Welcome a Newbie and offer wife help please!

[cgreenfield]

Most retail LEDs - Walmart, Target, etc - will fade okay.  (Martha Stewart is a brand to avoid.)

Ditto... I have heard that the Martha Stewart LEDs can get extremely hot when you attempt to fade them, and possibly start a fire. We had 8 strings (4 red, 4 white) wrapped around the the 2 columns by our front door to make them look like candy canes in 2012, and when I heard about that I immediately changed the sequences so they had no fades on those lights and, then in 2013 (Last Christmas) we replaced them with incandescent mini lights. 

 

-Chris-

Edited August 14, 2014 by cgreenfield

[NJJohn]

so now the wife says to me... you know if JT is doing half the sequencing that will free you up to do some RGB and you have $1000 left in your budget... OH for crying out loud woman!!! LOL!

So at what point is someone going to nominate this woman for Sainthood. Let me be the first. WOW, usually I'm asking for forgiveness. GORK68 welcome to the madness. You are a very lucky man to have such a supportive family that actually wants to get involved with the actual sequencing. You have received some great advice above and I don't think I could add anything more constructive other than telling you to invest some of that money in a website because I'm sure all of us on this board that are drooling over that "wife problem" you claim to have are going to want to see the 50 or more sequences it sounds like you and your son are going to complete this month. At a minimum, I hope to see some great videos on YouTube. Come to think of it, maybe you will need to invest in a good video camera to capture those vides on. There you have it, my three ideas......Sainthood, website, video camera.

Good luck, have fun, and welcome. We are all anxiously waiting to see the final product.

John

[Gork68]

thanks John! yes I will probably make another website at some point... right now I am really busy as you all know

 

I ordered a 1000' roll of spt-2 wire and hundreds of male/female vampire plugs. I think this was one of the best ideas! it's a lot cheaper this way when you need literally hundreds of cords but it's also really nice to cut them to exactly the size you want and need.

 

I am planning on starting to put everything up before Halloween... usually I start as soon as it is over. I am also putting tape labels on everything so I know where it goes and what it plugs into. another great suggestion btw!

 

The wife broke me down and I am in the middle of adding RGB this year... I am constructing 4 arches with CCR and building a tune in sign. Although she really wanted the mega tree, but I just don't see how I could complete that this year with sequencing. Maybe I am making it out to be harder than it is but it seems like too much for what little time I have left... I am also thinking about replacing my star on the nativity scene to RGB this year as well. not for color change as much as for the effects

 

I have gone over my budget though or will as soon as the electrician comes out and adds a couple more circuits for me... but I figured what the heck its for a good cause right? I think this will be the 5th or 6th year we have been collecting food donations for a local food pantry. the first year we collected 150 or so items. this number has grown every year and last year was over 3,500 items. my living room and front room looked like a couple aisles in krogers. I hope this year I run out of room

[Osaltyone]

Very nice static display! Can't wait to see it set to music. My first year too, only hope mine looks half as good.

[paralegalnc]

I had to laugh when I saw "I am completely new and about to get into this hobby"... it becomes an addiction.  you sit and wait for Christmas stuff to get put out at the stores... (btw hobby lobby has it out now) ... my husband and I do this together and its alot of work...but to hear children squeal.... oh its an awesome feeling.  I get to do the sequencing and my husband builds my prop... I hear the music and I can see the lights blinking in my head.... we start planning the next show usually when the completed one is going on- I start programming in June (just because of my schedule) and the lights go up usually before Halloween.  this is our third year... spt wire and vampire plugs are the greatest invention.... we use alot of it.  but whether you have a spiral tree, mega tree, regular tree, static, regular lights, rgb lights... whatever, if they blink to music people will love it.  ohhh to have a $2000 budget for one year...  little thought.... if you are doing arches.... we used pvc pipe and used rope lights.  I personally like the look better than wrapping it with a gazillion lights.  plus it's easier to store. we use one 18 ft light per section.  My husband built a type of drill jig so when we wrap them we use a drill to spin...makes it a whole bunch easier.  your display is beautiful....cant wait to see the finished product.

[Gork68]

thx paralegalnc. I have built 4 arches. I used 3/4 inch PVC pipe that I heated then bent into an arch. I then zip tied RGB strips to it. it's so funny because my wife and 3 boys are listening to and singing Christmas songs all the time now... my youngest is running around singing jingle bells at the moment.  I just hope I can finish enough songs...

[dgrant]

Just like Paralegic, I too listen to the music and see the lights in my head or at least what's possible. She's lucky that she's got someone to help her whereas I do mine all alone but the reward is seeing the smiles of the grandkids and neighborhood kids out there running around, dancing and of course, the smiles! Arches and megatrees look cool and they are crowd pleasers. This year, I'm adding a pixel tree which should really stand out a lot but its a whole lot more work in sequencing.

[Surfing4Dough]

I have gone over my budget though or will as soon as the electrician comes out and adds a couple more circuits for me... but I figured what the heck its for a good cause right?

Why are you needing to add more circuits if you are running all LED? Your display likely will use less electricity than when it was static - when animated rarely will all the lights be on all at once. You can plug more than one controller into a single circuit (either use 3-way splitters or convert your controllers to a single power cord version). As long as you don't exceed the amperage capacity of the outlet/circuit (usually 15 or 20 amps) and controller you will be fine. It is difficult to exceed these limits with just LEDs. A Kill-a-Watt is a cheap tool to measure all this.

http://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU

Can use this free software utility if you want to be very accurate tracking this for each sequence.

http://t2lights.com/christmas/lorutility.html

Another great addition are custom voiceovers by The Demented Elf, a member here. He is awesome. Great help when advertising a food drive and help with crowd control.

http://www.thedementedelf.com

BTW, always expect to go over budget, especially if you have reached your budgeted amount this long before the season and your first year. Add about 50%.

Feel free to post screenshot video of your visualizer playing one of your sequences for additional constructive feedback.

[Gork68]

I need more circuits because I only have one... Yes LED's use a lot less but 20,000 add up. Unfortunately for me the builder of the house I am in decided to cut costs. I have a single circuit for all outdoor outlets. Front and back of the house are on the garage circuit. so I can run cords into the house or add circuits. I am adding