Burton Christmas Lights
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Technical Info on the 2013 season

1/1/2014

 
This will be a overview of the setup in my 2013 display. Several things have already been listed in the blog and I will provide those links.

Software - Light O Rama S3

Picture
This software allows me to animate the show along with the music and video. It tells the lights when to turn off and on, fade up and down, twinkle or shimmer and many other effects.  I have the advanced version which allows the maximum effects or offerings from this software. The software is rock solid and is very well "serviced" by the Light O Rama team and community.

Controllers

We use a combination of controllers. My first set of controllers that I started out with and still use is Light O Rama controllers.  
I have a mixture of controllers from this company;
Kit Form - I have built several of these controllers. I use the controllers with the high amperage heat sinks that are rated at 30amps. I have used "Pig Tails" or cords from Light O Rama and have also used 6 foot 13amp extension cords on these as well.
Residential Controllers - I have have purchased several of these both used and new. At the time I have purchased these as little as $130.00 to $175.00 used. From time to time I have seen these on the forums for this price and even more. NEVER pay more. Especially if these are the 1 and 2 versions....don't pay that. They are in version 3 at the time of this entry. On the above page you will see the "dongles" or "pig tails" offered by Light O Rama. They are worth it if you do purchase a kit. 
DC Controllers -  I use one of these with my Flood and Spot lights. (Look halfway down the projects page for the ones I have made (http://burtonchristmaslights.weebly.com/projects.html) 
DMX RGB Controllers - If you are a "newbie" reading this; DMX is a "Lighting" language that is used in the lighting community to run different types of equipment. (I will leave it at that, click on the link above for the wiki on DMX) "RGB" stands for RED, GREEN,BLUE. With these colors... you can get any color you want out of your lights. Later on in this post, I will go over the different types of RGB lights I use.  
Sandevices e682 controller - This is the controller I use to run my Lightshow "Flextech" arches. This is a comparison between using incans and the Flextech strips. They have worked great this year.  You just cut off the whole power supply and wire these up to the controller. The strips are even labeled. Some people will use "Pixels" , but I like these better for my arches. Really don't want anything but WHITE for these.

Now...again for the "Newbie"... here is a wiki on RGB and "Dumb" vs "Intelligent" Pixels.

Lights

I will start out with the different Floods and Spot lights that I use. I have a combo of "Rainbow Floods and Spots" (Here is some actual project pictures. Scroll down.) I have also "DIY 'ed" some Flood lights here. Those have their own dmx controller in them and fit into the gutted flood lamps GREAT. They work well as well.  The Rainbow Floods and Spots are ran off of the LOR DC controller.

Gutter Lights - For my gutter lights, I use RGB Dumb strips. I have written a pretty extensive blog post on this before. This setup works GREAT for my house. 

RGB Trees - For my mini trees, 4ft and 6ft WHITE trees I used RGB dumb nodes. These were powered by 4, 27 channel dmx controllers . Look in the Photo gallery under 2013 to see pictures of these.

Snow Fall or Dripping Tube Lights - I purchased these from two different vendors and are also two different sizes. The smaller tubes were purchased from Christmas-LEDs.com . These referenced here are a little different, but close. The other larger tubes are retro c9 tubes. Not cheap. I have blogged on these tubes earlier. I really like these and for those wanting dripping tubes, I would not get any that are shorter. The shorter ones might work better in mega trees or smaller trees in general.

Spiral and Mega Trees - I have a pretty extensive info on these in an earlier blog. 

Bushes or Christmas Trees next to the house - So interesting stuff on these. Several years back I complained to my wife that half the bushes we had were dead. Told her, I am going to pull these up and plant some new ones. She said (amazingly enough)...ok. SHE proceeded to the grocery store. Before my wife got back, I had every one of the bushes dug up. Yep, they were dead all right!  Before I had a chance to plant any more (and get those things a growing so I could put lights on them!)... I went to a "Yard Sale". There someone had an artificial tree for sale...CHEAP!  I got to thinking, these would sure look better than the bushes!!!!  And they do. All of the trees were either donated OR gotten at yard sales for $10.00 or less. NEVER pay more. The lights on the trees are a mix of cool white (5mm), Red mini incans, 60 Red Walmart LEDs (which look just like the dark red incans!) and Walgreen green LEDs. If you look closely at the pictures...NEVER decorate the backside. Why waste lights that way?

Wreaths - Just a mix of cool white, red and green incans. All of the lights are pretty my laid on the front side of the wreaths...not buried into the wreaths. Again...why hide the lights. Daytime, it might look ugly.  Looks great at night.

Transmitter

We use a Vast FM-02 30mw transmitter and a simple dipole tuned to 102.1mhz. It is encased in pvc pipe and is attached to one of the porch post (turned for vertical polarization) . Next year? I may up for a unit that has the RDS info  transmitted as well. This is the info you see on a car radios display. That way we can send song info or other "stuff" about the display.

    Please Read

    My Display Blog

    Click on the September archive and then click on comments to see all of the 2009 display blogs.  I am going to start blogging with a "Title" and also put the post into the blog so it can be archived by month.  Should have done that to begin with.  If you are new to this world of "Animated Displays", I suggest you not only read mine, but other blogs.  They will help you learn NOT to make the same mistakes others have.

    Robert

    Archives

    January 2014
    December 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    July 2012
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    January 2012
    December 2011
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    August 2011
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    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
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    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    September 2009

    Categories

    All
    Abc
    Adding RED To The Display
    Airmen Of Note
    Auburn Fight Song
    Casting Crowns
    Christmas Light Show
    Controllers
    Cool Yule
    Coro Trees
    Dead Battery
    Dmx 27 Channel Controller
    Dmx Module
    Dmx Pixel Controller
    DMX-SPI DECODER
    Dripping Icicles
    Extension Cords
    Flextech
    Floods
    Fog Machine
    Frost Leds
    Gfi Trips
    Ghost Mini Trees
    Gutter Lights On Pvc
    Halloween
    Holdman Tree
    Holiday Coro
    Inventory Thoughts
    Jing
    Last Day
    Led C9
    Led Holiday Lighting
    Led Icicle Lights
    Leds
    Light O Rama
    Lor Dc Controller
    Lor Secret Sale
    Mega Tree
    Mega Tree Additions
    Mini Ghosts
    Mini Trees
    Mr16
    New Setup
    New Song
    Note To Self
    Painting Lights
    Projector
    Rainbow
    Rainbow Flood
    Rainbow Floods
    Rainbow Spot
    Rainbow Spots
    Ray Wu
    Retro LED C9\'s
    Rgb Dumb Strips
    Single Sided Mega Tree
    Single Sided Mega Trees
    Snow Fall Lights
    Snowflakes
    Sprial Tree
    Spt Cord
    Tacky Light Tour
    Thoughts
    Thoughts For Next Year
    Thoughts On The 2011 Season
    Traffic
    Twig Tree
    Vertical Poles
    War Eagle
    White Mini Trees
    Winfield Collection
    Zara Radio

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