first purchase/summer sale/questions

[bluffwood]

3 questions, two of are just yes/no, if someone can just give me a quick reply:

1) if I get the CTB16PC pkg, I still need to buy controllers, right?

2) If I get the pkg and controllers, and can borrow an old low power AM transmitter, and use a WIN 10 PC I have, and use various LED strings, extension cords, cat-5 cables and music mp3 files and editors I already have, will this be all I need from LOR? or is there more I need to buy from my shopping list? (clearly more than a yes/no)

3) My front lawn (it's a farm house) is hundreds of feet to the road, a great palette, aside from decorating the house, I have a few, so far, lit statuary (deer, etc) and was considering getting pro controllers for them for the sturdy steel cases rather than home controllers, or is it better to keep all the controllers back on the porch and to run long lengths of custom lampcord extension cords to power the statuary? Will pro and home controller mix ok?
 

The following is beyond the quickie YES/NO request I am pursuing. If you don't want to take any more time, please just do the yes/no stuff above, however...

I have thrown up some pics of the front and sides of the homestead (a 2 storey log home), and a skyview looking down of the front lawn, if anyone is interested in adopting me (I don't believe I will be a high maintenance adoptee) but I'd like to get my order in for the summer sale asap, but I need to get the order right, and keep my costs down, so make it complete the first time, getting it in for the sale before it's over or out of stock.

Thanks so much!

[PhilMassey]

The package comes with one 16 Ch controller.

If you want more you can add them.

The residential controllers are functionally the same as the pro, and just as waterproof. No real need to spend the extra.

AM really sucks for music. Spend a hundred bucks or so on an FM transmitter if the churches haven't bought them all.

Placing the controllers closer to your props will cut down your ext cords by almost literally, miles. Better to run one or two cords to the controller rather than 16.

You will still need lots of cords.

Most folks buy bulk SPT wire and vampire plugs and sockets and make their own custom length cords from the controller to the lights. It's actually quicker than messing around trying to find a premade cord of the right length.

House rooflines and window outlines are a good start. You can combine channels for say, a herd of deer, to keep your channel count down.

You will need to learn the software and sequencing is very time intensive. Figure up to several hours per minute of finished song, even for a small channel count.

I have greater than 20000 channel's and I start in February.

The main thing is to have fun.

 

 

[TheDucks]

Good advice.

Put the controllers close to the props. Use a Pre-made Heavy Gauge extension cords to POWER the LOR controller. Use 2 if you are using power hungry lights (larger Incans) on Separate Circuits . The rest can usually be made with the Vampire plugs (for ~2A load)

Voltage drop is your enemy. Higher Amps used needs Lower gauge NUMBERS  (12 is bigger than 14),  Longer distances (My rule: every 50', bump the size if using over 50%  rated) needs Lower Gauge numbers. Have both+2 bumps

eg each bank is 15A. 16ga  will probably do under 50', 14ga' to 100' if you peak out (all lights 100%) at 10-12A  (FWIW 12A is the NEC limit for continuous loads on a 15A circuit).

Can you Trench? It may be advantageous to run a heavy 120/240V  (the yard panel splits into multiple 120V) run to a small panel out there in the 'Lawn Area'. While the trench is open, either : 3/4" -1" Conduit for Network cables  or a couple (at least 2. More if Pixels are in your future) of runs of direct burial CAT5e. DO NOT run in the same or bury right next (~6" space) to the power .

Rule 1 (as I learned): You will add MORE STUFF next year 😛

Allow for growth

Rule 2: Hit the sales hard pre/post season or rule 1 will drain your bank account faster

Rule 3: HAVE FUN (dreaming up new displays)