HELP getting started

[itserine]

Hello,

 

I'm Erin and new to LOR. I am wanting to purchase my first ever music/light display.I have been reading through and I am lost, a lot of terminology i'm unsure of.

 

For a beginner, what system would you all suggest to begin with, I was looking on the site and was leaning towards the Residential Series 16 Channel Starter Package. Sound good or would you recommend something else?

 

I am attaching a image of my home this year. I already have a lot of LED lights. Will these work with the system I would be purchasing, can I make these strands I already have chase each other, or use my rope lights to chase each other for arches?

 

I was looking at everything involved[attachment as far as what the packing included. So assuming everyone keeps there PC inside, did you just run the CAT5 cable out a window or something And just to confirm I would need a long enough cable to reach from the USB coming out of my laptop to the controller box mounted outside?

 

Assuming I have all LED lights, C6, C7 and C9 how many strands will this box hold? I just don't want to overload a circuit or the box. Also can this be ran off a regular outlet or does a designated breaker need to be installed?

 

Is everything included in the package I am looking at? So extension cords will just be ran to the cords coming out of the control box?

 

Also any other tips you can provide to a first timer would be MUCH appreciated!!!

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ebuechner]

Just so you understand you can use the light that you currently have but they will never do anything more than what they currently do. The controller box will make them turn on off dim and Flickr. As far as hooking the controller up to your computer you only need a short USB cable to the adapter. From there you will need a long length of Ethernet cable with connectors on the ends to make the journey from the adapter to the controller box outside. Just so you have a clear understanding this is not a plug and play hobby. But it is lots of fun and very addicting once you get to know how to control everything. The best sequences for your house are going to be the ones that you make yourself. Which means after you have your controller box up and running in hooked to your computer now you have to sit down and decide what the lights should do it at a given point in the music. Don't let anything that I say here discourage you I'm sure if you sit down and study it a little bit it'll become clear to you and you'll have fun. And make the neighbors jealous. By the way I looked at your attached picture you could definitely use a 16 channel box but I think 32 channels would work out better with all the lights you currently have. But you will have to do a little studying and make that decision on your own.

Edited December 22, 2015 by Ebuechner

[itserine]

Just so you understand you can use the light that you currently have but they will never do anything more than what they currently do. The controller box will make them turn on off dim and Flickr. As far as hooking the controller up to your computer you only need a short USB cable to the adapter. From there you will need a long length of Ethernet cable with connectors on the ends to make the journey from the adapter to the controller box outside. Just so you have a clear understanding this is not a plug and play hobby. But it is lots of fun and very addicting once you get to know how to control everything. The best sequences for your house are going to be the ones that you make yourself. Which means after you have your controller box up and running in hooked to your computer now you have to sit down and decide what the lights should do it at a given point in the music. Don't let anything that I say here discourage you I'm sure if you sit down and study it a little bit it'll become clear to you and you'll have fun. And make the neighbors jealous. By the way I looked at your attached picture you could definitely use a 16 channel box but I think 32 channels would work out better with all the lights you currently have. But you will have to do a little studying and make that decision on your own.

Thanks! So is there a system that I can buy that is 32 Channels? OR do I have to buy the kit I had listed above and then another controller box, and Ethernet cable?

 

Where you you suggest buying the lights that have multi functions, and do I need to look for anything specific with them?

 

Thanks!

[Ebuechner]

You have time until next year I suggest you do a little more reading before you decide on something. Get a little better understanding what all this stuff does. And when you said lights that have multi function I'm not exactly sure where you're going with that. If you're talking about lights that you can buy at Walmart or a big box store that have multi functions they cannot be used with these controller boxes. If you're talking about the RGB (that means red green blue) lights that you see in some of these videos that's a whole other ball game. May I suggest that you read through the forums look at some of the videos and ask questions specific to those videos. Get an idea of what everything is. Most people get started with basic AC controller boxes like the starter kit you are talking about. From there you'll get a feel for where you want to go. I haven't looked at the AC controllers and kits in awhile. But I'm pretty sure you would have to get a 16 channel starter kit plus an extra controller to get 32 channels. For every channel you have you can control a set of lights think about how many strings that you have and how you would like to divide them up. For instance my mega tree alone uses 16 channels so I need one controller all by itself for that one item. And next year I think I'm going to add more colors to it so I will be up to 48 channels for one item. Here's some terms you may have to look up I have for arches in front using smart strips each one has 50 nodes for all 4 arches that comes out to 600 channels.

[itserine]

Thanks for all your help. I plan on looking into this a lot more.

[Ebuechner]

If your patient will be a lot of sales you can take advantage of coming up in the next few months. But get a rough idea where you want to start. You can download the software and play with it in demo mode it just won't control lights. You can use what's called the visualizer in the software to lay out what you think you want. You just start with a picture of your house and put it into that tool and start adding to it.

[dgrant]

Start with a plan. Suggest you take a picture of your home, print out several copies, then start drawing strings on it and decide how you want them to appear with music. This will dictate your hardware requirements. There are AC controllers, DC controllers, E1.31 Controllers and more. Deciding which or all you get or use, depends on how you wish things to appear. Ac controllers turn on/off, fade, twinkle, shimmer regular strings of AC controlled lights. Most of us suggest LEDs as they are pretty, last longer and use a lot less electricity however, there is a place for using incans too. DC controllers such as LOR's CMB24D, uses a 12VDC power supply which you provide. It controls "Dumb" strips. A dumb strip is where the whole strip is any color, one color but any color and you can change it on the fly in the sequence. Yes, you can do all the fades, twinkles and etc... Intelligent LED's are where each individual pixel or node, is addressable. Each can be any color therefore chases, color changes, animation and lots of things are possible, depending on how its used. These require the use of an E1.31 controller or you can get LOR's CCR's which have their own controller and power supply. There's lots of accessory things to consider for a full show too such as FM transmitter, frequency signs, speakers to the yard if desired and more. Most of us suggest starting off easy the first year. Get a 16 or 32 channel system. Use the visualizer as it's your friend. You pick the music of your choice and you become the artist in lights. When it runs for the first time, you'll feel what we all do. When the kids are singing along or dancing to your light show, you'll see what we all see.