How's YOUR setup going?

[biffklg]

Well, my week of "vacation" is about over. I am going to have to go back to work to get some rest. Maybe 192 channels for the first year was a bit much, but I am about 2/3rds the way done with the setup. My hands are raw and my back is about toast. I have about 20 strands left to put on the house and yard the big santa and sleigh picture my daughter painted, and then the Mega Tree is all. Being afraid of heights didn't help when I had 32 strands and a spin star to put 40 feet up in a tree! I ended up calling a friend to help. I have been doing all of this mainly by myself, a little help from my son and brother. Every so many channels I hook up I go through a test to make sure everything is hooked up right and working. So far I have only come across 1 SSR board that didn't work. Fuse is good but it just doesnt fire. So far I have gone through about 2500 feet of wire for the power and cat 5 and several rolls of black tape. I have a rats nest of wires al over the place, how do you guys hide these or make them look nice? I better get back at it, Saturday is booked with helping my sister move so I won't be able to work on it then...
GOOD LUCK everyone!

[NogginBoink]

Well... I... uh... I ordered my circuit boards.

And I have 2 minutes of sequencing done.

[hutchijw]

Im just about ready. Today I put out my mini trees and hooked them up. I have the lights on my house and my megatree up. I still need to setup my 12 ch Happy Holidays sign and test it. After that, it's time to run the program and see how everything looks. Im sure I'll have to modify my sequences a little once everything is setup but.... it's almost done.

Some setup pictures are here www.woodmerechristmas.com

Only 64 ch this year.

[xmus]

EDIT Nov 10th 5PM

man, I thought I was crazy for starting to put stuff out Sept 22nd, but honestly I can't imagine what would have happened if I started any later.

27 candy canes are modified, controllers are in place, I have the spt1 plugs, just need to make the cords.

30 channel mega tree is working....

19 strobes (C9) arrived, the sockets have arrived.
7 have been deployed.

24 snow flakes (spt1 with a single clear c7 bulb at the end high in a tree) have been deployed.

All the 4 color roof chaser lights are working, w/ 10 clear channels on the roof as well.

12 Mini trees were deployed in Sept :)

2 songs are 100% done being sequenced... 2 more to go.
Selecting music is one of the hardest parts to me.

We are out of town for thanksgiving, so I can sequence on my laptop while traveling.... lights go on Sunday Nov 25th at my place.

Spent a couple hours at the library and harvested dozens of good songs. (and TONS of garbage).


The ONLY thing left to do is make 30 extension cords for the candy canes and sequence another song or two.

getting there....

[Macrosill]

I have not started yet! :sad:

[xmus]

So far I have gone through about 2500 feet of wire for the power and cat 5 and several rolls of black tape. I have a rats nest of wires al over the place, how do you guys hide these or make them look nice?


I picked up a box of "Commercial Grade - Fabric & Garden Staples" 75 staples per box, cost is $10 at HD. These staples are about 2.5" wide, and 4" long. You press them in with your foot, over the wires, to keep things neat.

My kids are constantly playing in the yard, and it prevents stuff from getting broken/disconnected, and also, wires tend to curl up, and you can see them kind of swelling up here and there, with these, you just nail the wires to the grass, and they then are invisible from the street.

Also, I tend to cut my wires a bit longer than needed (just in case) i just make a little coil, and nail the coil down in 2 or 3 spots.... looks nicer that way.

Hope that helps

[wjohn]

[quote=biffklg]So far I have gone through about 2500 feet of wire for the power and cat 5 and several rolls of black tape. I have a rats nest of wires al over the place, how do you guys hide these or make them look nice?


I do something similar. Grab some old wire coathanger and cut the hanger off and cut them again at the centre of the base. you will end up with two 60 deg bent wires. Bend them by hand until they look like a staple.

Cheap, and coathangers grow in our house.

[xmus]

coathangers grow in our house.

There was a time when we had metal coat hangers coming out of our ears maybe 10 years ago, but I've been gobbling them up for projects for so long, I don't think we have a single one left.....

[TED]

coathangers grow in our house.
There was a time when we had metal coat hangers coming out of our ears maybe 10 years ago, but I've been gobbling them up for projects for so long, I don't think we have a single one left.....

If there is a thrift store in your area they tend to get overloaded with wire hangers. Drop by and ask if you can have some. Give them a couple dollars for a sack full. :) There are many uses for coathangers but I like the idea of sod stakes (or garden staples or whatever they are) for holding down wires. They are a little stiffer than coat hanger wire and the ends are sharp so they will go into the ground easier.

