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Another HAPPY Newbie


Bubba in NV

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Got the sterter package last friday, and sequenced a song over the weekend. Downloaded a couple more and got them running in the sequence editor. Today I tried to get the scheduler to work. I could make and save a show. Then when I scheduled it, it would not start (music sequence only). Tried and tried. Finally found a post from last October and they suggested to update to the 1.6.15 verson as I hav the 1.6.9 that came in the box.

That worked. It scared the hell out of me as I had the computer volume all the way up (7 speaker surround). I only have 4 lamps plugged into the light unit for testing. (all the lamps the wife would let me have).

I must admity I am one happy camper righ now. Can't wait til Halloween now.

You guys have a LOT of good information in these forums for newbies like me. I am not a coputer genius, but I can always get the thing going.

Looking forward to reading more posts.

I am retired Air Force and recently retired as a County Motor Officer. I got hooked by watching the Lindsay Light brothers. Last christmas I had a GE Mr. CFhristmas broadcasting from my Ramsy kit. The entire town came up my culdisake every night and sat there for the entire 25 songs to play through.

I will blow their socks off this year.....

Thanks for the good info in there posts .....

Jame E. "Bubba" Pate
Tonopah Nevada

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I only have 4 lamps plugged into the light unit for testing. (all the lamps the wife would let me have).




Hey "bubba" welcome to the world of LOR... I have a suggestion on your light testing problem, I use night lights from Wal-mart (don't get the ones that have daylight sensors on them. Get the ones that on-off swithes) I bought 64 of them and have them mounted on a roll around frame I made that holds controll boxes and night lights..Good luck!!!!!!!!!Bruce from TEXAS

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That is a good Idea. I was tinking of using one of the wife's old champain poster boards, get mini 120 volt lights from Radio shack, draw the house and yard on it and us that.

BUT since I got the LORII upgrade, I can just use the picture of the house with all the lights on in the animation view window . I know the controller works.

I have only had it for a few days and its already fun....

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That is a good Idea. I was thinking of using one of the wife's old champain poster boards, get mini 120 volt mini board lights from Radio shack, draw the house and yard on it and us that.

BUT since I got the LORII upgrade, I can just use the picture of the house with all the lights on in the animation view window . I know the controller works.

I have only had it for a few days and its already fun....

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I use nigthlights also for testing. You can see the fading and timing very well. I bought mine on Ebay in a big lot of 48 for like $10. I use them in pumpkins during Halloween.

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toymakr000 wrote:

I use nigthlights also for testing. You can see the fading and timing very well. I bought mine on Ebay in a big lot of 48 for like $10. I use them in pumpkins during Halloween.

Newbie question,

This will also be my first year using LOR and after reading this thread I was wondering if there is a difference in timing between the animation wizard and real lights hooked up the the controller when the sequence is playing?

Thanks

Mark
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Mark h2o wrote:

toymakr000 wrote:
I use nigthlights also for testing. You can see the fading and timing very well. I bought mine on Ebay in a big lot of 48 for like $10. I use them in pumpkins during Halloween.

Newbie question,

This will also be my first year using LOR and after reading this thread I was wondering if there is a difference in timing between the animation wizard and real lights hooked up the the controller when the sequence is playing?

Thanks

Mark

Mark,

No difference that I can notice.
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Mark h2o wrote:

This will also be my first year using LOR and after reading this thread I was wondering if there is a difference in timing between the animation wizard and real lights hooked up the the controller when the sequence is playing?

Thanks
Mark

The light timing is the same as the animation. But I still think there's some benefit to seeing lights controlled. After seeing my first sequence on the house, I changed my style slightly. Like Gary I bought some night lights for testing and possibly checking out some effects.

We're looking at doing arches this year. So, I'll probably set up a couple arches in the back yard this summer to get used to sequencing them.
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Mark h2o wrote:

I was wondering if there is a difference in timing between the animation wizard and real lights hooked up the the controller when the sequence is playing?
  1. If your computer does not have the fastest CPU or graphics card, then during periods in your sequence with a lot of changes, the animation display may miss some events, especially if the channel is on for a brief period. This can be worse if "Move Grid with Play", "Highlight Current Event", and "Highlight Current Time" are on.
  2. The animation screen cannot shimmer. It tries by flashing the pixels, but the shimmer effect has to be seen in actual lights before you know what it will look like. Also, shimmer with LEDs looks different (and many say better) than shimmer with incandescents.
  3. Some high-wattage spot lights take a finite time to "warm up", but all channels will turn on instantly in the animation window.
  4. I'm not sure if the twinkle effect is the same with the animation screen and actual lights. I suspect there may be differences.
  5. Special light bulbs, like curtain strobes, and other non-light things, like motors or water valves, cannot be represented with the animation window.

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I have not noticed any difference with the lights I have plugged in and the animation sequence. But since I have upgraded to LORII everything seems to go a lot smoother. AND having an actual picture of my house as the background really helps me to visualize what will really happen.

I have sequenced my broken THX intro and first song already (16 ch only) and I am finding it isnt much diferent than when I used to sequence all those about 2000 midi songs I created 10 years ago using cakewalk and my keyboard using the waveform window with the note scale window. And I still cant play a piano but I can make music on one. Is that retarded or what?

For me it is just as easy to start from scratch than trying to adapt a downloaded sequence.

I can look at a downloaded sequence, play it and get the geneal ideal of whats going on, delete the sequence, keep the tempo template and go from there. Too bad everyone does not use each 16 channel group the same on every house.
Ex: for me,

house peak-1
right eaves-2
left eave-3
garage door frame-4
ect ect.....

Anyway... its been fun so far and its only been two weeks...... BUT I recently retired and I have time to dink with it.

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