Kitmans 2016 Light show

[Kitman]

Well Lights all went up last night and ran my show for the first time for everyone to see.


Few teething problems to start with, for some reason the first run through all of the sequences were a bit laggy and didn't seem to sync up properly, there were sections where the lights sped through the sequence to catch up and even parts of my mega tree weren't behaving and showing what they were meant to. Even the FPPD stopped on my master before the whole playlist finished.


After a full play through the whole thing then worked flawlessly, no skips no jumps nothing out of place, was all very weird but very satisfying. Will post some pictures and videos soon, will record everything tonight now that I am less stressed hahaha.


Thanks everyone for helping me make this possible, information on these forms have helped me to make everyone happy with my light display.

 

[Kitman]

First photo of my display up and running, got a video need to edit in the audio will take more video soon.

 

[the grinch]

Well done mate great stuff looking good . I also need to post pics and some vids but just been lazy at moment good to relax when things are finally up and running lol and unfortunate pics and videos very hard to capture how cool it is hey . Will try to come and see one night ifwe can escape as I believes we arent too far away from eachother im at angle vale . But yes once well done mate

 

[Kitman]

Yeah it sure is a re-leaf when all of the years hard work pays off and you can sit back and enjoy what you have built and see everyone else enjoy it also.


Using the Raspberry Pi's to run my entire show has made my life so easy. each box has a raspberry pi so 5 in total which means just a power cable runs to each element, so my Mega tree just has a power cable to it and my sleigh 1 power cable and my pixicles I have 2 control boxes each with a power cable each. Planning on updating the reindeer for next year as each one has a 240v plug which is 9 cables such a hassle setting them up to run from 1 controller will save me so much wiring.


Yes I will need to come have a look at yours also. I am in Munno Para so just down the road from Angle Vale, will be good to see how all of yours is set up

 

[Kitman]

Well managed to record a video and edit the audio and upload to youtube. Not the best quality video as the lights were just too bright, need to record a little earlier in the night when a little more day light so hopefully it isn't as washed out



View: http://youtu.be/_UCfy3NZX60

 

[logandc99]

Nice display. The icicles look fantastic on your house. As for the little guy/girl getting their groove on too the display in the foreground - now that's what this hobby is all about - absolute joy of Christmas. Well done

 

[Kitman]

Thanks Logan. Those icicles were such a pain trying to get the ones I wanted, 4 deliveries before I got the usable amount and style I wanted hahahaha but the result is awesome.


This video shows off what can be achieved with the icicles with hours and hours of work in Vixen regretted going down this path when I was about 10 hours in but the finished product is so worth it.



View: https://youtu.be/Ol-pxzzN9J4

 

[scamper]

Nice work.
I see what you mean with the icicles. Very well done.
I have been too lazy this year to get that involved, tending to use generic chase, fade or nutcracker effects as I was so late with setup. (I am still throwing together sequences)

 

[Kitman]

Yeah like I said regretted it when I was working on it. Initially was going to do the whole song with the icicles in time with the chords of piano but just decided I couldn't waste the endless hours I would need to have it the way I wanted so added fillers lol.


Certainly wouldn't have managed the display without all of the fine members of this forum.

 

[logandc99]

Great work on the icicles in the Lukas Graham song ( great song too). Personally I really liked the effects (your fillers) in between the piano style effect. I see the biggest littlest fan features again in the vid [emoji1]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kitman]

hahaha yeah he features in all the videos I have taken so far lol.


Yes the filler effect I thought came out really quite well. Trial and error really to see what looks good and what doesn't so I can use those for next year on what ever songs I choose. Might even just make some test sequences with different effects and trial them before it all comes down next year so I know what works and what doesn't


Still don't know if I should incorporate the sleigh into the sequences or just leave it lit up static, again need to do some tests just really hard to see it in the videos and also really hard to put it into the display preview in vixen, the one part of Vixen I struggle with.

 

[Kitman]

So have got all of my box temperature stuff setup and made a page to display all of them on the one page, refreshes every 60 seconds so I can see from my PC.


Next step is to have it viewable from external to my network and have it send through a report if any of the temp sensors spikes above a certain threshold. Think it's pretty good for a work in progress.

 

[Thommo]

Hey, Stopped by your lights tonight. Looks great. The icicles are great. The sleigh looks fantastic. Couldn't stop looking at, so I'd say use it a bit more. Didn't realise it was pixel until it went all blue.

 

[djgra79]

Nice looking display and great sequencing! I've been thinking about icicles too as my display being now all pixels looks a little less traditional. Do you have the link to the ones you used, and why you wanted these specific ones? Pros cons etc?

 

[Kitman]

Hey, Stopped by your lights tonight. Looks great. The icicles are great. The sleigh looks fantastic. Couldn't stop looking at, so I'd say use it a bit more. Didn't realise it was pixel until it went all blue.

Thanks Thommo, should have come up to say hi, depending on what time it was, hopefully not during the time the tree went on a wonder for no reason lol the raspberry pi for the tree just decided to stop receiving data from the master, quick restart and all good.


Yeah the sleigh isn't fully pixels yet, the outline is rope light due to the fact the pixel strip I was going to use didn't want to work with my controllers so had to improvise, however Jim over at sandevices released an update the weekend I put my show up that fixed that sadly a little too late but next year, also plan on turning the reindeer full pixels next year so I can turn them on and off and sequence Rudolf the red nose reindeer and have each one come on when their name is called would look good.


Still not sure how to include the sleigh need to make some sample sequences to see.


Thanks for checking it out, good to get feedback from other members as well as the neighbours.