TED

[xmus]

They are a little stiffer

They definitely are, I'm cutting them in half, and using each half to make "s hooks" to hang single C7 sockets from branches. They are much stiffer than a coat hanger.

[Wayne J]

Well, so far so good. I have my Mega Tree done :) I have my roof lights up, my icicle lights are on the eaves. I have all of mini trees built and strung. One of my 6' trees is done and the frame is done for the second one. My window frames are strung (just need to hang them) All hardware is built and tested. Sequencing is done. Sub panel is up.
Why am I still worried??? :?

[hutchijw]

Well, just when I thought I was close to being done, I went out today and bought another 1000 lights and added another channel to my already completed sequences......

So I think I took a step backwards lol

[xmus]

A setback on my end, of the 19 strobes I purchased (C9 style) they are dropping like flies. I've lost 1 yesterday, didn't think much of it, but today I've lost I think 3 more (out of 9 deployed).

I'm not dimming them, just on for several seconds (occasionally).

Not good, these are going BACK.
They are part number "e-17_strobe"-Curtain strobe light from "Christmas Light Show"

[xmus]

White Christmas is final!
Monday night I'll put the candy canes up and then I'll finalize "Carol of the Bells".

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/L9Aaahm95OI&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed>

[RJ]

Good Job :!:

[TED]

Im just about ready.
Some setup pictures are here www.woodmerechristmas.com


I like picture S5001924. Your dog is standing there with his toy waiting for you to come play. I can imagine him thinking something like, "Would you please stop wrapping those funny wire things on everything and come play!?" :D

TED

[TED]

I have not started putting anything up yet. :shock: I'm going to be out of town for just over a week and don't want things out while I'm gone. So when I get back then I'll running around trying to put some things up. :o

TED

[TED]

A setback on my end, of the 19 strobes I purchased (C9 style) they are dropping like flies. I've lost 1 yesterday, didn't think much of it, but today I've lost I think 3 more (out of 9 deployed).

I'm not dimming them, just on for several seconds (occasionally).

Not good, these are going BACK.
They are part number "e-17_strobe"-Curtain strobe light from "Christmas Light Show"

Are they getting wet? I'm really surprized to hear this because these strobes have received some good reviews. I'm sure Darryl will make good on them for you.

TED

[xmus]

Are they getting wet? I'm really surprized to hear this because these strobes have received some good reviews. I'm sure Darryl will make good on them for you.

TED

It has been raining, and they are outdoors, but they are mounted vertically (white lens down or up). They don't have standing water in them....

How do you mount yours Ted?

[cmurray]

Ill say this quietly as I could be wrong.

My guess is it is your SSRs killing them.
If you are running 595 or grinch you may be ok.

Are you running regular or PWM Renard code.
I think the PWM has specific code so 100% means full on. You may be ok but I have not tested it yet.
The regular Renard code does not have this feature and is missing the zero cross point by only the tiniest fraction but it enough to destroy the strobes electronics.

I will only use commercial zero cross ssrs with my strobes.
Not taking any chances.

Joel

[xmus]

Ill say this quietly as I could be wrong.

My guess is it is your SSRs killing them.
If you are running 595 or grinch you may be ok.

Are you running regular or PWM Renard code.
I think the PWM has specific code so 100% means full on. You may be ok but I have not tested it yet.
The regular Renard code does not have this feature and is missing the zero cross point by only the tiniest fraction but it enough to destroy the strobes electronics.

I will only use commercial zero cross ssrs with my strobes.
Not taking any chances.

Joel

Well I'm using non-PWM Renard........

[zaker]

I didn't start yet, this week after work is when it begins.

When the weather is nice, no time. Rainy, lots of time..:)

tom

[Macrosill]

the strobe info should be in its own thread in a different forum.

Please try and keep threads on topic.

[ErnieHorning]

I don’t see how to answer this question unless this thread is hacked up and moved somewhere else.

When controlling loads such as strobes or other light load electronics, you must add something else to increase the load. Devices that draw very little current won’t allow the TRIAC to turn on until the AC voltage is high enough to meet the minimum turn on current. At this point, higher voltage is repeatedly slammed into your device 120 times a second. Even if your electronic device appears to work correctly without an additional load, you will destroy it in short order.

Xmus, this is the reason that your strobes are dying. Simply add a C7 bulb in parallel and your problem will go away. I’ve heard that just black spray paint will black out the lights. Make sure that you use a high temperature one (i.e. engine paint) so that you won’t burn the paint.

[xmus]

thanks for the tip, lesson learned ($50 dollar lesson)

[Jeff Millard]

A setback on my end, of the 19 strobes I purchased (C9 style) they are dropping like flies. I've lost 1 yesterday, didn't think much of it, but today I've lost I think 3 more (out of 9 deployed).

