Christmas is over, time to tear down ... name something about your 2022 display that you liked (or plan to improve/change)

[ryanschristmaslights]

It is the middle of the first week of 2023 and most of us have finished up our displays between Christmas and New Year's Eve. As we tackle the task of tearing down and packing away our 2022 hard work (gasp! ), no doubt some of us are thinking about what to do differently for next time.

Is there something specific about your 2022 display that you're really happy with or worked better than expected? Or have you identified something that didn't work as expected or that you'd like to change/improve for next year?

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What I thought worked well for my display is how I utilised my pixel icicles (aka pixicles) in the new song I added for 2022: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. The pixicles were used more like a matrix in the choruses with a low resolution Santa sleigh picture racing from side to side (inspired by @darylc's fence matrix some years ago - thanks for the idea ). A number of children of different ages that visited the show spotted the pixicle sleigh and said it was cool.



As for what didn't work as expected... This Christmas season for the first time I experienced several freezes with some sets of old single colour LED strings controlled by multiple LOR DC 16ch controllers and couldn't work out why. The only change that comes to mind between this and last year is the show PC OS moving from Windows 7 to Windows 10 (fresh install). This issue was happening across multiple DC controllers and would cause light strings to turn on correctly as sequenced but then stay on for several seconds. So because of this issue (plus the age of the LED strings getting on to 13-15 years and becoming more brittle), I am considering changing even more of my show to use GS8208 12V bullet pixels (to match what I already have).

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Interested to read how things went for everyone else!

 

[DarkwinX]

Due to having many more pixels than I had originally planned I had to find creative ways of using them. I also lacked props being my first year.

I ended up running them around the outline of my front lawn and it looked quite nice giving a border to everything.
I didn't end up taking too many photos or videos due to our newborn and us going to bed before sunset most nights but here is one early morning before the Australia v Argentina game - showing off the green and gold.

New video by Nathan Gaughan

photos.app.goo.gl

I think mostly everything worked out ok for year one but I will definitely be looking at props and reorganising my controller boxes for next year.

 

[Skymaster]

As this was my first year, I'm happy that I got something running, and that it all worked. Was certainly a challenge to start to understand the various concepts. My display grew from my original intentions 12 months ago, as they do - I never intended to have as much as I did. I was just over 6k pixels.
I was also happy to be able to integrate my existing Bunnings lights in with a DMX2-24 board, which gave something a little different from a complete pixel show.

As for next show - I have no idea what I'm going to do yet - adds/moves/changes etc. I need to work it out. But part of it will hinge on how I go with some landscaping changes. Ultimately I want to rid myself of the hedge and improve visibility. But there are a few other (unrelated non-blinky) flow on effects that need to be sorted out first. So depends on how all that goes will depend on my changes.

One thing I need to improve on is sequencing. I had about 10 sequences, of which half were imported from free sequences, and half were self-sequenced. I'd like to both improve my creative ability, and also now having seen how great some of the 'commercial' ones are, I plan to dip my toe in and spend some money in that area.

 

[Danielr]

I really liked the moving heads more than I thought I would. Last two years I’ve added a lot so not too much this year, maybe just a couple more column matrices this year and perhaps some more density to the mega tree.

 

[Indigogyre]

Oh, where do I start. This was my second year and I have to say adding all the new House elements paid off huge. Adding in Horizontals and Verticals is a large game changer and then the windows and props in those areas also helped. I think I tripled the show from last year to this year. Made a more complete show.

Things to change? The entire layout! This year I plan to focus more on fine tuning my layout and prop location. The new house elements need some rework to make them a bit. Overall I am not planning a large amount of changes. Nothing a few thousand pixels can't fix

 

[KStatefan]

I added mini trees under my arches for this year, they added more to the show then I was expecting. A couple viewers told me they liked that addition.

 

[Grozzy]

I was happy with my square pixel wrapped conduit arches and homemade gingerbread except for replacing about 10 pixels and squeezing another 10 over consecutive days until I cracked it and replaced all of them in the gingerbread. The arches were fine.

 

[Snitz87]

This year I think I was finally happy with my snowflake placement throughout the display, things to add next year, still undecided. I think 2023 is more Behind the scenes fixes. I would love to finish of labeling all my control boxes (last year was a rush in making them and half arsed it a bit) and I would like more custom sequences. I want to sequences more myself.


