My First Project

Oh yes - definitely buy enough for you immediate need AND spares for future. The inconsistency of supply (goods not quite the same between batches) is the one issue with China (or eBay) purchases.
 
Back to the subject of our garage door. It's a double tilt panel garage door which we use several times a day to get the car in and out. So we can't really attach anything to it. One suggestion was to run a wire across the top of the door (not actually attached to the door) and buy two of these sets from Dick Smith. Then we could use them just like a set of curtains. Pull them to the sides during the day and spread them out across the garage door at night.

What do you guys think? What do other people do on their garage doors? Has anyone used these lights before and if so, will they be controllable with AVD's DC48?
 
MarcD said:
Back to the subject of our garage door. It's a double tilt panel garage door which we use several times a day to get the car in and out. So we can't really attach anything to it. One suggestion was to run a wire across the top of the door (not actually attached to the door) and buy two of these sets from Dick Smith. Then we could use them just like a set of curtains. Pull them to the sides during the day and spread them out across the garage door at night.

What do you guys think? What do other people do on their garage doors? Has anyone used these lights before and if so, will they be controllable with AVD's DC48?
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I had single colour (white LED) curtains running across the front of my house last year (sourced in custom sizes from mysolarled)- and they did dangle down a bit past the top of the garage door (but still enough space to get the car under).

Biggest problem I had was that they tangle very easily - so I ended up needing to run a wire along the bottom and cable tie each string to the wire. Overall, they were a bit too much work for me so I'm not going to use these curtains this year.

But at 1.8m you may not have the same issues (mine were 4m long)

I would also like to have something to fill the empty spot where my garage door is - I did think about getting 3-4 LED trees and putting them there, but that would require me moving them every time I drove somewhere, which would be frustrating.

What about sticking something to the garage door itself - have you checked how much clearance you have at the top when the door opens?
 
I've modified various sets of lights to use on DC controllers. How easily modified a particular set will be is almost impossible to tell without getting one and doing some technical detective work.
 
I'm thinking about getting something like this on my garage door & lighting it with a couple of floods sitting on the side of the drive so that I can still get both cars in the garage. Although with my budget it may be a 2013 fixture.
 
We did try to set the laser up pointing at the garage door last year, but it's a dark brown woodgrain pattern so you couldn't see it. We turned it around to point to the driveway in the end, but most people didn't even notice it.

The other problem we have at our place is that it's never dark enough. There's a street light right outside. It's so bright you could easily read by it. Contemplating ringing the council and asking if they'd mind turning it off ofr December. Not liking my chances.
 
MarcD said:
We did try to set the laser up pointing at the garage door last year, but it's a dark brown woodgrain pattern so you couldn't see it. We turned it around to point to the driveway in the end, but most people didn't even notice it.

The other problem we have at our place is that it's never dark enough. There's a street light right outside. It's so bright you could easily read by it. Contemplating ringing the council and asking if they'd mind turning it off ofr December. Not liking my chances.
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I wonder if you can use that laser to point at the light sensor for the street lights.
 
ɟɐsʇǝppʎ said:
I wonder if you can use that laser to point at the light sensor for the street lights.
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That gives me a bit of an idea with the street light in front of my place. They replaced it with a newer brighter one a couple of months ago, and although I think my lights will be still look okay, getting it turned off would be good.. The new one has it's own sensor on it (the old one was centrally switched via a separate lighting circuit)

I wouldn't want to run a cable up there, but I wonder about dismantling a solar powered LED light and fixing some magnets to it, and get that up near the sensor.... hmmmm...
 
A lot of the newer poles have their own circuit breaker which is behind a cover, so if its one of those then you may be able to do the sly and turn it off during your show and turn it back on after the show is finished, this way you still maitain street lighting when the show isnt running.
 
ɟɐsʇǝppʎ said:
A lot of the newer poles have their own circuit breaker which is behind a cover, so if its one of those then you may be able to do the sly and turn it off during your show and turn it back on after the show is finished, this way you still maitain street lighting when the show isnt running.
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Unfortunately, mine is an old pole, just with a new light put up on it.. (we're in a pretty old area - no underground power)
 
MarcD said:
Back to the subject of our garage door. It's a double tilt panel garage door which we use several times a day to get the car in and out. So we can't really attach anything to it. One suggestion was to run a wire across the top of the door (not actually attached to the door) and buy two of these sets from Dick Smith. Then we could use them just like a set of curtains. Pull them to the sides during the day and spread them out across the garage door at night.

What do you guys think? What do other people do on their garage doors? Has anyone used these lights before and if so, will they be controllable with AVD's DC48?
Click to expand...

How about a garage door cover from http://www.mydoordecor.com/Pages/Christmas.aspx
 
Planning update:

We came up with a solution to fixing lights to the rendered brick on the pillars. We're going to drill holes in the corners and insert grey wall plugs (the walls are beige). Then we'll insert screws into the wall plugs and run thin wire between the screws. The wire can be made nice and tight. Then we attach the light strings to the wire with cable ties. After Christmas, we remove the lights, wire and screws and we just left with barely visible wall plugs.

For the aluminum window frames, which are really dark in colour, we'll just tape the lights on using short lengths of black cloth tape.

I'm in the process of building a database (because that's what I do) which we can access on the iPad. It will store details about each light string. This includes a unique number for each string. It's location and length as well as which channel or channels it occupies on the controller. It will also be linked to an image of the house so I can click on any section and view the details. Each light string and lead wire will be numbered to match the database to make it easier next year.

Hopefully, we'll be able to spend some time on the weekend measuring up. Then we can place the order with AVD for the controller and stuff. I want to buy this stuff asap so we can start testing and configuring.

I think we've decided to buy LightShow Pro Intro version which is currently $49 US. We think this may be enough for now based on the feature list on the website. I'm happy to hear from anyone who thinks it would be worth spending the extra to get the Basic version for $99 US.

Once we buy everything, I may offer a slab of beer or equivalent for someone local to come over and give us a basic tutorial to give us a kickstart. Any volunteers?
 
Good luck getting a reply from the door decor mob. I've sent 3 emails to them (to 2 separate email addresses) and had 2 go unanswered and the 3rd got bounced due to the email address no longer being in use. The minister for finance has told me that she approves of us getting some of these but I can't get hold of the supplier :(
 
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