I'm not dimming them, just on for several seconds (occasionally).

Not good, these are going BACK.
They are part number "e-17_strobe"-Curtain strobe light from "Christmas Light Show"

Man, sorry to hear that. I have 35 of these in my mega tree that are directly controlled by a Triac channel. They worked fine last year, and I tested them this weekend with no problems. I do know that there was a big problem with them if they are used in certain C9 strings. The design of some strings that tend to wrap around the bulb doesn't work well with CLS's strobes. It blocks the strobe from tightening down far enough to make a good contact with the tab at the base of the socket. This can cause arching that will quickly damage the strobe. "GS" (Glenn Stewart from PC) lost about 15 out of 100 before he discovered what was happening and suggested using AllAmericanChristmas C9 stringers for the CLS strobes. I though I had posted about this when I discussed using these strobes but maybe I forgot.

If you'd like to give them another chance... let Darryl Brown know what happened and I'm sure he'll make good on them. He replaced all of the bad ones GS had, and 1 I had that leaked and stopped working.

If it was my tip that led to your purchase... sorry.
Jeff

[xmus]

Could i just bend the tab in the bottom of the c9 socket up?
I'm measure it with a micrometer depth gauge, and see what I come up with.

[hutchijw]

My setup is complete! Now it's time to "fine tune" it

[scharbon]

I have got to tell you. I am amazed at how long set up can be. I honestly thought I would be done by the weekend. I only managed to run power, CAT 5, mount my SSRs, and test continuity of the cables with the SSRs attached in two solid days of set up (only running 64 channels). I got nowhere near touching my lights.

My goal is to be done in time for Thanksgiving. I am certain I will make it. I just need to squeeze the time in on my calendar. I am lighting up 8 trees with four colors each (2 channles per color). The trees are in my yard and my two neighbor's yards.

It's fun and I know it will be worth it, just didn't know it would be this much effort. Oh yeah, and while I was mumbling under my breath about how much fun I was having - my wife told me to think about how much fun I was going to have in January when I was trying to take it all down! Me thinks she is mocking me!!! :shock:

Steve

[lbro]

Me thinks she is mocking me!!! :shock:

Steve

Oh she is mocking you alright, My wife says the same thing to me. :D
Lou

[Ronp]

In january here it will be 15-30 degrees out
chip everything out of the Ice to put away .
Your lucky ....

[Jeff Millard]

This is a duplicate post. The content is further down. Whoevers mods this forum... Could you please delete this one?
Jeff

[mac_man_luke]

first timer here

left my run a bit late but should be able to get something happening this year

I have my grinch+ssr pcbs, LEDs soldered in - now waiting for ICs and other components to arrive

hopefully going to run 16 ch this year, 4 colours along the gutter line (1ch each colour), 1 star in gable (1ch), 1 reindeer in gable (1ch), 2x light trees (1ch each or might hack them up to separate into a few ch), icicles (1ch or maybe split up into more)

Will be switching 24v for the gutter line, 240 for the rest

[ibby1]

Spent all weekend soldering grinch and 16 SSR. Hit home Depot today for SSR enclosures and power cables another 100 bucks. Ouch!

Still need to build mini trees.

I live on Christmas lane with 200 other house that put up lights. So we will all be out Thanksgiving weekend putting up the lights.

[biffklg]

Almost up to 4000 feet of wire and data cable now. All I have left is the painting and the mega tree. I used some wire hangers to "staple" the wire to the ground in several places. Looks much better! So, out of the 192 channels I have 20 that I did not use and have no more room to add anything, and the 41 I am using for the mega tree, which leaves me with having set up and hooked up 131 channels, whoooooo... I ran the program tonight to see what it looks like, sure looks good, but will look MUCH better with the 2 color mega tree. I will post videos on my youtube account when everything is setup! GOOD LUCK ALL and me.

[pete]

I havn't started sanything yet.... there's still time.............................................. .................................................. .................................................. .......................................Right?

[Mudsculpter]

Eaves done ,...windows done,.. prolly finish megatree by tomorrow if I can work undisturbed,.....

[random_rodder]

Well, I've got about 26 strands of lights up right now, 4 on the front of my garage and the rest on the house. My display this year is going to be MUCH smaller than I had wanted, I'll be lucky to hit 10,000 lights. Douibt I'll use the full capacity of one controller, let alone touch the second. I will have about 10 mini trees and a few yard Santas and angels so that will help.

There is a SLIGHT chance I'll get to do my 14' mega tree, but it looks doubtful...

But next year will be much better!!!

