Stephen Blue

A little late to the game on my reply, but I do 16 channels per color on my 20' tree, with 2 side-by-side strings per channel (32 strands total)

See, I'm the exact opposite, our concern is identical while opposite. I'm integrating pixels in 2019, and want to learn this new software and how to mesh my AC elements with pixels in the sequencer. Frankly, I've been on 2.9.4 forever and am just finding myself overwhelmed by s5, and was considering Florida to get the crash course. But if there's no guarantee S5 is going to be taught, why chance a week vacation + travel cost on it?

"Attendees will vote prior to class whether to work with S4 or S5" - the entire point of me going would be to crash course on the latest software. Not going to roll the dice that I *might* be able to learn on the latest software....

Bill Vaughan is on Great Christmas Light Fight on ABC tonight at 8pm! Good Luck @Bill V!

So... update, a year later. After not loving the CDI yellow m6's I bought last year, I bought a case of HLE m6's - they're identical to the CDI ones in terms of brightness and color; again, solid build construction, but just not very bright as opposed to other m6 LED's. Below is a picture of two identical yellow trees, same size and quantity of lights. The one on the left is all HLE/CDI m6. It's pretty, but dim. It works OK in its dark backdrop. The one on the right is half LED, half Lowes incan. You can see the difference replacing just 300 of the 600 lights with incans makes in brightness, so in terms of lessening my power load, I can realize some savings by doing trees in 50/50 like this. But I would still love to source some truly bright yellow LED m6's...

Jacks on LOR controllers certainly can be damaged/"go bad" - I've had this happen a couple of times before. LOR can repair, of course, but the issue can cause data corruption along your entire network and make things to wacky.

A pixel tree requires a different type of controller, but yes, both LOR software and xLights can run a CTB16PC and a pixel controller at the same time in the same display. "Easily" is in the eye of the beholder - there's differences in setup and sequencing, but many of us do it. (This is my first year running 17 LOR controllers, 1 LOR CCB controller, and 2 Falcon pixel controllers.)

Welcome, and nice wreath! I don't do municipal, of course would never rule it out if the right pieces/deals presented themselves. Cheers to South Williamsport! (One day, I'll get to call balls and strikes on a warm summer day there... one day!)

How's everyone this year? Currently working on 4 major projects/additions: Integrating pixels into my mega tree, rigging a flying Santa/Sleigh blowmold set, repainting 2 Little Tykes playhouses and turning them into a gingerbread village, and finishing my first custom wireframe snowmen and building an interactive snowball fight game with them. It's getting busy here!

Cricket, cricket ? I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about... like motion icicles?

Oh, no worries, no insult taken. Everyone has different tastes and preferences! For the most part, they hold up really well - I have some over 10 years old, and I can only think of 1 that I've retired because of irreparable damage (and honestly I could have fixed that one, just didn't love it to begin with, wasn't worth the effort). The two issues that crop up on occasion are A) if detail features, such as eyes and noses, are not well attached, they have to be re-glued every couple of years (Characters from Improvements Catalog are especially guilty of this). Hot glue gets it done. B: And by far the most common issue, a section of lights within the character goes out. Most of them are incan mini's, and what a light keeper pro doesn't bring back, results in what can be a pretty labor-intensive operation to replace the string. We have to do this to maybe 4-6 of the characters each year. Some are pretty easy... others not so much. Some of my all-white characters (bears, seals, snowmen) do get grungy looking after several years - a quick coat of cheap white spray paint brings them back to life quickly!

You've found some exceptions to the general rule - eBay occasionally will have a decent deal, but the vast majority of their blowmolds (and Christmas lighting elements in general) are massively overpriced. Gotta assume shipping also - that 3rd one you linked has a $15 shipping tag attached to it, bringing total cost to $50, versus Ace which will ship them to store for free pickup at $29.99. That last one, the one with a candy cane, is the only "bargain deal" of the 4 - and it's an auction, not Buy It Now, so chances are the price will increase (and, it's missing it's light cord). Good for anyone that snags a deal on eBay - I've bought stuff from there for sure (mostly mesh frames that I can't find anywhere else) - it's just not one of my go-to shopping sites.

I suppose that's just a difference of preference - I'm a big fan of the mesh over wireframe figures (I use close to 100 of them throughout my display), and Home Depot has some of the best selections of good looking, unique designs year after year. I will say that when they're put together, we add numerous additional zip ties to the frames to make them more stable, and guy-wire with fishing line taller ones. HD also has the best ground stakes, hands down, of anyone.

Gotta say, big box store C9's just don't cut it for me. They typically only have one LED and do not look very bright, and quality is mediocre. (And I'm a huge fan of the WalMart mini LED's) @hotrod1965's ceramic LED's are the closest C9's I've seen to a classic look and classic brightness, and the quality is excellent. The only other thing I would consider is the Lowes GE-brand C6 ceramic's, they're the only LED C-style bulb that look as good as a classic incan C-bulb, but they are a smaller bulb, and come in a denser 100ct string - maybe not the look you're going for. HLE lists their C9 retro's at about 0.6 watts per bulb, so you're looking at about 15 watts per 25 count string. If I'm not mistaken, a classic incan C9 string of 25 runs 175 watts. You can easily put over 100x 25-bulb strings on a 20 amp breaker.