I have my wife and neighbors to contend with. I live in a small town and so everyone pretty much knows everyone. I have been getting a few kill joys who have making comments like it is not Christmas yet do not start putting your Christmas out.
They have no clue how much time and work it takes for the show they enjoy. As I put together my displays each year my wife gets excited about it and lets me go for it.
The thing that has been slowing me down this year is having to work 70 hours a week at work and I got a wild hair and decided to upgrade my EMT certification and signed up for a class this summer. The class and testing with clinical's has used up almost all of my spare time. I had several new items that I was going to create for Halloween that had to wait this year and will happen next year.
I have all of my Clinical's and practical testing done for my EMT certification and now I just have to take my state written test.
I am going to start working on putting things out this weekend and I am hoping to have it all lighted up for Thanksgiving. My EDM radio unit has developed a horrible hum so I have to send it in for repair. I hope that does not take very long.
Last edited on Tue Oct 27th, 2009 03:52 am by toddmoon
____________________ 32 Channels and counting. 10,000 + Lights and counting.
I have not heard of many EDMs that developed problems so it caught my attention. Did you try and replace the power adapter to see if that got rid of the hum? Just trying to save you from sending it back.
Changing the power supply helped with the hum issue with my EDM unit. Thanks for the information. I have to position it right. If I have the power cord by a speaker it picks up a hum.
Again thanks for the information.
____________________ 32 Channels and counting. 10,000 + Lights and counting.
I see alot of people are alrighty setting things up! I'm a newbie who will be doing his first 32 channel display. I still have to hook up my controllers to my computer for the first time. I thought if I start now it would be to early. than I still have to figure out how to do sequences. Well I need to figure out how to edit them to work for me. I have a felling I will not be ready for this year.
I have not heard of many EDMs that developed problems so it caught my attention. Did you try and replace the power adapter to see if that got rid of the hum? Just trying to save you from sending it back.
tom
Never mind, I see that you have already replaced the wall wart. I was just agreeing with tmadak.
Last edited on Sun Nov 1st, 2009 11:57 am by Max-Paul
The first year's show is shaping up. Spent the last few weeks building my radio sign and stands for the four controllers and getting the FM transmitter (Mobile Black Box) into a weather proof enclosure. Rented a 50' articulated boom lift and installed stainless steel hooks under the eves to hang the icicle lights from - should not need to set foot on a ladder - NICE!
Connected all four controllers to the laptop and ran some tests to veryify communications - all good! Moved an intro sequence and a few musical sequences onto the SD card and test ran the MP3 player, FM transmitter, and 32 sets of lights. Everything worked like a charm. I have been spending a few hours each week since Sept. working on sequences / songs for the show. I should have about twelve to fifteen sequences ready in time.
Removed 96 strings of 100 count mini lights from their boxes and have them ready to be installed on the house once I get home from work off the coast of Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 28th. Still need to fabricate my extension cords from 1500'of cord and dig out some of last years lights for the porch eves. It will be a busy weekend starting on the 28th! Hoping to have everything operational by Monday night the 30th if the weather allows.
ny_yankee_25 wrote: I see alot of people are alrighty setting things up! I'm a newbie who will be doing his first 32 channel display. I still have to hook up my controllers to my computer for the first time. I thought if I start now it would be to early. than I still have to figure out how to do sequences. Well I need to figure out how to edit them to work for me. I have a felling I will not be ready for this year.
This is my first year using LOR too!
There are some great videos on the lor support webpage showing some really good tips on building sequences.
you can through together a basic 32 channel program in an hour or so.
you still have pleanty of time for a great setup!!
although saying that ive been working on this project since January and the prep work is still not finnished!!!!!!!
well.... now that halloween is over & the haunted house that i am part owner of is officially closed its time to get that torn down and get christmas up. i am cheating alot this year... as the haunted house is sort of a professional set-up at a city park, i went and got all my extension cords, lights, fog machines..... everything but the structural stuff (the house was about 10,000 sq ft this year & we had about 1200 guests visit this year over 10 nights of operation. so i will take a few days and get most if not all the christmas stuff in the next few days and then go back and finish at the haunt. someone remind me.... why do we do this? it seems every year i say i will choose one or the other. the haunted house used to be a 1 day project! oh well..... back to work.
I went all out with Halloween this year. As I tore it down over the weekend I thought why did I go so over the top.
A lot of it was just to see what I could do with my additional unit and spread things out. So in a way it was a test run for my Christmas show. However after I got through tearing it all down I told myself I am not going to this extent for Halloween again. I guess we will see. It gets in your blood and you just can not let go! More lights More channels it is an addiction that will not go away.
____________________ 32 Channels and counting. 10,000 + Lights and counting.
I suppose Halloween is entirely a matter of location, location, location. Our trick-or-treater count has been declining for the past few years in the part of town where we live. I was going to do some stuff for Halloween including sound effects and strobes to scare the bejeebers out of some of the candy goblins, but got too busy with Christmas stuff and didn't get around to it in time. Turns out we had a total of eight trick-or-treaters. Makes me glad I didn't waste my time... but the good news is that I'm still on track to have everything up and to be in full-scale test mode by the end of the weekend!
____________________ Dear, please stop referring to me as "the mad scientist"... How many times do I have to remind you I'm NOT a scientist! http://www.clearwaterlights.org
I do not know how many kiddies came to our door. I do know that we went through 20 pounds of candy. If my wife had been passing out the candy it would have been 40 pounds and I would have had made a trip to the store for more candy.
It was a fun weekend event. However I do not think I will be doing as much next year. I will be spending more time with preparation for Christmas.
I have been frustrated with the lack of effort with our towns Christmas display so I am high jacking the committee this year and taking it over. I am going to animate our city's displays as soon as I can get the city council to approve the funding. It wont happen this year but I am hoping that I can get a budget for it for Christmas 2010.
Ah, the things I can do with other peoples money. This years city's budget is only $1000.00. Most of those funds are already committed to things this year so there is not much I can do to effect things this year.
____________________ 32 Channels and counting. 10,000 + Lights and counting.
