It's that time again...
Printed From: Aurora
Category: Whatever Else
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URL: http://www.aurorashow.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1041
Printed Date: 13 May 2024 at 5:36pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.06 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: It's that time again...
Posted By: BigDPS
Subject: It's that time again...
Date Posted: 24 Aug 2010 at 10:16am
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Well the wife and I have begun the annual summer Christmas light show inventory habit. We began by separating the mega tree lights in their proper packet of lights, properly wrapped the extension cords, put the proper lights in the proper totes, taking notes on what was damaged and what needs to be replaced. You know it's a good time when the wife will say she'll have a beer with me!  Or it's the fact that its 90 plus degrees out in the sun. Even the crickets refuse to make noise due to the hot weather.Neighbors looks at us with weird looks on their face...maybe it's because of me whistling the tune of White Christmas as we do all this work. Has anybody else started to do their display work yet or is it too soon? ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/"> 
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Replies:
Posted By: deweycooter
Date Posted: 24 Aug 2010 at 2:08pm
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How are you gonna get Halloween stuff done if you're starting on Christmas already?!
------------- http://www.deweycooter.com/wiki/index.php/Aurora - Aurora Lights Wiki http://www.aurorashow.com/"> 
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Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 24 Aug 2010 at 5:05pm
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I don't do Halloween with the lights and stuff. We have very few people coming (none in the past 5 years!!!). I like to concentrate all my time on the Christmas one instead.
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Posted By: onewish1
Date Posted: 24 Aug 2010 at 6:54pm
| we started picking up supplies for Halloween... can't wait to get started |
Posted By: LightChristmas
Date Posted: 24 Aug 2010 at 7:40pm
Slacker! Have 80% of the sequencing done, with the remainder pending additional light and controller moola. Going "blueless" this year as the darned things fade in no time, and the price vs quality vs safety vs on-time delivery of LEDs is dubious at best.
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Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 25 Aug 2010 at 1:42pm
This year (because of my wife) we have added purple lights. She says it will make the display a lot purdier... 
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Posted By: LightChristmas
Date Posted: 25 Aug 2010 at 2:35pm
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Just a forewarning, DPS. The purples tend to look like red at a distance, so space accordingly. Had to restring my megas in the 11th hour last year because of that.
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Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 31 Aug 2010 at 4:53pm
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Great.....I took blue out to replace with purple. Had I known that, I would've kept blue and get rid of red. Today, at the feels like 104 degrees with humidity mark, my wife and I were completing the wrapping of the mini arches. To top it all ,we had christmas music streaming on the computer.  Does anybody else listen to Christmas music at THIS time of the year while working on their display? I hope I'm (we're) not the only ones.....  ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/">
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Posted By: LightChristmas
Date Posted: 01 Sep 2010 at 12:55pm
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If you keep the reds away from the purples, all will be fine. My initial config was Red, Green, Blue, White, Purple - with the arrangement repeating. As you can see, on the second iteration, red is next to purple. What I ended up doing was moving the purple in between green and blue - and avoided lighting up the reds any time the purple was on.
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Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 02 Sep 2010 at 11:50am
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I can't recall my colors but I think they are purple, green, yellow and red. I suppose I can do purple green red yellow. ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/">
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Posted By: LightChristmas
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2010 at 1:25am
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Sandwich the yellow in between the red and purple - looks totally kick*** when they are in shimmer chase mode on a mega. Looks like the tree is molten gold.
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Posted By: LightsOnLogan
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2010 at 1:01pm
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I've used purple for several years in a 6 color setup (red, yellow, green, blue, purple, white). I superstrand them all together without spacing them apart. Things I've found: For incandescent purples: - Never have them on at the same time as red... they'll be hard to tell apart - Once they fade a little from UV exposure they are easier to tell apart from red. I suspect that if you put new purples out for an October display (I don't do an October display) then the purples put out in October will be ready to join new reds put out in November. When possible try to mate year 2 purples with year 1 reds. Of course if you switched to purple to reduce the blue replacement cost then doing the fading recommendation defeats the point... I can't help you there. - Mine appear more purple at a distance (~100') than they do up close. At least the ones I put on the house appear more purple than the ones on the mega tree in the front yard... but that could be due to pigmants my the house siding, so take this with a grain of salt. - They look more purple when used with blue or white. When used with yellow a whole other effect happens which, although hard to describe, is quite interesting (and very different than the red/yellow combo which is also good). - The purples that were new in 2006 were easier to tell apart from red than the purples I bought in 2009. The fact is that an incandescent filament contains very little purple light. If they were to use a more "purpley" coloring then the bulb would be way too dim to be useful. The reddish purple that is used is a compromise that allows brighter intensity while still appearing somewhat purple. I have not tried it, but theoretically running red at a 80% to 90% maximum instead of 100% might make red more distinct from purple. Although the reds would be a little dimmer the filament would proportionally contain less blue light (it is burning cooler) thus allowing the red lights to look more red. It might just make the difference. If anyone tries it, let me know if it works. With purple LEDs: - These are very distinctly a different color than red - They also tend to be rather dim - Some of the older purple LEDs used to react with the sunlight and turn blue (I haven't heard of that problem in a while though) Overall I like the LED purple color better than the incandescent purple, but LEDs come with their own nightmares too (or maybe I should make that LED vendors). ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/"> 
