Help With First Time Purchase

[Dave76]

Hello everyone,

I have had the idea of making a light show for sometime now.  I stumbled upon this site several hours ago and started reading and reading.  I have an idea of what I want, and read other such threads as the included.  However, I know the summer sale ends tomorrow and in need of some urgent help in deciding what to get.  I have many questions like how do you run the wire form your PC to your controller, how do you set up the speakers, How many 16 channel control units can be plugged into one 120 outlet, among others.  The showtime starter pack is probably the best way to go, and then add another controller for 16 more channels, little more than I wanted to spend right now, but I will probably start with incan and LED lights.  I plan to use 16 channels on my house windows, roof edge, hedges, etc, and then the other controller and 16 channels on two of the animated items (Halloween talking skeletons for example).  

Will this allow me to expand to RGB in the future?  Is it better to piece together a set rather than purchase the starter pack?  Can the showtime starter pack get an updated software other than basic?  Or does it only come with the basic?  When it says supports "up to 4 tracks" are they talking tracks as in songs?  Is the "Residential Series 16 Channel" starter package a good option also and cut out the Director, add the FM transmitter and the 16 channel controller and save a little money.  I realize I need to figure out if I am going to use my PC or not.  I have two spare PC's just sitting around that I can dedicate for this project.  

 

I'm trying not to break the bank and any help, suggestions, comments would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks, Dave 

 

[saxon]

 -The starter pack is the way to go in my opinion, it has everything you need to start, including software to control lights

.- you can upgrade your starter pack software at purchase, or anytime

 - You will be able to expand to RGB at any time, your 16 channel controllers will have little to do with that

 - The track are not songs, track are a way people group there channels together, many people don't even use track - use as many song as you wish.

 - FM transmitter from LOR has a poor reputation, almost everyone chooses something else from elsewhere  

[B.Y.R.G.]

16 minutes ago, saxon said:

- FM transmitter from LOR has a poor reputation, almost everyone chooses something else from elsewhere  

Not to start a debate on this but put me in the "almost everyone" category as mine has worked perfect the 3 past years.

[Brian Mitchell]

How many controllers you can plug in to one outlet depends entirely on what kind of lights you are using.  If you are incans, you really have to track the usage of each channel and controller so as not to overload anything.  With LED's, not so much.  Some people using all LED's can run their entire show from one circuit.  Me, I have 50K of lights in a mixture of LED and incans and I use 13 different circuits. 

[k6ccc]

Here my first piece of advice.  It's getting towards late August.  that means that for most of us, lights on night is about three months away (94 days, 4 hours, 32 minutes for me as I type this).  That may seem like a lot of time, but it isn't.  My suggestion is to do whatever you have been doing in the past this year, and have time to really plan and more importantly sequence for a 2017 first show.  That will also allow you time to learn and ask questions..  There is a spring sale in about April that has better prices, but limited quantities (some stuff sells out in minutes).  A couple things that you need to think about (in no particular order):

You can control a show either from a Director or from a computer.  There are advantages and disadvantages to each.  Personally I use a computer.

What kind of lights do you want to use?  The is the "standard" 120V AC strings of lights in either incandescent or LEDs that are controlled by the LOR AC controllers.  There is also RGB (Red, Green, Blue) lights that allow almost infinite color control of either an entire string, or individual pixels.  That gets more involved, but even a beginner CAN do RGB if desired (I did my first show year).  If you do get into RGB (now or later), there is quite a bit more you need to learn, but there are tutorials available and lots of people here who can answer a question.

Do you want to have speakers in the yard playing your music, or an FM transmitter, or both?  Speakers are nice, but it's a hard balance between loud enough to be useful, and not so loud that it's annoying to you or your neighbors.  Trust me, that neither you nor your neighbors are going to want to hear the same few songs ten times a night for 40 nights!  An FM transmitter allows viewers to hear the music while in their car.  You don't have your location set, but if you are in a cold area, people are not going to want to get out of their nice warm car.  I live in southern California, and I do have people who walk up onto the sidewalk to watch (in fact I encourage it).  However most people even here are watching from their cars, so and FM transmitter is almost a requirement.  I have permanently installed speakers in my yard with 300 watts of amplifier.  For the light show, I run the speakers until about 9:00 PM and then shut them off.  The volume is loud enough to be useful on the sidewalk in front of the show, but barely audible across the street.  That uses FAR less than the full capacity of my amplifiers!

