First Year Halloween Lights

[EmmienLightFan]

This is my first year. I didn't expect to be doing Halloween. I had a few plans but acctually ended up doing everything, including sequencing, in the two weeks before Halloween. It is a little messy. I need to sort out the window frames before Christmas, and I need to find a way to get the 150 pixel strip to the top of the house; where it is supposed to be.

 

Videos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures and captions of behind the scenes stuff:

Tried using balloons and string to pull the window frames & pixel strip up from the other side... It didn't work

 

 

 

Window frames and 10 watt flood are controlled from a CMB24D in its cardboard box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All powered from a 13a socket.

 

The pixel strip was controlled from an Advatek Lighting Pixlite 4.

 

The wiring was a mess. All done with cheap tiny RGB wire and even thinner speaker wire, and scraps of mains cables for the power to power supplies. For the pixel strip I tied together and red and black to try to minimise voltage drop on the +5v. Before I did that there was slight yellowing but it stopped it. The other end had two runs of cheap speaker wire connecting it to the power supply. It was all perfect and no yellow or pink.

 

The power supply was a 5v 30 amp 150 watt SMPSU from Ebay. It worked great.

I put it in an IP66 box and cut up an IEC extension cable (The ones that used to be used to link the IEC outlet of old PC power supplies to the screen). I am going to replace it with a long wire and a 16 amp Ceeform plug so that it can actually be used outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sound went through a Behringer 302USB. It was really good. I had a problem where the sound only came out of one speaker. I had taken the speaker apart and soldered the mini-jack input and everything! I should have looked at the Behringer sound card as only the right signal light was coming on. The balance was set in the PC to only output sound to the right!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The router that controlled the E1.31 network.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The garage door slightly squished some cables, especially the 10 watt flood wire. I hope I have not damaged it inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Light-O-Rama's 10 watt floodlight. It lit up the garage and bay window on its own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 2, 2015 by EmmienLightFan

[thebaronn]

Very nice!

I'm glad I'm not the only person with wires/controllers all over the place!

[EmmienLightFan]

The start end of the RGB (Actually, GRB) pixel strip. The extra power connector was cut off and the ends covered with duct tape. The strip was mounted on PVC pipe which was cable tied to the clips holding the gutters up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other end of the pixel strip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The left window frame before the bottom bit came from Ebay.

When the extra strip to cover the bottom did arrive it had a slightly different shade of green. It was hardly noticeable to everyone else... BUT I NOTICED IT!!!

 

The PC has a nice little screen on the front that displays useful information such as free hard drive space, RAM, weather and even the news!

 

I am going to try and get it to display the LOR console for Christmas.

 

The PC is overkill for running the show. I am not sure of the exact spec but it has a two terrabyte hard disk; 40GB have been used - plenty of space for sequences, 4GB of ram and a good CPU.

 

 

 

 

Thank you very much to Tom Betgeorge, for the clean version of Uptown Funk, Kingfish and Bill P for the singing faces of Uptown Funk. I used both. That is why some of them stay on for a little bit longer and some are more flashy when singing.

 

And Kingfish again for the Thriller singing faces. Unfortunately I didn't get any video of the normal version of Thriller, but I think it had the best singing pumpkins, and again for the singing faces for This is Halloween from the Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

Also thank you to everyone on the forums as I have learnt so much this year. I thought I was doing a small Christmas display with 16 channels. Now I have over 1000 channels of pixels, dumb RGB, low voltage LEDs and incandescents about to go up as well as a Halloween display! 

 

The people who noticed that the light flashed with the music really liked it. There were probably over 150 trick or treaters in total.

Very nice!

I'm glad I'm not the only person with wires/controllers all over the place!

I put everything together in a rush. 

 

But doesn't everyone have wires all over the place?

[EmmienLightFan]

Most lights came down today, getting ready to begin putting up Christmas stuff.

[EmmienLightFan]

I just edited some more videos

 

 

 

 

[marsh28]

You should make little pvc "brackets" to hold the pvc pipe to the window.  I put my pixels in PEX tubing and attach the pex to my house with little, homemade PEX u channels.  Its easy and cheap.  Also gets rid to tape...