I am a newbie and I ran my first LOR show this past Christmas season. I ran from about Dec 1 through Jan 6 every evening from 6 to midnight on weeknights and 6 to 1 on weekend nights.
I only have 1 LOR controller with 16 channels running about 9500 mini incandescent lights. For the first 2 weeks I ran a musical sequence every half hour. From Dec 15 through Dec 30 I ran musical sequences every 15 minutes. For the remainder of the time I went back to a musical sequence every half hour. When not running an actual musical sequence, I ran my lights at 70% intensity.
Including running my computer 24X7 during that time, the electric bill cost me an additional $30 over what I usually consume. I was pleasantly surprised at that small cost.
Two videos of my display are attached. Can't wait until next year.
Rick, Great job on 2009 Display. I really enjoy reading your post's. As a newbie myself who plans on having 32 channels, I have a couple of quick questions. First, how many channels did you use for your Mega Tree ? Second, did you sequence the songs yourself and if you did what tools did you use to accomplish that and how long did it take roughly per song ? Oh is the drinking beer part of the setup/teardown protocol. Many Thanks.......
For my mega tree I only used 3 channels - one for the red lights, one for the green and one for the whites, each string 200 light mini incandescent. When setting up the tree I started with one white, then one red, next was white, next was green, next was white, etc (WRWGWRWGWRWGWRWGW) laid out in a semi-circle. The effects of the lights flashing really looked great even though I only used 3 channels. I had a total of 9 white strings, 4 red strings and 4 green strings. The LOR controller had no problem handling the load.
As for song sequences, I created all of them myself. Each song took between 4 and 8 hours to program, and I would be willing to share my setup and sequences with anyone who wants them (rbjornholm1@rochester.rr.com).
As for the beer, I found that after spending a few hours each night programming the musical sequences, beer was a necessity to keep my sanity.
My sequences for 16 channels are as follows:
By Mannheim Steamroller -
Sleigh Ride, Do You Hear What I Hear, Dance of The Faeries, Joy To The World, Silent Night, Silver Bells, Little Drummer Boy.
By Trans Siberian Orchastra -
Appalacian Snowfall, Christmas Eve Sarajavo, Deck The Halls, Wizards of Winter
Rick, Thanks for the reply. I just finished installing my CTB16D circuit board in the NEMA3 enclosure I got on Ebay for $9.99, $20 with shipping. It was a lot of work and a lot more time comsuming to solder it all together and mount it in that enclosure (see attachment) than I originally thought. I took my time on it so I wouldn't make any mistakes. I added the status lights on top so I could tell from a distance if a bank has a blown fuse. Since I used dual power cords there was a place for where you would normally jumper for the Hot & Neutral for me to add the "Status Lights". I'm going to drill a peep hole on the cover so I can see the status of the LED on the circuit board, for troubleshooting purposes. I am also thinking of adding some fuse holders outside so I can gain access without taking the cover off. The nice thing about this controller is you can upload a small sequence of 5000 lines, in standalone mode, so you wouldn't need a PC or External/MP3l director. That might be handy for a indoor display useage.
I'm going to order the PC kit for $99.00 soon, so I can have all the 32 channels Hardware in place, so I can practice the sequencing part of this Hobby. Your Manheim Steam Roller is a good choice. Chip Davis who is one the founding members in that band was my brother's band teacher in High School here in Sylvania Ohio. Small world. I'm going slow so as to learn all the facets of this passion/hobby. I've pre-ordered with CDI mainly 1000' lamp cord and sockets, for extension cord building. I want to keep it small and simple for now, till I get more of a feel for it. My fishing hobby takes a lot of my time too..... Many Thanks !!!!!
Keep in mind. Any opening that you make in the enclosure is a POTENTIAL entry for rain, and other problem causing things. Your indicator lights are a good idea. But if this box is going to be outside, there is the potential for water entering and running down on the board.
Another potential problem I see is the cat 5 cables appear to pass thru the same restaint as the power cords. This seems to make it difficult to make the connections. Again, with connectors outside of the box, there is the greater potential for corrosion and ultimate communication problems.
I have put all my controllers in enclosures and have always kept these things in mind. I model my boxes from the LOR showtime box.
