Crimson Lane Lights Etown

I'm not a demented elf, and I think they are still around, but I do my own voice recordings. I'll send you one as an .mp3. If I can help, let me know. Ross

Is your show unique? That question drives my decisions as well as who's going to see it and why do I even decorate. This is my tenth year and I have slowly added rgb bulbs but have not removed any traditional lights. The S5 software gives more motion effect options that work well to blend my show. I don't see going full rgb or adding a $2,000.00 tree that plays cartoons. I'd rather invest in a projection (inspired by Disney), but I would settle for a 50 watt rgb flood to color a wall if LOR would ship them.

Create an animation or musical sequence that includes all your channels and make them ALL ON (static). I run pre show and post show sequences that are all on (static) so viewers can get pretty photos and I can see if any bulbs are out!

Every show is different. Every sequence is different. Drawing juice at different times all the time. I purchased a Kill-A-Watt meter $20 bucks ebay. Answers all your electric capacity questions. When I switched over to LED's, I removed the second power cord and put in a jumper because I was pulling way less Amps then on Incans. Run one controller at at time plugged into your Kill-A-Watt meter and record the draw. Create a sequence with every channel on. You will be amazed how many things can be plugged into a 15 or 20 amp dedicated outlet. (one year our basement lights were pulsating due to the juice draw from one outlet I used for flood lights) I added three dedicated 20 amp outlets in the garage that run everything. Problem solved!

Way to go! You are not alone at getting started early. I call it the "testing phase." With 32 channels are you using those three outlet connectors on each channel to run different props at the same time? I did that for years until I was able to afford more controllers and separate the props. I also learned quick to make my own extension cords. Saved money, storage space and weight.

I don't use the Forums, I use the All Activity and Search feature. Consolidate everything into a stronger search engine. Get rid of Video, Gallery and Clubs. Allow more space per person to post and delete content. sorry if this seems too direct.

If you are actually creating a new sequence, then the software needs to find the audio file first to assign. S4 or S5 doesn't matter. If you are creating an animation sequence without an audio file, that should work. Once you have the software pointing to the audio or sequence location, do not move or rename it, it wont find them anymore until you point it to the files, wherever they are. On a second computer, you have to transfer all the files over not just the software. If they are not named exactly on both computers, then extra work is needed to point the sequences to the correct audio files. After 9 years on two laptops, I finally made sure all the names were the same to eliminate the extra work and the "cannot file audio file."

With a mix of traditional, LED and RGB, I made the upgrade to S5 this summer. It went well and I am looking forward to seeing the software in action outside on my shows soon. I have begun installing lights on the house that I will use for Halloween night only. I don't put on a longer Halloween display. Just RGB bulbs as a fire effect in S5 for a few hours during trick or treat. Which we are having in our town. All four of the Tomshine 80watt moving heads are functioning great in DMX mode and are very bright. Extremely happy with them. ok talk to everyone soon! BANG! Here we go!

I purchased both warm white and cool white strings. The cool white looks more like the C9 strobes when they fire (flash). I mixed them into my show this year as they also come in colors. Love the Red and Green. I added red strobe strings as well as green strings over top of colored bulbs. The ones I bought are dimmable and full wave as well as sealed. Certainly worth the $25 per 100 5mm string. Must acquire more. I use two strings of 100 to run up a flag pole attached to a star for the annual star raising that I do. Strobes are in the middle and hard to photograph. You get the idea. See photo. Here's the link to the lights. 5mm Super Spark Strobe String

Hey Mike, I mount the LOR controller on the mega tree pole and run custom made spt1 wire and vamp plugs to the channels. Nothing special. Wires sit on the ground. I can raise or lower the box on the pole to get the connections off the ground but not the wires. I also use LED lights so I removed one power cable from the LOR box and put in a jumper. 32 strands of 100 count m6 do not draw much juice.

All strobes and/or strobe items should be on one channel. They only work as ON/OFF. Nothing else. Xenon vs. LED: They should not be ON for an extended period of time (like 30 seconds). LED are different but I treat them as Xenon. If you look at videos of others, you'll see brief strobe usage not extended usage. I turn them on at the end of songs mostly but there are many times inside a song that they can be used. Do what you want. I also start them ON a few .10 of a second early and let them ON a few .10 of a second longer so they fire on time. Check out Larsen Lights on youtube if you want to feel inferior regarding strobes since they have 2500 of them on their house. You only have 5. When you get more than the channel can handle in AMPS, of course you can put them on two channels and copy and paste. I have been doing this for a while, I have 65 strobes, all on one channel, still!

Bring all the controllers you are using up to the latest firmware version.(LOR home page under support) Stick with S4 until the issues are resolved. Gen3 controllers will work with HS red adapter (backward compatible). Gen2 will not.

Is your network speed configured properly? Did you add controllers this season, are they G3. Are you using a red adapter? Are they all on one LOR REG network? Are the RGB Pixie2 (4, 8, 16) configured to run BRG? What software are you using, S4, S5, xlights? Make sure your sequences are clean and no timing blocks are filled in unexpectedly that may cause random flashing. Just a few ideas to check.

Tonight is light up! And it's pouring down rain with ice expected! Yeah December! I have to go get as many connections off the ground as possible...I think a winter lager would make it all better. Have Fun tonight!

In S4, when you create a sequence or animation, before you save it, drop down menu PLAY > LOOP AT THE END, then save it. Try That. Also, if you create a show, show builder, you can add the sequence or animation as many times as you want it to play. Just keep adding it.