Using a cheap box to control my lights

[nexusguy59]

Hello Everyone,

  

           This is my first year trying all this out and I am excited, I bought a cheap box to run my lights this year, but i want a more sophisticated system so I came across LOR.

 

Now my question, with everything running from a laptop how do I hook up outdoor speakers and how do I get the right length of cable if it is a usb plug. I have almost a 1/4 to a 1/2 an acre with lights and the longest run is about 150 feet from the source. How do I hook up all the lights are they done individually to the outlets on the LOR controller? If that is the case how do I get the effect I want as far as like a wave of lights or such like that. I am just not sure how it works.

 

Thanks,

Michael

[Jaynee]

If you get a LOR controller, you'll want to get the software which helps you program the lights. 

 

Look at the various tutorials (including the ones here on the LOR site) and they'll help educate you on what the LOR controllers and software can do.  That would be much easier than asking such a wide-opened question here on the forums. 

 

good luck to you!

[Orville]

LOR ~AC~ Controllers, such as the CTBPC16 are 16 channels, they have 16 dangles, labeled channel 1 through 16, each dangle controls whatever light{s} are plugged into it INDIVIDUALLY or ALL at the SAME TIME, depending on how they are programmed in the LOR Sequencer software!.

 

Connecting outdoor speakers, if the speakers have a 1/4" male jack that plugs into your sound card, then you can do 1 or 2 things, cut the speaker wire and splice in the length you need to extend it, or buy extender audio cables {or build your own} that have female and male stereo ends, then plug your outdoor speakers into the extender cable and the extender into your computer.

 

However the EASIEST {albeit, NOT the cheapest} method is to buy an FM Transmitter and an old boom box radio {or several if you need to cover large areas} and place the radio{s} in something that can help keep them dry{weatherproofed}, tune the radio{s} to the FM Transmitter frequency used and now you have external "wireless" speakers around your display.   Just have to supply either ~AC~ power or DC{battery} power to the radio{s} in the yard.

 

Lighting wave effects, best bet here is to download the demo software suite from LOR, learn how it works and create the effects you want to occur.    Each individual likes their own way of how an effect may look and work, so playing with the LOR Sequencing and learning it over the next year will be to your advantage.   And when you finally buy your controllers, you'll have a huge advantage knowing how to program your lights.  Also when you get your license, I'd recommend buying the Advanced or Pro version, you'll have a lot more flexability and room to grow your display, and it will grow!

 

Good Luck, and also, find the manuals on the LOR site and download them for the item{s} you plan on purchasing, this will also help you to learn how they work and function.    And there are a lot of excellent tutorial videos on YouTube that can probably answer a lot of your questions that you'll have.   Watching them will also give you a huge advantage when you finally make that plunge and buy your first controller{s}.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Orville