Also HD props, finally seen a few in person and wow, I need to add them to my display.

 

[Notenoughlights]

My new power distribution box with individual RCD's per power outlet really saved me a lot of hassle having things false tripping every day when turning the display on, only one false trip due to rain (240V commercial grade led strings are lovely sometimes) so that was a huge plus to 2022's setup

What didnt work as well, I had a few sets of lights decide to die on me at the very beginning, mainly icicles on hand rails for the path to our front door and some of the icicles around the guttering. I don't think anyone really noticed to be honest, still bugs me though! Although it was a bit of a let down to have a few lights not going, it pushed me into looking more in depth into Pixicles and now I'm committed into bringing more pixels into the display.

 

[Grozzy]

My new power distribution box with individual RCD's per power outlet really saved me a lot of hassle having things false tripping every day when turning the display on, only one false trip due to rain (240V commercial grade led strings are lovely sometimes) so that was a huge plus to 2022's setup

What didnt work as well, I had a few sets of lights decide to die on me at the very beginning, mainly icicles on hand rails for the path to our front door and some of the icicles around the guttering. I don't think anyone really noticed to be honest, still bugs me though! Although it was a bit of a let down to have a few lights not going, it pushed me into looking more in depth into Pixicles and now I'm committed into bringing more pixels into the display.

I still love the look of old school Christmas Lights, for me the beginning of the end was when they stopped making 3 wire lights and moved to two wire. Didn't know about Alan's board at the time, stuffed about with H-Bridges but ended up transitioning to pixels as the old lights died out.

 

[Conrad]

My new power distribution box with individual RCD's per power outlet really saved me a lot of hassle having things false tripping every day when turning the display on

So I’ve struggled with this this year too. From everything I can tell there’s no reason why my power should be tripping. Is there an easy way to tell if RCD’s will help me?

 

[Notenoughlights]

So I’ve struggled with this this year too. From everything I can tell there’s no reason why my power should be tripping. Is there an easy way to tell if RCD’s will help me?

My main problem was I had everything running through 2 different RCD's in 2021. in 2022 I had about 15 different RCD circuits instead.
If you don't have an RCD and a breaker keeps tripping, it may have gone lazy (tripping early) or you are overloading a circuit.

 

[djgra79]

I was happy with my megatree upgrade which was my main goal for 2022.
For those playing along at home, my original tree was the OG built by former blinky enthusiast Ruprect (build thread here FYI.) Whilst I only had this as a 200deg tree, its single pole design meant you had to lift the tree in and out of the ground sleeve fully loaded with pixels, which I struggled to do. So 2022 was the year of the winch!! Huge shout out to @burnt for all his fabrication help and also to @LawrenceDriveLights for his feedback and guidance on designs.
The tight@$$ in me wanted to try and reuse as many materials as possible to save on cost, but the reality was it would be easier and better for newer materials. The only orignal pieces to survive were the top ring which was modified to have star topper mounting, and the base ring which was cut in half so is now much easier to move/store.
Original design was 12v square nodes pushed into hole punched webbing/eyelets. They have all gone to a new home and I now have all new 5v PROMOTION! nodes from Ray pushed into heavy duty pixel strip from @Troy ELD (thanks also for the new star topper.) Not 1 failure so far this year. New controller box comprising of 2x Meanwell PSUs, @David_AVD fusing, fans & vents, and a 2nd hand F16v2 controller.
Whilst it now takes a little longer to put tpgether and take down, mainly due to threading the winch cable and attaching each strand with bolts/nuts, it is WAY easier to maintain if any nodes pop out/fail or if I want to lower the tree in extreme weather conditions.

That's what I liked about my 2022 display

 

[Adsy]

Overall, pretty happy with mine minus the random pixel blowouts with the garage matrix. Also happy with the move of the junior trees away from the not so mega tree. Lots of things to work on going forward such as, adding in an acquired Merry Christmas sign, changing house/ garage outlines from strip to pixels and most definitely working on my video skills as this was most disappointing

 

[Conrad]

My main problem was I had everything running through 2 different RCD's in 2021. in 2022 I had about 15 different RCD circuits instead.
If you don't have an RCD and a breaker keeps tripping, it may have gone lazy (tripping early) or you are overloading a circuit.

Once my show was all turned on I could run full white no problem. It was just that initial power turning on that would trip the breaker