Planning for 2009

Well, we are in the final week of the 2008 display and it's time to think about next season. I am thinking of adding a couple of elements to the show next season.

The first element will be LPG flame projectors. I may be making these myself or ordering them a source in China.

Here's an example of what I am talking about:

Now that the big tree is reliable (rebuilt it for this season from steel tubing) it's time to think of ways to take it to the next level. One thing I am considering is a layer of individually controllable LED modules so I can 'project' simple video elements on the surface of the tree. Here's a video from someone who is experimenting with this this year..

The other things I am planning to do are focused on improving existing elements of the show or generally making it easier to set up the display.

1. Create 'wiring harnesses' as I take the display down this year. This should cut a little time from setup next season.

2. Definitely will need more foggers next season and better weather/temperature control for the lasers...

3. Need to put MUCH more time into my sequencing next season to give the show much more of cohesive feel and much more professional and polished.

Keeping the Lasers Warm

Well, the lasers haven't debuted in this season's display yet due to a complication I should have foreseen. One of the things about Laser Diodes is that they lose a lot of power when the operating temperature falls below design specs. That means about 50 degrees fahrenheit...

So... I built some insulated cases for them. The larger one is my RGB laser and the two smaller ones are the green lasers.

The boxes are not the prettiest thing, but in 17 degree temperature last night, they stayed a toasty 60 degrees inside. They are made from 1x3 stock and luan, with foam insulation. The window is special anti-reflective glass so as not to lose laser power.

Inside are small enclosure heaters I picked up on eBay.. they have a built in thermistor and will not exceed 65 degrees.

Wires, Wires and more Wires

I haven't posted any setup updates since last week, but I have been working all day every day. Most of my work lately has been in wiring... connecting all of the individual elements of the show to the LightORama controllers that make them dance to the music.

For example, controller 1 is located on the roof and controls 15 snowflakes on the front of the house and the nativity set in the side yard. (each controller has 16 channels or circuits than can turn on and off, fade, shimmer, twinkle, etc.)

Controller 2 controls the lights in the garland on the house (5 colors) the lights on the shrubs (5 colors) and the lights on the wreath/video screen (5 colors). Channel 16 activates the strobes spread throughout the display. You can also see the projector in the window that powers the video screen. That big lens is a short throw lens so the wreath/video screen can stay close to the house.








Controllers 3, 4 and 5 control the large tree and the medium trees in the front yard, the big tree has four sections with five colors each (20 channels) the three sided star (3 channels) and the Sunray fixture in the center of the star (1 channel). I also used a spare channel to turn the nativity star on and off separately from the rest of the figures.












Controller 6 controls the 16 candy canes along the front of the display.

And now for the controller hog, the new bellagio fountain..controllers 7,8,9 and 10 control the leaping lights arches and the side jets of the fountain. (controllers 11,12,13,14,15,16 handle the 12 jets in the center of the fountain). This beast uses 160 channels all together.

Still setting up

A couple of projects tonight; stands for the controllers and some snowflakes that will be on the house.

First, I built some simple stands to keep the controllers up off the ground so the connections won't be on the wet ground. Just treated 2x6's... pretty simple..





Then it was on to the snowflakes. After scouring the stores last year after Christmas I was still 8 snowflakes short to do the front of the house as I was planning. So, I had Gregg Jones weld some up for me. There were 4 36" flakes and four smaller ones.



Got those all finished and ready to go.


Ok, time to catch some shuteye.

Setup Continues

Well, last evening we managed to get the star installed on the big tree. It was a little scary, but went fine.



It doesn't look as huge on top of the 22 foot tree as it did sitting on the patio.



I also got a good start on setting up the mini Bellagio fountain display. I still have to install the tee's on the tops of the circular portion and tie them together, then install the other leaping lights on the backside, then tons of wiring to do.

2008 Setup Begins!

2008 Setup Begins!!

Getting started outside... just arrived with the stuff from off-site storage.




Had a pretty good day, the Nativity scene is set up and we got the tree all together except for the star on top. We'll finish that up tomorrow night and get the fountain standing up as well.

Here are some shots of putting the tree together. You can see the Nativity scene in the background.