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Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 04 Sep 2010 at 4:21pm
That's what I like about the Christmas Display fan(atics): Always ready to help by giving their ideas. No wonder people think we are a world apart! Yesterday, my wife and I were making more of the small arches and we had thought, last Christmas, to add purple and green with the 6 other blue arches that we made. Somehow, it didn't seem right last night when we started. I asked her what she would think instead of putting a completely green or purple arch, since it would make it weird to have only one of each, why not make it so we have an arch with alternating green,purple,green,purple and so on? That way, we'd have 2 that are identical. Well it didn't take long that we did just that. And talk about 2 contrasting colours!!! It sure looks nice...in the summer. Can't wait to see snow on the ground and see them glow even more on the snow. Another thing that Christmas displays does to someone:forget about their own rules. Last year when we bought the extra 3000 lights, my wife asked/told me that this should be it for lights. I said I suppose so. She was happy to hear that. After a hot tub session, she tells me that what would be neat is to have a big sign on top of the house that says Merry Christmas. And to have each letter blink according to the music. Wasn't she the one telling me that this SHOULD be it as far as buying new lights goes? When I told her what it would take to accomplish this (new controller, extension cords etc0 she kinda paused but didn't really step down from her idea. I guess we'll have to wait for the boxing day specials.... ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/">
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Posted By: onewish1
Date Posted: 04 Sep 2010 at 4:33pm
| too funny ... amazing how much stuff we need when we get an idea |
Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 04 Sep 2010 at 6:34pm
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Oh the ideas are no problem whatsoever...it's to find the $$$ to support the idea that is the hardest. In this weird roller coaster economy, we have to make sure the essentials are covered and then, whatever is left, goes for the display. I'd love to have more $$$ for my display...it would be seen from outer space and the nuclear power plant not far from me would be connected to the display itself! ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/">
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Posted By: onewish1
Date Posted: 04 Sep 2010 at 7:03pm
I think we all wish for that 
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Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 10 Nov 2010 at 5:39pm
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Well I have 11 songs re-sequenced. I don't think I'll have as much as last year. I tried to keep all my songs under 3 minutes as per a certain site that mentions about attention span of the spectators. I guess it does make sense when I think about it. Who would want to sit through 5 minutes of repetitive beats of a song? I'd get bored as well!!! ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/">
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Posted By: onewish1
Date Posted: 10 Nov 2010 at 7:57pm
| sounds good to me |
Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 01 Nov 2011 at 6:01pm
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Well we did finally do a Halloween display this year. For a first year, I must say it turned out very nice. Took most everything down this afternoon but now, we are getting ready to setup for Christmas. My oh my, time sure flies! ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/">
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Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 13 Nov 2011 at 5:42pm
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Well part one of my setup is up. Next will be the driveway arches to allow to park 2 cars side by side and then connect the whole thing on the network. That's for next weekend. Already over 20 plus hours of work with 4 people. 3 adults and a rent-a-kid!
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Posted By: onewish1
Date Posted: 13 Nov 2011 at 6:40pm
| we are doing the switch as well.. and both exhausted |
Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 14 Nov 2011 at 7:25pm
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It's funny how people are looking forward to see the display. As we were setting up, people stopped to ask questions or gave us the big thumbs up. This year was the first year for Halloween and people were telling me how anxious they were to see the christmas display. I guess that is a motivation to impress the crowd.
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Posted By: onewish1
Date Posted: 14 Nov 2011 at 9:36pm
| yes it is... I have two little girls that live up the street.. they come down everyday to see what is new.. totally motivating |
Posted By: Nightowlz1966
Date Posted: 17 Nov 2011 at 10:34am
Hey beings all you guys got started so early why don't yall come down to Georgia and help those of us that got started late  This is my second year and I just havent figured out how I can get started earlier LOL------------- Brian FlandersI thought I had More Extension Cords http://www.christmasonthecreek.com - Christmas On The Creek |
Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 17 Nov 2011 at 5:02pm
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I've been working on my setup since 2007!!! I still have to add the driveway arches but once I'm done, I'll try to swing by.
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Posted By: BigDPS
Date Posted: 20 Nov 2011 at 8:36am
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Well last night was the first testing of the lights. One box wasn't running right at all. It was daisy chained to 9 other boxes, it would let the other one do their job but that one refused to do anything. Had to do a internal swap on the spot. Thank god it wasn't cold. Once the internals changed , everything was all good to go. Did a currant draw test. 20135 led lights takes only 598 watts at full intensity. Compared to my 150 feet of rope light, 40 sets of 35 incandescent lights, 4x50 watt floods and 6x7 watt lightbulbs, that was taking over 1250 watts!!! LED rules big time. More expensive to buy at first but sure save money running them. As to if they last longer, by not much. They can burn just like the regular lights. All day yesterday, people passing by were telling us how they can't hardly wait to see it in action. I could hear people from the surrounds when I was doing the light test and just playing with the shimmering and twinkle of the lights, I could hear them say "Wow this is incredible" What a nice feeling at the end.  ------------- http://www.aurorashow.com/">
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