I have my sequences completed 98%, my yard layout firmed up, and construction of minitrees, maxitrees, megatrees, and arches finished. It appears I may be ahead of the game (but time will tell). I plan to begin placing everything in the yard November 1st with all lights officially turned on Thanksgiving evening.
I have not yet put the sequences together in a show, but don't see a problem with that yet. My question is, my wife has planned a four day beach vacation for us the first week of December, and I'm wondering if the show can be set up to run automatically every night, without touching it? Or should I shut it down for those days?
This is my first year with LOR and I had planned to babysit the display every evening, but for those vacation days, that won't be possible.
Just looking for the general opinions. My neighbors love my display, but don't do hardly any decorating themselves, and none would take the responsibility or have the know-how to operate it. Appreciate your input.
You should easily be able to set up a schedule and have it run completely on it's own. I'm never home from work when mine turns on and I've never had a problem with it not starting.
the show editor and schedule editor work great. I have it set to start and run 12 musical and video routines as well as crank ghost motors, a video projector , fans and fluorescent lights, run for 3 hours then shut off. All unattended for our Halloween display. I tested on our July 4th display routine and it works great.
Richard, one question is will you be using a computer to control you show. If so thats how I have been running my shows. The scheduler will do exactly what you are asking. And sounds like you will have a full month to work out the kinks, & there will be some, before you actually go on vacation. Mine failed one time due to heavy rain. The rain shorted out one extension which in turn tripped the controller. But since then I just try to take precautions not to leave connections too exposed to water & its been just fine.
Joe
____________________ If I sequence they will come.
I've been testing the show editor and schedule editor and it does seem pretty foolproof. Sure hope it doesn't let me down. Thanks for all your good comments.
If rain does short it out, it will only be down for a few days, so it is not earth shaking.
Will let you know how it all works out.
Richard
Last edited on Fri Oct 23rd, 2009 07:56 pm by rjnitto
Are you prone to power interruptions where you are? The controllers will recover if the power goes out and back on. But a computer more than likely will remain shutdown.
A couple more tips: Reboot the PC before you leave. Windows (particularly certain versions) isn't the most stable thing in the world and rebooting it clears up any memory/resource leaks, whatever. As of last year, my show computer ran Win98SE and if I didn't reboot it it would eventually hang up during the show.
Second, consider putting the PC on a UPS. That will get you through all but the biggest power outages. You can often find cheap/free "broken" UPS's and buy new batteries for them on eBay-- I picked up a $300+ value UPS my work was throwing out, and spend $60 on new batteries for it and it works perfectly. If that's cost prohibitive, try to set up the PC so it auto-boots on power, and loads up the show controller with shows enabled.
I run my Lor controllers 24/7. They produce a littler heat which keeps all condensation out. Last year I ran the whole show on the sd card. It ran flawlessly. It turned on/off perfectly for the 6 weeks it ran. This year I am running it on a computer so I can run Zara during off peak hours.
redsea300 wrote: I run my Lor controllers 24/7. They produce a littler heat which keeps all condensation out. Last year I ran the whole show on the sd card. It ran flawlessly. It turned on/off perfectly for the 6 weeks it ran. This year I am running it on a computer so I can run Zara during off peak hours. What is "Zara?"
Here's a link that will explain the workings of Zara - a radio automation software. A lot of people use it to control their FM transmissions before and after their scheduled show. Lots of other uses, too. There is a free working version on the website.
july1962 wrote: redsea300 wrote: I run my Lor controllers 24/7. They produce a littler heat which keeps all condensation out. Last year I ran the whole show on the sd card. It ran flawlessly. It turned on/off perfectly for the 6 weeks it ran. This year I am running it on a computer so I can run Zara during off peak hours. What is "Zara?" You can go to lorsequences.com and Michael has a tutorial on what it is and how to set it up. The demented elf has time/temp and humidity sound files available for zara if you are using weather watcher also.
Last edited on Sat Oct 24th, 2009 01:49 am by redsea300