To answer your question about power.  IT depends on the lights.  If you are using all LEDs, you can run A LOT of lights strings off a single outlet.  If you are using incandescent lights, you have to be far more careful about how much you plug in to a single circuit..

The starter pack is a good deal as it gets some of the little things that you will need such as an RS-485 adapter, and the software.  The Basic license simply determines how many controllers you can control, and some of the more fancy features.  You can upgrade at any time to the add additional features and a larger number of controllers.  I will point out that many people here will tell you that they should have just jumped to Advanced (or now Pro level license).

To answer one more of your questions, the number of tracks has nothing to do with music.  It relates to separate sections of programming in the Sequence Editor.  Not something you will need to worry about to start.

I see there are now three other replies that have posted while I have been typing this, so maybe some of this has already been said...

 

[Santas Helper]

One outlet/circuit for this whole LED display.

The mega tree has 20,000 lights alone. 4 separate/different color strands of icicles. 30 RGB 10w LED floods. 16 mini trees. I'm also running about 50 xeon strobes.

[Need more lights]

17 minutes ago, B.Y.R.G. said:

Not to start a debate on this but put me in the "almost everyone" category as mine has worked perfect the 3 past years.

No trouble with mine either. I did have to string up the antenna to the street side of my LED lights tho. The LEDs seem to make white noise if in between antenna and receiving radio. Other than that, this will be the 5th year.

[Mr. P]

Santas Helper - you really have to quit posting those pics, show off.  

[Santas Helper]

 I was just going to slip in a little ole pic or two. Might have gotten carried away, again. 

[Need more lights]

5 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

Santas Helper - you really have to quit posting those pics, show off.  

Half his mega tree is more lights than my whole display.... which is all LED and runs on one 15 amp circuit as well...just sayin!

Mr.P...... just imagine if he had a video 

[Santas Helper]

1 minute ago, Need more lights said:

Mr.P...... just imagine if he had a video 

Nah, I don't want to show off or anything like that. 

[Need more lights]

Oh, none of us would think you'd show off....but I didn't say anything about me...

 

[Dave76]

1 hour ago, Brian Mitchell said:

How many controllers you can plug in to one outlet depends entirely on what kind of lights you are using.  If you are incans, you really have to track the usage of each channel and controller so as not to overload anything.  With LED's, not so much.  Some people using all LED's can run their entire show from one circuit.  Me, I have 50K of lights in a mixture of LED and incans and I use 13 different circuits. 

Is there any logical software to track the usage on the channels? Or paper and pencil it?

[Mr. P]

13 minutes ago, Dave76 said:

Is there any logical software to track the usage on the channels? Or paper and pencil it?

I use an excel spreadsheet which has all my controllers and lights. I list all the wattage and amps for each channel.

[Mr. P]

Since you are using some incan you can get a Kill_a_Watt meter to track your usage:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Kill-A-Watt-Electricity-Monitor-P4400/202196386

[Dave76]

1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

Here my first piece of advice.  It's getting towards late August.  that means that for most of us, lights on night is about three months away (94 days, 4 hours, 32 minutes for me as I type this).  That may seem like a lot of time, but it isn't.  My suggestion is to do whatever you have been doing in the past this year, and have time to really plan and more importantly sequence for a 2017 first show.  That will also allow you time to learn and ask questions..  There is a spring sale in about April that has better prices, but limited quantities (some stuff sells out in minutes).  A couple things that you need to think about (in no particular order):

You can control a show either from a Director or from a computer.  There are advantages and disadvantages to each.  Personally I use a computer.

