up a channel for such things? That's borderline sacrilegious for a one-controller guy like me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Why not a readily-available item that sells for under 5 bucks these days. A timer. For me, there's nothing easier or more error-free. And I agree - even with hundreds of conventional LOR channels, I'd never even consider using one for the tune-to signs. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santas Helper Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 George, my exact thinking and how I do it myself.A timer. We all have our DUH moments. I certainly did several times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Yeah, I've used the "D" word in plenty of sentences in my life as well. I've got a slew of things on timers - each of the tune to signs, the light over the mailbox, the rope-light heater in my laser enclosure, and the single C9 in my display which puts the outdoor yard light to sleep during the show. Set 'em and forget 'em I say... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grinch Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 I turn my FM transmitter on with a channel and all was well. Then I was in a hurry to finish a new sequence and forgot to turn the transmitter channel on in that song. Wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what was wrong with that one MP3 that had no sound. The rest of the show was OK. Duh!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjdamico23 Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 Too funny, I too have my tune to signs on a timer, but originally was hooked in an outlet that can be controlled with a switch inside, and the kids are always playing with the switches, so just moved to another outlet elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 Don't feel bad.. this is my 3rd year with LOR but no stranger to light programming.. and I had my "DUH" moment last night.. Traffic was very very heavy.. the show was supposed to shut off at 10pm.. I had lengthened it earlier in the day knowing it would be busy tonight.. so at 10:30pm the lights shut down as they were supposed to.. HOWEVER..... The FM transmitter has it's own internal timer.. (I don't like broadcasting dead air).. so it shuts down at 10:10pm.. Just like it did last night... OMG.. I am embarrassed beyond belief.. 20 minutes of flashing lights not to the music.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a31ford Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 Gawd To "Quote" SparkDR "May the Mods grant me the serenity to accept the opinions of those I cannot change,the courage to offer valid input to those who are open to another way of thinking,and the wisdom to shut myself down whenever I get too in love with my own misconceived brilliance." Fits me to a tee ! I got too many Duh moments to remember them all. Merry Christmas everyone ! Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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