My Christmas Light Display. Using Light-O-Rama controllers.

[Brandon]

I have done something like this for the past 3 years or so. I am not going to do this again this year. For the past 3 years people want to park on the driveway and slide off when they try to back out. Not so much an issue until they leave their cars there for a day or 2 blocking me.

I used a similar set up but only had 4 outputs and no ability to change/edit songs or how they react to the songs. I did add an FM transmitter to the setup.

 

[Lebowski]

Your neighbours must love you...


Does the music play all night too? Really neat, regardless. But gosh, I gotta say, I'm not disappointed that I don't have an epilepsy factory next door.

 

[Brandon]

Your neighbours must love you...


Does the music play all night too? Really neat, regardless. But gosh, I gotta say, I'm not disappointed that I don't have an epilepsy factory next door.

Depending on how it is setup neighbors wouldn't hear the music unless they tuned their radios into a station one would have their fm transmitter set to to broadcast their music. Not everyone does or needs to do it this way though... we all but had to.

 

[actaeon277]

In previous years, the lights were on all night, they were on a day/night sensor.
But I'm probably picking up an outdoor timer, and limit it to dusk to 11 pM or so.

I just finished wiring one of the two controllers, I'm half way done.
I'm off to menards for extension cords.

 

[actaeon277]

This is what's inside the totes.
Extension cords wrapped around an organizer.
Lights wrapped around an organizer.
I used to separate them, but then the totes with extensions were too heavy. And I'd have to find the matching totes.
Now I put the cords and lights together. Makes it lighter, and when I'm looking for a specific light, I then have the cord.

You can see, I've labeled the organizer, and the cord. The front of the tote is also labeled.
I use a label maker, because I've rearranged things, and the marker is too permanent.
Labels on the organizer, and the outside of the box say something like
B2 out2 Tree East Red. This means controller Box #2, Output #2, the tree on the east side, red lights.

I don't have as much room to label the cord, so it is labeled
"B2" (on one label) and "2" (on another label). I use a label maker, write "B2" about 3 times. I do the same with the "2". Then I wrap the label around the cord on both ends.



Yes, I know. This sounds a little OCD.
But, I can't just string lights up and plug them in any which way.
They need to go in the right order, in order for the song to work the way I programmed it.
And, different lights need different lengths extension cords. Instead of having to figure it out each year, the cords are marked, making it easier to put them up each year.
Light (B2 out 2) goes to extension cord (B2 out2), which goes to controller (2) output plug (2).
Easy peasy.


I have a few unlabeled ones for some of the power lines to the boxes and stuff. Those are a pain in the butt, cause I have to remember how they ran the year before.
I need to remember to label them this year.

 

[actaeon277]

This is the 3 dimensional snow flakes that you see on the left of the videos.
You can barely see it. But in the top picture, on top of the snowflake, you can see a green string.

Basically, I tied washers to the end of the string, and threw it over a branch.
I then clamp the string to the "tree of lights" base, to hold it in place.
The side that's not clamped, I tie wrap the snowflake to the string.
Then I basically go up the string, attaching snowflakes to the string. I loop the string, and tie to the loop, to keep the snowflake from slipping down.
They aren't that heavy, but when I attach the 40 and 60 foot of extensions, it get's heavy.

I attach 40 foot of extensions to the bottom 4, and 60 foot to the top 2.
I'm probably going to change that in the future, cause I moved things a little. But that will be next year.

Then I pull on the string till it's up high in the tree. I wrap the string around the base of the tree of lights, and clamp.

I gather all the extensions at the bottom, and tie wrap together.
They go to the ground, where I place a couple large landscaping bricks on the cord, to keep the snowflakes from blowing in the wind.


The extension cords go to the controller on the tree of lights.
Basically, snowflake 1 (top) goes to blue string 1 on the tree. I just add an electrical tee to the output, so that output runs a string and a snowflake.,

I did this, cause it gives me more lights, without having to pay for more outputs.
The tree only had a string on each output 1-6 (for the blue). So, by teeing off, I added the snowflakes 1-6.

And someone has to pay attention to notice they are tied together, cause all the other lights distract them.

 

[actaeon277]

This is a spreadsheet I use to keep track of everything.
The light total at the top is a little off, cause it includes an estimate of my new addition, which is not set in concrete yet.
But, yes, I have approx. 1,100 foot of extension cords.

That's for the trees, bushes, snowflakes, and power runs to the controllers.

I keep a copy of this in my pocket while wiring, to help me.

