Controller on a Parade Float

[parade_guy]

I thought I would share this as I have not seen a post similar. I am working on my second year using Vixen to control the lights on a Christmas Parade Float. We run 3 generators totalling about 16000Watts. I ran 16 Channels last year on 2 parallel ports from a laptop and I am just about completed my 64 Port 595 controller for this year. That just about allows me to control every piece on the float. This site and the helpful posts were key to making it happen. There is a picturein the albums if anyone is interested. Thanks. AVB

[Josh]

before we moved over to this forum, there were a few posts on vixen's forum about floats. I myself did a 8 channel setup for our church, and we also did it in a parade. It was horrible only becuase our youthpastor told me he had a generator all ready, but the night of the parade, an hour away from time to go, the guy didnt have the generator ready. So we tried using a small, 300w generator, kept killing it, so we then piggybacked with another float in front of us, but kept comming unplugged.

Good luck on yours, and as long as you have the power, i think you will be fine.

[Greg in Canby]

parade_guy,

Very cool. I'm hoping to do a float next year in our town parade.

Do you mind PMs if I have questions???

Thanks,
Greg in Oregon

[Josh]

honestly, not to hate on anyone, but doing a float is not a HUGE difference. As in my first post, make sue you have enough juice to power your lights, and computer.

other than that, its all about layout. i would love to do it again this year, but we decided not to participate in the parade for some reason. The biggest thing, is on a float, it needs to be able to be seen from both sides. and not look bad.

We used 3 crosses, a tree, and then 3 more crosses on ours. everything was wrapped in lights, and the tree is much like the mega-tree you see on here all the time, but was only 3 channels