Oops...did my creditt card slip

[Trepidati0n]

Went Menards...150 white strings for $2.16...3 cases with 18 each.
Hrm...icicle lights....$5/box of 300 white lights...I'll take 10 of htose.
Went to Lowes...ooh 100 strings of whites for $1/each...I'll take 120 of those

Bought some white rope light (48feet for $9)...might return that though.

So I just added 23,000 lights or 80 amps of potential power :shock: Guess I'll need to do some dimming. :P

I'm going with a pure white display with LED strings, pixel accents, and strobes. This should be a good compromise until white LED isn't stupidly priced.

Going back to lowes with the wife to look at other stuff...50% off is just to sexy. BTW...the gemmy trees are also there...Only $150 for a three LED multi color trees. I'm hacking the controller. :D

[Trepidati0n]

Picture of the loot...also went back and picked up two really cute snowman. Even at 50% off stuff is vaporizing...

[ben]

wow nice! We have alot left here at the local HD. I know Lowes is down to C9's if i get a gift card to HD again this year I will pick up some more lights :D

Ben

[tuppet]

:cry: oh this is so depressing.... I live in australia, and getting any volume of lights becomes exceedingly expensive - the best I've done was 7 sets of 150 for $4, and even then it was a one off thing because of overstocking in the local harware store (bunnings). And icicles... wow, I've never seen them for less that $30 for a set of 240. Ropelight is similarly expensive, $5 for 3 feet is when they are massively reduced.

As a 19 year old whose mother is not keen on any lights at all, let alone adding to our current 6000 (which is more than anyone in the nearest 10 or so suburbs), this makes adding to the display quite difficult!

I just keep hearing of all the relatively cheap lights and the huge range available (we have: white steady, white chasing, multicoloured steady and multicoloured chasing. none of these simple red lights or green lights I keep seeing everywhere except for LEDs which are hugely expensive (~$90 for a set seems to be fairly average) and being in Australia we are on a different mains voltage, which means ordering sets of lights on the net is fairly useless unless I decide to do some fairly significant alterations!

In light of this, to my ears your shopping trip is the kind I can only dream of, and I am very very impressed. well done.

:cry: in one day you bought almost four times as much as I have managed in over 5 years.

[vk3heg]

I just keep hearing of all the relatively cheap lights and the huge range available (we have: white steady, white chasing, multicoloured steady and multicoloured chasing. none of these simple red lights or green lights I keep seeing everywhere


If you want a string to have only one colour, you get four/five boxes of multi coloured lights. Change all the lights from one string to Red, do the same for the other three/four.

End result is a string with only Red, Blue, Green, Orange, White...

[Snowman in Louisiana]

Went Menards...150 white strings for $2.16...3 cases with 18 each.
Hrm...icicle lights....$5/box of 300 white lights...I'll take 10 of htose.
Went to Lowes...ooh 100 strings of whites for $1/each...I'll take 120 of those

Bought some white rope light (48feet for $9)...might return that though.

So I just added 23,000 lights or 80 amps of potential power :shock: Guess I'll need to do some dimming. :P

I'm going with a pure white display with LED strings, pixel accents, and strobes. This should be a good compromise until white LED isn't stupidly priced.

Going back to lowes with the wife to look at other stuff...50% off is just to sexy. BTW...the gemmy trees are also there...Only $150 for a three LED multi color trees. I'm hacking the controller. :D


Hey Andrew,
I see from your post that you have the Gemmy trees. I also have the white set of three.
I would appreciate any hacking expertise you may have involving these trees.
Can they be hooked to an FM transmitter?
Can any other music be imported to their system?

This is my first post to the forum. Since the first part of December I have been searching the various forums about computerizing my outdoor Christmas lights. I'm really torn in trying to make a decision between DIY or LOR. One thing I really would like to have if I decide on DIY is a dimmable feature.
Wondering if you have any input on going one way or the other.

Thanks in advace for any info,
Stan

[Trepidati0n]

Looking in the how to section, I have a section on hacking Gemmy.

1. Not really on the FM transmitter. You might spend some serious time on hacking into it, but personally, I see no significant value in it..

2. Nope, it is a dedicated piece of silicon with the music built in. Basically they are doing chip on board (i.e. put the silicon on the PWB, attach some bond wires, and put black goop on top.

My hack has "changed" to the point of not making a custom board at all but rather using what is already available here...just slightly modified.

[daviddth]

:cry: oh this is so depressing.... I live in australia, and getting any volume of lights becomes exceedingly expensive.

Yep it hurts doesnt it. I did manage 12 sets of clear 3 section chasing icicles (210 globe) for just under $7 each, and that was 2days ago!

I think this years haul is a little over 12,000 new lights (plus 4000 lights I found left over from last year that I had put aside and not used because I forgot them!) Considering last years display was only 19,000 lights, and I have about 3000 lights worth of rope light to buy, 40,000 lights is going to be an obtainable figure I think. :D

Then again I pay the bills and this is a hobby the wife and kids do not mind lol