 

[actaeon277]

http://www.menards.com/main/lightin.../scrolling-led-messenger/p-1796294-c-7501.htm

You can't see it real well in the video.
I downgraded the quality of the video to make it more YouTube compatible.
But if you see a scrolling orange blob, this is what it is.

It's very simple, and doesn't hold a very large message.
But, it's AFFORDABLE ($60), which is better than any of the others I can find.

I display this message
Merry Christmas. Last updated ddmmyyyy. 5 songs including intermissions.

This uses the available message space, with maybe a space or two left over.
This way, someone knows if I've recently added a song or lights to the display.
And, if they know how many songs there are, then they know if they've seen them all.


It is an indoor sign. So I have to enclose it.
I need to make a wood box for it, with a clear front.
But what I've done so far, is get a cardboard box, cut the front out, put the display in, then wrap the whole thing in cellophane.

 

[GunSlinger]

Awesome Actaeon! I appreciate the tutorial as well. I'd like to do something like this around our lake.

 

[actaeon277]

Ok.
Now a little bit about the software.
Here are some screenshots of "Wizards in Winter"

I know. It looks complicated at first. But it's really easy.
On the left, is the outputs, listed going down the page.
Sign Light. Globes Old. East Tree Red. East Bush Red. etc.

On the top, is the time frame in seconds. So, the far left is the beginning of the song, 0 seconds.
Then as you move right, the times goes higher.
It labels each second. But each square is in tenths of seconds.

You can zoom in/out.
And you can change the time reference.
I zoomed out, to show you without having a million screenshots. Normally only half of this screen shows for me, to make it easier to time stuff.



Programming.
Basically, I set the software to play the music at 1/2 speed.
I highlight a section of the song (for instance 4-6 seconds), and tell the program to play selected time.
The program begins to play the song, at 1/2 speed. When it gets to where I want to turn a light on or off, I notice what the time was.
then I move the mouse to the right spot. For instance I want to turn on the East tree red light at the 5.2 second mark.
So, I click on the square where the east tree red light (going right left) crosses the correct time, 5.2 second (going up down).
Sort of X,Y graphing.
Options come up for on/off or various specialty options (such as flicker or sparkle).

 

[actaeon277]

Awesome Actaeon! I appreciate the tutorial as well. I'd like to do something like this around our lake.

Thanks gunslinger.
If you ever decide to go this route, we can discuss things. Maybe save you some time.
I had to teach myself stuff.
And I know the software does a LOT more than what I'm doing.

The main costs, is buying the first controller, and a show director.
Although, if you have an old computer sitting around, you can use it as the show director.

And you don't have to start with a 16 output controller.
I did, cause an 8 output is only slightly cheaper than the 16.


The lights, well I wait till Christmas, or after.
I get a gift card for American Sale, Menards, or generic MasterCard, and then I'm buying lights for free.
Then, cause it's Christmas or soon after, the lights are half off.

So, I plan what I'm needing the NEXT year, and buy those at Christmas.
Add some each year, and it adds up.

 

[actaeon277]

Back to the programming.

Copy--Paste.
Yup, it's available, and it's WONDERFUL.

When you get a repetitious section, you can copy paste.
But you have to be careful doing that.
Copy- paste, then listen and verify.
Cause what happens is, that a repetitious section is not quite exactly the same. Unless the music is done by a computer, a human will have slightly different timing between the notes, and slightly different durations.
At first, the difference is pretty small.
But if you copy-paste repeatedly, the error gets larger.

So, copy-paste, then listen.
Copy-paste, then listen.

 

[actaeon277]

Simulation.

When I first started, I didn't know about the simulation mode.

So, I would program a pattern (this was before I did music), then I'd have to copy it to the SD card, run outside and plug it into the show director, and step back and see how I liked the timing.

If I didn't like it, I'd have to remember where I didn't like it, so many seconds, or so many repetitions, go back inside, modify the program, then do it all again.

Then I found the simulator.

I went across the street, and took a pic of my house.
Then, the simulator shows the pic with lines on it, separating it into "pixels".
You click on a pixel, then tell it what output is on that pixel, and you can pick a color.
As you can see, it doesn't look like a pic of the lights.
But it gets the idea across.

The pixels you see, are with all the light pixels on.
When you hit run, the pixels will cycle on/off as determined by the program.
You listen to the music, watch the pixels.

Under simulator, it still shows the spreadsheet.
There is a line (up/down) moving right across the screen, showing where you are in the song.
This way, if you have to make a change, you know where to make the change.
If you are looking at 5-8 seconds, and the program goes into the 9th second, the screen will automatically advance forward, so you are always looking at the "present" location.


Now, I don't have to run in and out of the house.

 

[actaeon277]

I know everyone is confused right now. Sorry.

