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    Everything posted by vkjohnson

    1. I'll give a creative solution... Embrace it as a design element. It lights up your driveway pretty well with a warm white or even yellow glow. Flood the walls of your house in that same color with outlines of cool white around the edges of the house, windows, and driveway. The warm-cool mix actually looks pretty good when put together as a theme. As a static display I think that would look pretty cool. Animation would be more difficult if you want total darkness at any time.
    2. I posted this video a while ago about the process of making cords and custom light strings with plugs where you want them. If going for LEDs I would recommend getting empty socket stringers and LED retro-fit bulbs from any of the reputable online vendors.
    3. Very nice, Big J. I am dark this year in Paxton, taking my third break in 4 years. Just hard to find the time to commit to prep and setup. Planning on a return next year, but I did put together a nice static display on our church lot this year.
    4. Some of the full-wave vendors used to offer a color called "warm candle white." Creative Displays may have been one of them. I don't think they offer it anymore though. I never used them myself, but they were advertised as a bit warmer than standard "warm white." IMO, warm white seams just a touch too cool, but not by much ...it probably has more to do with the intensity and brightness of the LED than anything. I find mixing warm white and incans outside still works alright, but I put warm white inside on a tree and the effect indoors was much to bright and cooler in color than the inca
    5. Check I used 5 gal bucket enclosures with spt 1 wire and female plugs. Mine were the commercial ones, not the PCs but same principle. Only difference is you would have to use quick-connects instead of the screw clamps on the wires. I soldered mine too. It is a good money saver. No experience previously, but once you do the first one it gets a lot faster and easier.
    6. I admire those of you who can pull down your stuff in two days. I wish more of mine was a simple unplug and throw in a container. Those darn tree wraps and megas take forever! I'm calling it now... I bet I have at least something still up when March comes around.
    7. I think our synchronized Christmas shows are put out to remind people of the joy and meaning of Christmas, but also to entertain those who watch. That's why I and I think many use a mix of songs, both with a Christmas meaning and those without. Most of the dubstep displays I have seen do have some sort of Christmas connection, even if it is more to the secular side, it's still a reflection of the holidays. It would be great if we could all play Away in a Manger and Silent Night the whole time, but then our displays would have little entertainment value to compliment the Christmas message.
    8. I have many of the 6.5 foot Walmart trees outside in their 3rd year. Virtually no rust and no problems with failing needles or branches, or lights. I mount them by pounding 1/2 EMT conduit in the ground and simply slipping them over that. This year my Walmarts shipped out the 6.5 footers before 75% came, otherwise I would've bought quite a few more.
    9. I'm with you on those goals. Everyone has a theme, and I've seen people pull off the cutout theme pretty well, but for me it's just lights. I also like to keep things clean. I don't throw stuff in the yard just to put lights on it, it has to have a purpose and look like part of the landscape. Christmas decorating to me is about accentuating the features of your house and landscape. I think megas work great in doing that as they do look like trees, but I don't much care for the big matrix hanging on someone's wall or giant fan in a front yard. My canvas is getting pretty full, so my goal w
    10. This was in a previous discussion. I don't remember the exact reason, but they used gmail for a reason. It is legit. All of the casting producers used the same email setup from this previous season.
    11. No, but being that I ignored them last time I might soon get one too, ha
    12. That sounds awesome! Do you have any pictures of those antics? I like the idea behind that.
    13. I use movie maker and I wish it was a bit more user-friendly as well, but it's free. I guess that's what you get for free. I use a camera with an audio input. The audio from the camera isn't the best quality, but it helps in aligning the original mp3 audio. If you hear an echo in the audio mixer, you know you're off by a bit.
    14. You will probably want to buy SPT-1 zip cord and then these. This is how I did all of my strobes. You can place them wherever you want. Sometimes they are a bit finicky to clamp on, but a pair of channel-lock pliers work really well if you're careful not to crush the sockets.
    15. My first year getting into animation I soldered 6 of the CTB 16 40-amp boards. No previous soldering experience and not a single problem came up in the process. First board took me almost 4 hours, but by #6 I had it down under an hour. If you are willing to put in the time it's a great way to save money. (I believe the only solder kits LOR now offers is the PC series) Also, just a tip on your first year... take the time you estimate to complete each one of your tasks, THEN DOUBLE IT. The time it took to make so many custom zip cords is what I really underestimated.
    16. I don't do anything to them other than get them up off the ground. If you want to get really involved you can use the plastic caps, but don't use tape. Tape can actually trap moisture inside. You have to remember that in addition to the plugs, each individual bulb socket has a small opening where the wires must enter. There is just enough gap for moisture to enter there too. Keep everything off the ground and you'll be as good as it gets. No one will prevent a GFI trip in heavy rain.
    17. The color of the cord does not always correspond to the gauge or amp rating. If you look really hard, the insulation around the cord should be engraved with the AWG (American wire gauge) of the wire. This is true of all cords. Rule of thumb I go by on my display is under 100 feet 12 AWG-20 amps, 14 AWG-15 amps, 16 AWG-13 amps, 18 AWG (spt 1)-8 amps. Also, if you pick up a cord and it feels really hot, it's over loaded. 12 AWG will feel a little warm with 15 amps, so I'm talking more than just a bit warm to the touch. Beyond that you are risking an electrical fire. Also another tip I'
    18. what do you think the strobe count is? 2,000?
    19. Thanksgiving night. Many people have thanked me because there are a lot of families that have relatives over then, but not for Christmas. The only time they can see it in person is during that time.
    20. IMO, keep it to 10, maybe 15 on your mega tree and use the rest on the yard and house. Space them out so you can fill up the entire space you normally use for lights. I think it's a really amazing look when you can make the whole display sparkle by way of strobes. You can even put them on 2 separate channels if you wanted to, so you can turn just the mega tree strobes on for a different effect.
    21. Similar to Langford Dave, I use the colored electrical tape. All my display items have W/R/G lights, so 3 zip cords get zip tied together with both female and male ends marked with white, red, and green electrical tape wrapped around the wire. I then use yellow tape around the whole bundle and label with black sharpie what element it goes too. My channel-count spreadsheet tells me what channels all the labels go to when it comes time to put controllers out.
    22. It's hard to tell from the pic which side of the flashing faces out, but couldn't you just use this kind of clip that could fit over the bottom drip edge and allow the C9 to stick out 90 degrees from the wall?
    23. the xenon incan strobes are more of a camera flash effect, and the LEDs are more of a on/off effect and don't have as visually piercing of a light. I've bought incan strobes from both creativedisplays.com and allthingschristmasandmore.com. Both were good quality. Each year I've lost one or two to moisture and condensation problems shorting out the mini circuit board inside, but my understanding is this is common among all vendors.
    24. haha. I still find minor errors on sequences that have been running on their 3rd year. I assume most don't notice if I didn't.
    25. I always maintain my old shows and channel configuration and just add new songs as I have time. Adding new elements sometimes means I have to go back and update sequences though.
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