[fkostyun]

I've got about 40,000 lights up and done, I still have a lot of work to do.

The mega tree frame is done - tonight is the "pull up" once thats up, I am hoping to get it light today! (bundles are all set, I have all the pully's to pull the lights up) So, I'll have (pretty darn sure) one of the largest residential mega tree's in the world (at 50ft)

I still have 18 mini-trees to re-wrap (lights too faded) 12 starfield lines to make, and 50 led strobes. I'm getting there!! I've got vacation taken next week to git-r-done!

[Jeff Millard]

OK Kids!
I'm finally officially started.
1) The Icicles are up and fully functional.
2) Leaping Arch installed and leaping! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ3LBRoo_F0)
3) 4 Canes in place.
4) 4 windows with 4 color changing strings up
5) 2 Wreaths on the windows
6) 15 mini trees in a triangle
7) Yard light decorated with 2 channels
8) 70 channel Mega Tree set up.
9) 2 Red and 2 Green spotlights.
10) 2 channels for the stars on the fence

141 channels up... 211 left....

Jeff

[DennisB]

Progressing okay for my first attempt. I did have plans in my head for a Mega tree using at least 32 channels, but that idea has been put on hold until next year.

So far I have about 2500 lights on the roof, icicle lights on the gutters, rope light on gutter, windows and garage doors outlined and cables all run to a central place in the garage.

Power supply box is finsihed, 595 is working and has switched some of the lights. (poor old GRINCH is sitting lifeless)

All I really need to do is add more lights and iron out a SSR issue and it should all be sweet. (I hope so because my wife has arrange a party next Friday to celebrate the 'Switching of the Lights')

Good luck everyone.

[jmelvin]

My mega tree is up but not wired yet and only half of my icicle lights are up. My wife put away the lights last year and I can't find the other half. Guess I'm headed to the store tonight!

[fkostyun]

All I really need to do is add more lights and iron out a SSR issue and it should all be sweet. (I hope so because my wife has arrange a party next Friday to celebrate the 'Switching of the Lights')


We've got a nice party going on too - 50 people saying yes so far - so - I've got a LOT of work to do!

[NogginBoink]

I'm having a party, too!

However, the theme of my party is "Putting Up The Lights." :D

So far only my gullible brother-in-law has RSVP'd.

[hutchijw]

Im setup and ready to show 8)

[NogginBoink]

Hutch, wanna come to my party? :D

[hutchijw]

Buy the ticket and give me the flight numbers. I'll be there :-)

[scharbon]

I just have to get this off my chest and share with someone. My light show consists of 8 trees scattered across three yards. They are all in a line so they lend themselves to a neat little show with 64 channels (eight channels per tree). Each tree is divided into two halves, each half consists of 4 channels (Red White, Green, Multi).

Not sure what my friends and family thought I was doing - but today I got three trees strung up (very small ones with 1600 lights total per tree - the not so little ones will have 2400 lights each). I ran a test with my sequences and people started popping out of nowhere to watch. The only thing I heard was "WOW, I can't believe you did this yourself!!!" "I didn't know you were doing this!!!" "I need to bring my friends here to see this". Lots of other comments along this line - no bad comments. Evening ended up with about 6 families drinking beer on my yard watching the show (with only 3 of 8 trees). Turns out they all thought I was going to have about 100 lights per tree and all they would do is turn on or off once for each song. They had no idea the control we have with this gear.

Now, all are eagerly anticipating Thanksgiving evening which is the world premier of my light show. I wanted to say thanks specifically to KC, Macrosil, wjohn, WayneJ, RJ, Sean, and Pshort. I wanted to say thanks in general to all the others on this forum that have helped me either in a post or on the chat directly or indirectly. There is no way I could have gotten to where I am without you guys (all 400 of you). I will take a video of it on Sunday if I can get it all strung up and post it so you guys can see. Again thanks and I just wanted to share a little bit about how people are reacting to the lights.

Steve

[xmus]

My display is DONE! I'll shoot a picture tonight with everything turned on.
I just took a picture, but it isn't much to look at in the daylight.

3 songs done, 1 of which I haven't seen on the lights yet, so there is some more work there probably. And I'm going to add 1 more just-for-fun kids song, Jingle bells most likely.

:) Getting there!

(Strobes seem to be working fine at the moment...)

[xmus]

Pictures as promised. I finally ran ALL my sequences several times and worked most of the kinks out. My entire family sat in the truck, across the street watching for two full cycles, the kids loved it, wife was trilled.

I still am having some weirdness because I'm running too many channels per serial port, but I'm slowly massaging those out... I think I'm about 95% done with sequencing now... I might push on and add some songs throughout the season, but no pressure now...

