Final 2009 Triangle Area Synchronized Lighting Group Meeting (TASL)

[Al in Raleigh]

We will meet at Starbucks, 2pm at Lake Boone Trail in Raleigh. The calender has the details. This will be the last meeting in 2009. Our meetings have proved valuable for everybody that attended. This and the last two meetings have centered around issues with an automated display.
Al

[Al in Raleigh]

Just to remind everybody that tomorrow is the meeting. If you have sequences that you are proud of bring them to share. Saturday, Nov 7, 2009 at 2pm.
Al

[victory402]

Al,
I'm going to try to make it.
Vic

[Al in Raleigh]

Great Vic. I hope to see you there. If you are having any problems, write them down and we'll discuss them.
Al

[daffodill1]

Hey Al,

I too have the big Christmas display an acre of yard with lots of shrubs, trees, figurines, blowmolds, pathway lights, also the whole front of the house. So this year I would like to add some zing. I talked w/Carl Zachary about what animated musical system would b best for the diy Sears has the "lightsnsounds system, HD has the Mr. Christmas system. Which is the best? I don't know that I could animate the whole acre just keypoints. I know I would need more wattage, right? We added one breaker last year. We just end up adding lights each year. I have a huge Christmas evergreen which is my focal point. This evergreen takes ALOT OF LIGHTS! I would like to add the display as I mentioned. I don't know alot about this. Help! We and I mean my husband and I start decorating outside this week. Hope the weather holds up. I have trimmed the majority of the shrubs back for decorating already. There's alot of labor that goes into this decorating but we love it. The smiles and looks on the faces of the kids is all worth it.

Sincerely,

daphne hampton duganne/ daphneduganne@bellsouth.net

[Al in Raleigh]

Hi Daphne,

I'm not familiar with either of those systems. But I did look them up on line and the limited amount of information that was available said that both were about the same amperage wise. But I can't be sure without reading an actual spec. Be careful putting a lot of lights onto this kind of stuff. If you are using net lights, c7, or c9 (c7 lights are the lights that we used to put on the tree inside and c9 lights are the big bulbs that made the outside of our house look like a used car lot) both draw a surprising amount of current. A large amount of either might harm the box. If you want to be sure, and you have Microsoft Excel, then fill out this spreadsheet that I posted here:
http://christmascarolina.com/forums/...ht=spreadsheet

If you can't figure out the spreadsheet or don't have Excel then PM me with the number of lights that you plan to use and I will help you with it. I would need to know how many strings and types of lights that you are using for each decoration that you want to animate. For instance, your evergreen tree would take 10 net lights that have 200 lights per net. That would tell me you would be drawing around 4 amps for that tree. From that information I can tell you if you would need another outlet outside too. I would be more than happy to help. As your display grows it would be an excellent idea to know this information anyway. I remember when I used to do a static display and was surprised when the breakers popped after I got everything plugged in. This will surprise you but by animating your lights you will use less power. The reason is that the lights are not on all the time.

Come to some of our meetings and somebody will be able to figure out just about anything that you need to know. We just had our last meeting for this year but there is always next year. Let me know how I can help.

Al