What to get

[Rick H]

I know there is a sale this week, always wanted to go to a program light system. Need to know what to get and where to start to put lights around my eves and windows, spot lights, singing trees and mega trees, and to control or replace the lights around my sidewalks. I’m a corner lot. I’m ready to spend some money an a complete setup for Halloween and Christmas and might even keep lights on the house year long as I do the other holidays of the year.

I need to know what rgb programmable lights to get for the outline of my house and windows, and property, and controllers for everything else along with music, and fm transmitter. Lengths? Can I cut to fit? Best products??

 

thanks for the help in advance. 

[Steven]

What kind of look do you want? Traditional, with an incandescent look, or a RGB pixel look? Many of us got started by watching a video of someone's light show and doing a similar look. Go to YouTube, look for Christmas light videos, and decide what you want. Then you can figure out what to buy.

Years ago, the only choice was the 16-channel AC controllers, with regular AC light strings. Today you can chose to that way, or you could go 100% pixels and not use any AC controllers. Many of us have no choice because we already have invested heavily in AC controllers.

[Rick H]

I am sure I want the rgb look that I can program each light individually. I’m just not sure what to buy and how long for installing on my house permanently. At work we had a Philips product that came with channel and a lot of splicing and cutting. But it was all one continuous run. I don’t see how long any thing is neither. 

[dibblejr]

You have a lot of options and very little time before the sale. 

You have a variety of RGB lights/ props you want to get.

The first thing to purchase that has nothing to do with the sale if considering RGB is the PRO license level.

 Also the Pixie series controllers pixie2/4/8 and 16 are the easiest pixel controllers you will find to get started in the hobby so I would recommend those.

If doing roof outline consider the CCR II's or the small pixie 4 in various spots on your roof area.

The ground props can be purchased and moved around to suit your needs. The singing trees can be hung any place, stacked on top of each other or in a single row on the ground. Note these are the most difficult items to get during the sale because they are hot sellers and the about $90 discount is worth it. They sell out very fast.

If you host a picture of your home on photobucket or some place and include it in this thread you will probably get many recommendations on which controllers would be best for the roof and such.

You just missed the Zoom Room which was Tuesday night where we discussed exactly what you are asking. If you are not a member of the Official Light O Rama community you may want to join. The Zoom classes are free.

Best of luck and happy lighting

JR

[TheDucks]

I think one of the biggest mistakes is trying to use a single controller to service a LARGE (spread out) area. Unlike AC strings, Smart (and 5V) do not like long runs.

There are ways around the voltage drop issues, but it is an added layer of complexity. I chose 12V and my target is <15' to the first node. Also, while Pixies can do 170 nodes, you get into the same issues as 5V, Voltage drop.