I See Upgrades for the 2016 season

[JonB256]

Nothing like watching your own show and thinking what to upgrade next year.

This year I put in new 41 pixel arches (in the big McMaster-Carr tubes)
This year I put in 10 new Dalek Trees (medium) with 50 pixels and a 10 pixel star
This year I replaced my roof perimeter pixels with WS2811 Pixabulbs (the metal squares were failing)

But what about next year?

Time for the "old school" Mega-tree to go. Red/Green/Blue/White LED strings, AC controllers
Upgrade to a 270° tree with pixels.

And I have two columns of Red/White stripe panels on each side of my garage.
They will become P10 columns.  48pixels wide, 192 pixels tall is my best guess for now.


What have you seen? 

[rdebolt]

My Major upgrades will be

1. To outline my house with nodes.
2. Put flex strips in Pex for my front roof line. Already have the pex up just never got the strips inside.
3. Move my megatree. It blocks too much.
4. Build and RGB Arch over my driveway.
5  Most importantly!!!!! Sequence much better than I have! I really need to work on that!

Roger

[arw01]

Replace the "mega tree" with a normal mega tree
Get the Mini mega going
finish conversion of some static snowflakes the rgb snowflakes
figure out some mounting method when I have a new roof coming on (thanks to the "mega tree") to that I can anchor more snowflakes to the roof at and angle so you can tell what they are.
put some "blinders" on the ridge vent and roof corners
increase the snowflakes on the roof
perhaps convert my ws2811 strips to Minleon strips
build the pvc and funoodle holders for my static Sesame street characters as the wind was so bad this year they spent more time on the ground than up.
convert some of my cat5 pigtails over to 4 core
figure out some power injection making it easier in a place or three
figure out a way to hid wires better.  They might be sitting in the gutters a bit, but not at the bottom
figure out how to mount some more coro items I bought from James.  Maybe he will come out with the sleigh and reindeer this year and I would have to figure out how to mount those to the roof.
figure out what to do with about 15 giant bulbs that were supposed to hang from the "mega tree"
will add some Minleon G40 to the roof in the pattern like Fast Eddie used.
Maybe add a middle stile to my window frames to stiffen them a bit and give me another piece for sequencing
perhaps convert from some SSC4 to more uSC and the F16v2 since I can drive the pixels from so far away
maybe convert my big bulbs to at least all white puck style leds, so I can light up individual bulbs instead of sets of 4.
add some c9 straight up along the roof line for that more traditional look when the show is not running.
figure out how to mount some flood lights more permanent on the house edges
get some security cameras up as well
figure out how to keep blow molds from blowing over in the wind as I am starting a personal display that
only me and the family will see in the backyard going out to the shop.
finish my sequences from this year that I did not get out at all

[danj]

We will keep the 3m & 5m RGB megatrees and the six arches
1. Fix up the 5m megatree pole so it doesn't fall apart next year!!
1a Add a Bethlehem star to the 5m megatree topper.
2. Use the full pixel capability of the 3m megatree.   I have 30 LED/30 IC strips installed but setup my E682 to control the pixels in groups of 3 to better match the 5m megatree, which has 30 LED/10 IC strips. I did not like the resolution of the 3m megatree based on this configuration--also--add a Bethlehem star to the topper
3. Add 2 or 3 smaller megatrees (1.5m to 2m in height)
4. Delete all 16 AC minitrees and add either 12 or 16 RGB minitrees--probably either medium or large ones that James70818 sells (Boscoyo studios)--with stars on top of all RGB minitrees--
5. Add six more arches, same size as existing arches.
6. Add strobes (haven't decided how many yet...>

[markrvp]

After 7 years of a completely A/C incandescent show, I'm adding many RGB elements next year.  What I'm planning are:

Pixel Mega Tree
4 RGB arches with 60/20 ribbons
Windows outlined in 30/10 ribbons
Roof outlined in Pixabulbs
Ground outlined with 12mm bulltes w/C7 globes.

Jon lives nearby and has been gracious enough to show me how he's running things.  I already have my Raspberry Pi and have successfully gotten Falcon Player installed.  I've been studying/working with xLights about 3-4 hours a day.  I won't be able to replace everything with RGB, and will still have about 196 channels of LOR A/C which I'll run in DMX mode. 

If I've done the math right, I'll be running 14,544 channels in 33 universes

[Steve Gase]

My corostar with dmx+dumb strings on the big pixel tree will be replaced...  something with pixels.
I didn't get stars on top of my 2 new 10ft pixel trees... i will leverage the plan for the big tree for these trees.

my new 14 coro reindeer with rgb floods look great, but i need a better solution to keep them standing and not subject to the winds.  I tried tying their feet to the ground, and also tried a tall stake behind them... but my yard is best described as rock with 1/2" of dirt sometimes covering the rock.

my trees use small bungee cords to connect the strips to metal rings at the bottom.  wind causes the cords to slip and I daily need to readjust.  i need a better solution... maybe spacers between the strips.  i need a better design.

I have some half-finished elements that I need to work out before I deploy them...  (3) 50ft pixel arches over the driveway... and (32) P10 panels -- what will I do with them?  sing-along lyrics? enticements to donate?, effects?    what configuration? 8x4? 1x32?  how will I rain-proof them?

fix my transmitter!! its time to replace the antenna and/or cables.  it was bad this year.

do something with the driveway... i tried home depot projection lights this year, but they were lost in the light from other elements.  i think laser animation pointed to the driveway is my only reasonable option.

I want some physical animation -- moving items, spinning items, ...

I don't think I am ready for viewer participation... selecting a song, pushing buttons, etc.  we don't have the walk-through traffic, its all automobile.

But first -- SEQUENCING !!!  My wife tells me that I need my list of songs and all sequencing complete by the end of this month (January!)  I have maybe 30 xlight sequences now, but only 2 of them have an impact.  the others are filled with effects and flashing, but they they don't have the emotional impact that I've seen from a few other shows.