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PPL'S choice of channels in an Arch ?


a31ford

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Greeting All !

The Wife and I are doing some inverted arches this year (hanging from our fence), it's a top rail (4x4) with only a post every 8 feet (and electric fencer wire on the back side for the horses). 

We had single white lights at one time, however, we are looking to do arches in place of the single strand.

with an 8 foot spacing… 8 or 9 channels ? per arch ?

IMO 8 would give me 4 arches on a pair of CTB-16's, and with a small change to 2 channels on a 3rd controller ( changing the MOC-3011's to MOC-3031's) would give me a pair of relay controllers, to double the amount of arches up to 8, I realise that only 4 arches could be lit at any one time this way, but my hope is to be able to chase the first 4, then the next 4 using the relays to determine which bank of arches are on.

 

Greg

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i use 8 per arch, makes 2 arches for 1 controller... lots will say odd number to create a center... but you can do that with an 8 channel arch as well...

 

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On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 10:07 PM, k6ccc said:

LOL, way more than my budget... but looks real good !!

 

 

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13 hours ago, a31ford said:

LOL, way more than my budget... but looks real good !!

I have actually found that now it is cheaper to invest in pixels than regular lights. The controllers go for about the same price, and the pixel bulbs seem to last longer and require less work every year to get set up right. It pays off for me somewhat in the amount of work I have to put in every year as well, some people think set up time doesn't cost anything, to me it costs time that I could spend on programming  songs or doing other things with friends and family. So I think that if you plan on doing a show for the next 4-5 years, it winds up being cheaper in terms of upkeep and labor to do pixels, it just requires more capital up front. But that's just like... my opinion, man

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My arches are LEDs and I made them 5 years ago and no issues since, I understand why people are all about pixels more control of lights etc.  But if you pre build your prop good and strong... set up time is minimal.  I have almost 600 AC channels this year with nearly 80k in lights, and will spend less time this year setting up then I did with about 450 channels last year.  It's all about how you build your props and setup, and how you store them.  Spend the extra time labeling everything, including the tubs.

I've worked on setup for maybe 2 full days of work and I am almost 50% done with hanging and placement.  I spend more time during the year in building my props for easy up, easy store.  I can put all my C9 roof line lights up in a couple hours, my windows are done in a few minutes, snowflakes take a bit because of the ladder but the screws in the brick never come down, All my extension cords and bundled by prop and labeled.  

I usually finish my setup in by 2nd week of November and do all my testing, don't put anything in my yard until after halloween.  I also will program a few songs each year once setup is done.  The longest setup item I have is my spiral tree.  Takes a full day to setup and run the lights on it.  

I use nearly all walmart (almost 80k) lights and have very little burnout from them, in 5 years I think I have had maybe 5 strings burnout.  I actually have most burnouts on my sealed professional lights, mostly the C9s from HLE.  not sure why but I lose about 10% each year of the 1500 I use.  I would get the C9's from others but none have the opaque c9's I like.

Use the lights you like, I personally hate pixels... don't like the look of them so I will not have them.  Many people on here don't really have an answer for your questions for AC LED lights and will say "switch to pixels they are way better." 

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