What kind of lights do you want to use?  The is the "standard" 120V AC strings of lights in either incandescent or LEDs that are controlled by the LOR AC controllers.  There is also RGB (Red, Green, Blue) lights that allow almost infinite color control of either an entire string, or individual pixels.  That gets more involved, but even a beginner CAN do RGB if desired (I did my first show year).  If you do get into RGB (now or later), there is quite a bit more you need to learn, but there are tutorials available and lots of people here who can answer a question.

Do you want to have speakers in the yard playing your music, or an FM transmitter, or both?  Speakers are nice, but it's a hard balance between loud enough to be useful, and not so loud that it's annoying to you or your neighbors.  Trust me, that neither you nor your neighbors are going to want to hear the same few songs ten times a night for 40 nights!  An FM transmitter allows viewers to hear the music while in their car.  You don't have your location set, but if you are in a cold area, people are not going to want to get out of their nice warm car.  I live in southern California, and I do have people who walk up onto the sidewalk to watch (in fact I encourage it).  However most people even here are watching from their cars, so and FM transmitter is almost a requirement.  I have permanently installed speakers in my yard with 300 watts of amplifier.  For the light show, I run the speakers until about 9:00 PM and then shut them off.  The volume is loud enough to be useful on the sidewalk in front of the show, but barely audible across the street.  That uses FAR less than the full capacity of my amplifiers!

To answer your question about power.  IT depends on the lights.  If you are using all LEDs, you can run A LOT of lights strings off a single outlet.  If you are using incandescent lights, you have to be far more careful about how much you plug in to a single circuit..

The starter pack is a good deal as it gets some of the little things that you will need such as an RS-485 adapter, and the software.  The Basic license simply determines how many controllers you can control, and some of the more fancy features.  You can upgrade at any time to the add additional features and a larger number of controllers.  I will point out that many people here will tell you that they should have just jumped to Advanced (or now Pro level license).

To answer one more of your questions, the number of tracks has nothing to do with music.  It relates to separate sections of programming in the Sequence Editor.  Not something you will need to worry about to start.

I see there are now three other replies that have posted while I have been typing this, so maybe some of this has already been said...

 

I realize the time factor.  But I really want to get something set up to share with my neighbors and my kids.  So I'm going to try and put the time in and leaves me with tomorrow having to purchase to get the "summer deals".

At the very least, I want to have at least the 16 channel and do some out lines on my house, windows, trees/shrubs...

I did a bunch more reading, and would also like to add some of the RGB flood lights.

So if I get the starter pack, can I add the flood lights (and any other RGB strips) by adding:

CMB-24D Deluxe DC Card (Card, housing, etc)

X number of RGB flood lights

12v Power supply (like this? http://www.holidaycoro.com/Light-O-Rama-LOR-CMB24D-Mounting-Kit-p/641-kit1.htm )

Would that all work together and give me the options of both incans, LED, RGB?  I can daisy chain the CMB-24D controller and the CTB16PC-ReadyToG  correct?

If I get a different FM trans, I could technically go with the residential starter package http://store.lightorama.com/rese16chstpa.html

That would be $249, add Mini Director $99, find a cheaper FM trans elsewhere, add my CMB24D for about $60, and a 24v power supply $?. 

Does that sound about right?  Or I do the full starter kit $479 and add the option for the RGB mentioned int he line above...

 

Thoughts?

 

Really appreciate the HELP! Thank you!

 

[Mr. P]

There is a good copy of an excel spreadsheet here:

http://www.quartzhillchristmas.com/12.html

[Dave76]

2 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

There is a good copy of an excel spreadsheet here:

http://www.quartzhillchristmas.com/12.html

Thank you.  Lots of info on this site.  Is this yours?

[Mr. P]

7 minutes ago, Dave76 said:

Thank you.  Lots of info on this site.  Is this yours?

No, not mine. I used it when I first started years ago. Gonna give you your first like as well  

Edited August 24, 2016 by Mr. P

[Mr. P]

Dave76 - update your profile with your software ver and a location. There are many here who would gladly help out if they are near you.