eShepherds of Light sequences

[djulien]

Attached are sequences from this year's eShepherds of Light Christmas show (Vixen 2.0.5.1). I am pretty much finished tweaking sequences for this year, so I am uploading them in case anyone would like to take a look or use them as a head start for next year.

I've turned off the Renard plug-in and turned on the Preview, so they should be ready to play with. If you have problems with them, let me know.

The following sequences are attached:
- I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, by Gayla Peevey (various albums/collections)
- Carol of the Bells by Monique Danielle from her "Christmas" album
- Wizards in Winter by TSO from their "Lost Christmas Eve" album
- I trimmed some of the silent spots within the Linus segment from Charlie Brown Christmas, so it won't quite match other MP3s you might find; however, it should be easy to adjust, since the timing is not too critical

If you want to see how the actual sequences looked when running, or how they line up with the music, the videos are all on You Tube - just search for "eShepherds of Light".

This was my first year with Vixen, so if anybody has comments for improvement I'd like to hear them!

don

[djulien]

The forum limited the number of attachments. Here are the rest of them.

- Joy, by Cindy Morgan from the album "One Silent Night"
- One King, by Point of Grace from their "A Christmas Story" album
- Jesus is Born, by Steve Green from his "Joy to the World" album

don

[Deast]

I like the trick with the bells in wow.

[Sloanhaus]

How did you get your icicle lights to chase the way they are chasing,,, did you double wrap? How many channels of icicle lights are you using

[artzy]

I like the trick with the bells in wow.

The bells/angels are amazing, would love to know how they are done

[djulien]

How did you get your icicle lights to chase the way they are chasing,,, did you double wrap? How many channels of icicle lights are you using

I am planning to write this up in more detail and submit it for the newsletter as I catch up/recover from this season, but here is a brief summary.

I used 7 icicle strings, and a total of 14 channels to control them. The icicle strings perpendicular to the viewer used 3 channels each, a couple of the strings I left as 1 piece, and 1 of them I only subdivied into 2 segments because it was at a corner. I was pleased on how smoothly they chased.

The icicle strings I used had 300 bulbs, arranged as 6 substrings of 50 bulbs (kinda like 3 100 ct strings end-to-end). I wanted smoother chasing, so I subdivided the icicle strings into 3 segments each and put an SSR in front of each of those segments. To do this, I cut 2 pairs of wires for each segment - 1 at the head of the segment (which is where I inserted the SSR), and 1 at the tail (which is the return loop for the circuit; I connected this back to feeder wire that runs the length of the string and supplies the trailing female plug). I ran a cat5 cable along side the icicles to control the SSRs, but there are other ways to do that part.

I actually only subdivided the icicle strings that were perpendicular to the viewer. For the ones that were parallel, I just left them as-is because the chasing effect isn't that visible anyway.

I realize a diagram would be a lot easier to follow. I'll try to get that done.

don

[djulien]

The bells/angels are amazing, would love to know how they are done

There is a write-up in-progress for those (for the construction part).

don

[djulien]

I realize a diagram would be a lot easier to follow. I'll try to get that done.

Attached is a diagram trying to show the original icicle string, and what I did to it. I hope that is clearer than my description.

Sorry about my poor drawing skills - I'm still trying to learn ExpressPCB + ExpressSCH.

don

[djulien]

Here are some photos. I'll write this up in more detail later.

first photo = the leading wires into an icicle substring
second photo = shows where I made the cut
third photo = SSR added (I used in-line SSRs, but it would have been easier simply to add a male plug here and then plug it into a regular SSR + extension cord or outlet)
4th photo = where I cut the front wire of the trailing substring (in the pair of substrings)
5th photo = the power line to the rest of the string bypassed/repaired + a short add-in wire to supply power to this substring, which goes back to the SSR (because I used pairs of icicle substrings)

don

[djulien]

Here is a write-up on the icicle mods: http://downloads.eShepherdsOfLight.com/Howidid-ChaseCicles.pdf

There is an article about the AngelBells scheduled to be in next month's newsletter. PM me if you would like more info about them before the newsletter article comes out.

don

[WWNF911]

Wow Don. That is really cool. I'm a big fan.

[boarder3]

That is nice why dont get a coop for some single channel ssr's for us not so talented people. Wonder if it only works with 2 color icicle lights? I have some single colors i would love to split

[djulien]

Wonder if it only works with 2 color icicle lights? I have some single colors i would love to split

A single-channel SSR will work for anything that a regular SSR will work for if it is using the same circuit diagram and components. Although the icicle strings that I used had 2 colors, the colors were mixed within the same series circuit, so electrically it was the same as a single-color string.


That is nice why dont get a coop for some single channel ssr's for us not so talented people.

I'm not sure what all that would take to do, which is why I left it as a "how I did".

The stripboard method was really easy on boards this small - 25 of these can be cut from one $1 stripboard. For pre-fabricated/coop boards, I'm guessing that larger boards with break-off or cut lines would be necessary in order to make it cost effective. There may also need to be some refinements to make it more adaptible or easier for others to use, such as maybe adding wire connectors or RJ45 jacks rather than hard-wiring it together.

OTOH, if you are interested in trying the stripboard method but need more details on how to do that, I could try to write up something.

don