I did order one of those Chinese made FM transmitters however (the 1watt version) just as a backup. If my transmitter goes out, I'm stuck.

[sandy]

Wow Dave, just WOW.
I'm stuck with a cold or flu,
don't want to spend much time outside,
but only have weekends to put stuff up.
But that's OK
I won't be one of those "lights On"
on Thanksgiving.
Early December is just fine with me.

[xmus]

I've also been fighting a cold the last 3 weeks, I've lost my voice twice.... I'm doing pretty good at the moment but not 100%.

[wjohn]

Dave,
Your house looks great. Well done!

[Anarchtica]

Looks awesome Dave!

[Wayne J]

Well, I finished placing all of my lights today, including my radio sign. I'm not happy with the mini's inside the sign, so I'm gonna gut it and put a strand of rope light in it.
Tomorrow, I place all of my relays and run my cat5. Hopefully get some sequence testing in when it gets dark. :D

[sigtaulightning]

Hello All, I had a good day on Sunday to put up some lights. Got the 900 Icicle lights on the roof only have 2 snowflakes to put at the peak of the dormers and then we will be done with the house. Wife wrapped our pillars and setup her Christmas train and 2 spiral trees. All I have left is.... Well way to much to ramble on about at this point. We are shooting for a "lights on" date of Dec 1

[IS_IT_X-MAS]

My display seems to be going backwards, i went to test an ssr yestorday, so i turned on my show computer and the hard drive seems to of crashed.. the motor in side keeps going on than off. as for the rest of my display, it still needs to be put up. and i still got 2 more songs to sequence..

This is going to be a busy week..

Brent

[Mudsculpter]

Put up my mega tree and found that the circuit is the same as the backyard flood lights (I have a pair of 500w halogens back there). I was doing some testing and somebody flicked on the floodlights and the breaker tripped. When I got the megatree turned back on, a section of one of my blue strings (at the top) was out. NERTZ!!! gotta pull it down to fix it or ignore it and do it later.

[biffklg]

I am all but about 10 minutes from being done! About 4500 feet of wire, some raw hands, a sore back, but it's done and I even have time to go to my sisters thursday to have dinner. All I have left to do is wire up the 2 spotlights that will light up the Santa painting my Daughter and I painted. It goes from the front porch roof over the driveway! The lines under the deer and sleigh are lines of glitter, looks awesome in person!

http://webpages.charter.net/biffklg/Christmas%20Stuff/santa.JPG

Today was also the day to complete my 20' foot MegaTree. I have a 2" stainless steel flagpole in front that I am using. It is too close to the house and only allows me to have a half circle, but it still looks good.

http://webpages.charter.net/biffklg/Christmas%20Stuff/setup%2011-20%20(6).JPG

WOOHOO, can't wait to see my show complete. It's been raining here the past couple days so I have not been testing it, don't want to take any chances.

[Wayne J]

Well, me.... I'm PLAGUED with FM troubles, again. Seems the transmitter does not like the electrical equipment it is around. So now I have to find another location for it. This means moving the antenna (that is already mounted on top of the house :cry: ) making new cables for it... blah, blah, blah. :x

[xmus]

Well, me.... I'm PLAGUED with FM troubles, again. Seems the transmitter does not like the electrical equipment it is around. So now I have to find another location for it. This means moving the antenna (that is already mounted on top of the house :cry: ) making new cables for it... blah, blah, blah. :x

feed line at 90 degree angles, keep the power supply away, have you tried ferrite beads yet?

[RJ]

Coming along OK. A little behind I need to get about 60 more channels hooked up including all but the 4 channels of arches I got done before dark. A few tweaks on some channels that are swapped but heres a sneak peek of what I have done. We couldn't stand it we had to run an unannouced test. I'm afriad my picture camera makes a bad video camera and I had to stand off a long ways as the yard is large but here it is:

http://media.putfile.com/show-test

P.S. be nice it's not done and it's my first year!

[xmus]

P.S. be nice it' snot done and it's my first year!

Snot done yet? Why snot? I know, its snot funny! :)

(My dad always made jokes like that, I couldn't resist, sorry, watching your video now, love the music... upbeat)

[jscheve]

I have about half of my lights up and now it is snowing here today. Would have had them all up but I had to re-think my roof lighting strategy so that took about 3 days longer than I had hoped.... :x

[Wayne J]

OK, after moving the transmitter away from all things electrical, AND turning down the volume of the computer. I have my issues straightened out. I think I'm 'show' ready. :)

[Ronp]

P.S. be nice it's not done and it's my first year![




Looks great so far RJ cant wait for the full show!