Chuck Thanks for the comments & suggestions on the enclosere. Yes I am aware of these things and have put a lot of thought into the design. Yes it's true any orifice has the potential for water intrusion. The box will be mounted to a wood structure and all mounting holes will be sealed with a silicone equivalent. Same with the status lights on top, will get sealed. I read somewhere you do not want to make your enclosure air tight because of condensation issues. Allowing some air, to make it breathe, is suppose to be OK I'm told. I have the crimp tools & connectors for the CAT5 cables and was going to put a male CAT5 connector about the same length as the AC dongles, then use a coupler to join the cables together. The only thing that keeps me from doing this, and this comes from my computer IT days, every connector/coupler adds signal loss, and other problems. Keep your run as clean as possible is what I was told. The 50' CAT5 cable should be enough to run to my laptop inside the house that will control the sequences & music etc. The other 50' CAT5 cable will run to the next LOR 16 channel controller. The Peep hole, (For viewing the Status LED on the M/B) will be 1/2" hole drilled in the cover with a small piece of glass epoxied on the inside, silicone sealed etc. Everything will be tarped and protected from the elements. I'm trying to copy LOR too, and plan on making it as Bullet Proof as possible. Many Thanks for the advice.
I have one question though, Does the signal that is transmitted from the computer to the LOR controller get some signal amplification, before it is sent out to the next unit. It seems to me it has to, otherwise you wouldn't be able to daisy chain 255 controllers. Anybody that knows for sure let me know. Thanks....
Thomas M. Fazekas wrote: I have one question though, Does the signal that is transmitted from the computer to the LOR controller get some signal amplification, before it is sent out to the next unit. It seems to me it has to, otherwise you wouldn't be able to daisy chain 255 controllers. Anybody that knows for sure let me know. Thanks....
Hi Tom,
No, there is no amplification to the signal from a controller. The only thing that will amplify the signal is a repeater. As I am sure you have read, but just to make sure. This is a serial signal, RS-485 to be more accurate. And we just had a discussion about this in the past few days. White paper says you can go 4000' and 32 devices per 4000' add a repeater and you can go another 4000' and another 32 devices. Actual world its more like 2000' but due to the chip that has been made after the white papers. You can now go the full 256 devices. But I think Dan of LOR said that they have reserved the last 16 or so addresses, so lets say you can go 200 + a few more devices in a single segment of wire with no amplification..
Also, real world, you may wind up going to multiple networks before you bump into max cable length, or max controllers per network. A 750 channel show on the end of a city block runs 3 networks. One handles the controllers on one side of the front, and the back of the firehouse. The second one handles the other side of the front, including the iDMX, and the third handles the controllers in the park across the alley from the firehouse. The 4th allowed network is currently planned for an Easy Linker, and running some lights in the park across the street, where the parking lot is... That third network is currently over 700 feet, and over 20 controllers, for some real world data points.
As I understand it, a competing, non compatible product actually does run a repeater in each controller, but that in turn is likely the source of the issues that require matched firmware across all their controllers, and in conjunction with another design decision about logic grounding, why they seem to have so many more communication issues than LOR does...
Before I Buy anything, can I ask you guys a few questions? I have the concept of being moble. If so, I would like to power a trailer from a sub-pannel, then have all my controllers in a trailer. Question:
I'm I corrent in saying you run cat5 from your PC to one controller then cat5 from controler to controller?
2ndly, if I don't max out the length and amps from the trailer to the displays, is it feasable to have all the controllers on one location?
Thoughts?
Chris - Macon Ga.
Last edited on Fri Mar 12th, 2010 07:15 pm by Chris D. Brooks
____________________ OPC167 - May God be my pilot.
Chris D. Brooks wrote: Before I Buy anything, can I ask you guys a few questions? I have the concept of being moble. If so, I would like to power a trailer from a sub-pannel, then have all my controllers in a trailer. Question:
I'm I corrent in saying you run cat5 from your PC to one controller then cat5 from controler to controller?
2ndly, if I don't max out the length and amps from the trailer to the displays, is it feasable to have all the controllers on one location?
Thoughts?
Chris - Macon Ga.
Certainly possible. You should weigh that against running cat5 from controller to controller placed in the display. One locked location for the controllers could be a plus depending on how concerned you are with security. Could be a lot of long extension cords all coming from one location but it sure has been done that way. Let me know your address and what size ball hitch I would need on my truck to match your trailer.
I know the conversaton has moved in a different direction, but here are the results of our light bill for the 2009 year;
Less than $25.00 for the season.
23K in lights -
87 amp draw if all on at once
216 channels
20 foot 48 channel mega tree with 8000 lights
all pulling 3.890916 KWh per hour on 93.5 hours of show time @ 5.78 cents per KWh = $21.02 for the season. Add the $3 to run the show computer and transmitter - and other small lights for the show.