The principle is actually quite simple.
Listen to the song, at half speed is best.
The line on the spreadsheet shows where you are left/right.
When the song gets to where you want to do something, you go up/down that line and find the light you want to affect.
Click on the square, tell it what you want to do.

Now, what I do, is a bit more complicated, cause that's how I roll.

Let's take the song "Wizards in Winter", cause that's what I've been using as an example.
[video=youtube;0Gjwq8zFKds]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gjwq8zFKds[/video]


At the beginning of the song, you can hear the piano, a repeat beat.
I decided to make that the red tree on the right.
So every beat on the piano, that output goes on/off.

Then there is another beat, don't know the instrument.
That's done on the lamppost on the right, alternating colors. green/white, then red/white, then green/white, etc.

I follow that beat through the song for a while, say a couple seconds.
By then I'm bored of that beat.


Then you hear a piano going upscale at about 5-6 seconds.
I made the bushes in the back those outputs, left to right.
Later in the song, it goes downscale, and I go right to left.

Then, about 13 seconds, the music starts going back and forth.
At this point in the song, I use the "tree of lights" for that.
Later in the song (about 1:16) I use the bushes left to right, then right to left for that. I like to change it up, so it's not too repetitious.


So, you can see why it takes me a few days to do a 3 minute song.
I have to take sanity breaks.
I follow an instrument for a few seconds, then go to a different instrument, then to a different instrument, and on and on.

 

[actaeon277]

Once I've created some sequences (songs), I'll want to then make a "show".

I could just make a 15-20 minute sequence, with multiple songs.
But, then it would get unwieldy when I want to make changes.

So, I make 1 sequence for 1 song.

I load up the show editor, and this is much simpler.
I drag over the sequences into the show editor.
Put them in the order I want.
I usually put in a musical sequence, then a non-musical sequence, then a musical.........

So that it isn't the same 5 songs over and over in the same order,
after the 5 songs and non-songs are up, I then place the songs on the list a second time, this time in a different order.

Once I have the sequences the way I want them, I save it into a folder with all the other versions in case I do something wrong, or need it again.
Then I tell it to write to the SD card.

Take the SD card out to the show controller, good to go.

 

[actaeon277]

These are the programmed songs right now.
Wizards in Winter - Trans Siberian Orchestra.
Christmas Eve in Sarajevo - Trans Siberian Orchestra.
O Come All Ye Faithful - Trans Siberian Orchestra.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - Tchaikovsky
Santa Claus is Coming on Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train - the Tractors.


Following are some songs I'm thinking about for the future.

 

[actaeon277]

This is a little slower than I like. I don't think it will be too bad though.
I don't like the way these people in this video did it, but that's no problem.
I was thinking the tree of lights for the voice, and the piano would be various lights across the yard.
The song should go quick, because it's not really that complicated.
I am undecided.


[video=youtube;qTxFaTEePV4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTxFaTEePV4[/video]

 

[actaeon277]

Next future song

Mary Did You Know - Cee Lo Green
or
Mary Did You Know - Pentatonix


I listened to several versions, and had decided on the Cee Lo Green version.
But then I heard the Pentatonix version this year, and I almost changed my mind.
But, Pentatonix does a great "Little Drummer Boy", so I'll probably do "Mary Did You Know" with Cee Lo Green, and later "Little Drummer Boy" with Pentatonix.

[video=youtube;AmBWqRoENl4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmBWqRoENl4[/video]


[video=youtube;ifCWN5pJGIE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifCWN5pJGIE[/video]



I think with the Cee Lo Green version, I can start off with a little lights, and build up as the song builds up.
The tree of lights would be used for his voice, bushes for the piano.
When Cee Lo picks it up around 2:24, I would have most of the lights going with the beat.

 

[actaeon277]

Who knows. Maybe if I get a few more songs, I may also do Mary Did You Know with Pentatonix.
But, not likely. Don't think I need different versions of the same song.

 

[actaeon277]

I have always loved "Little Drummer Boy".
But, all the versions seem a little tame to do with Christmas lights.

I started to think about Bob Seger's version.
But then I heard the Pentatonix version.
Took me a few times, but I think that one wins.
It's complexity is and advantage, and a disadvantage.
Complex makes a better, more full display.
Disadvantage, cause it's harder to program.
I could to a different part of the yard for each singers voice. There are 5 singers.


[video=youtube;dZvjPCcHI4g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZvjPCcHI4g[/video]


[video=youtube;S50cf3xIb50]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S50cf3xIb50[/video]


[video=youtube;qJ_MGWio-vc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ_MGWio-vc[/video]