I had some really great help today, thanks so much to Shawn (on the tree) and Sam (on the ground).



Gary Birch was there to help out too.. he did a Top Notch job :)

89.9 The Elf is back on the air!

Tonight, 89.9FM The Elf returned to the airwaves. If you live within a few miles of Seymour Lights, tune your radio to 89.9FM for commercial free Christmas music. The current song playing will displayed at the top of the page at SeymourLights.com

The Lights will turn on Thanksgiving Night, come see us again this year

New Tree Topper Part II

I took a quick picture and video of the new tree topper after dark this evening. I really think it's going to look cool!

Finished new z-tree star.

Well, Fear Fair is closed and it's time to get Seymour Lights up and going. This weekend I finished up the star for the top of the 22' tree. I had to incorporate the SunRay into it somehow and I wanted to go to a three section star that I could animate to create a spinning effect. So, I gathered up some thin wall 3/4" tubing, some 1/4" cold roll in six foot lengths and this is how it came out. It looks massive with just the top section of the tree, but I think it won't be quite so cartoonishly large when it's 20+ feet in the air.





Here it is painted and with ropelight installed on the three star segments.



And finally, with the Sunray fixture installed... I will probably never turn the star segments and Sunray on at the same time, I just plugged everything in to check it out.



Oh well, got to get my nose back to the grindstone, the days are ticking away until lights on.

Z Tree version 2.0

Last year, a combination of cold weather and unusually stiff December winds caused the collapse of 20' my pvc z-tree.





I had included more than twice the standard number of braces, etc. but the brittleness of the pvc and the wind proved to be way too much for it.

I certainly don't want to go through that again, so this year's version is constructed of steel tubing. It's heavy, but I don't think it will be blowing down again. I also reconstructed my pvc video screen/wreath as it didn't fare much better.

Last weekend was the test fitting to make sure all the bolt holes lined up, etc. It is made to fit around a fountain in my front yard and I will be anchoring some eye hooks into the concrete pad the fountain sits on and using ratched straps to hold the tree in place. I don't intend to use external anchor lines this season, as the weight of the tree should be enough along with the internal anchors.











The tray is for the three snow machines that will live there during the season.




There's the wreath. Still have to add a mounting system to hold it upright.




All lined up, just needs garland and lights. Note the square section in the center of the bottom sections to clear the fountain. I am considering making some sort of 'panels' using chicken wire to hold the garland and lights so I can assemble the tree as just a frame then add that once it's up.. still thinking about that one.

Oh well, got to hammer on getting the haunted house completed and open the next couple of weeks, then I can get back to this project.

Dance, Dance, Dance

Today I finished the dancing guy for this year's display. This fellow will come on during one of the more rock and roll portions of the show and dance to the music.

It's just a wood frame with chicken wire, and rope light attached to that.


He has six moves. The final two look a little weird, but I think when he's computer controlled and just doing each move for milliseconds, it should be just fine.

Huge Auction Haul

The Ace Hardware store in nearby North Vernon, Indiana had a bankruptcy auction this past Friday and it was a Christmas decorations bonanza. Being the only decorating fanatic there in June, I was pretty much unopposed on the bidding.

Most of the items still had the price tags attached. I spent right around $120 and when I added up just the items with the tags attached, I had $3470 in merchandise. Not sure what I will do with all of this stuff, but what a haul!



A couple shots of the complete haul.


Tons of garland to be used on the rebuilt z-tree this season!


This huge wreath was one thing I really had my eye on. It breaks down into four pieces and is over six feet across. It had $289 on the price tag... I paid $15 :)


Paid $4 for this tree

I didn't bother fluffing any of the trees and such out for the inventory pics, but you get the idea..


Got three of these palm trees for $5, they were labeled $112.99 each!

Three of these


Lots of lights, quite a few are LED!



Set on wrapping paper for the next 100 years


Handy light reels


lots of miscellaneous stockings and santa hats


39 of these bows labeled $1.99 each.. .gave two dollars!


Cinammon scented pine cones.. who knows, they were mixed in on a whole section of shelf that I bought


More Garland, some 25' lengths and some 9' in boxes...



Couple of 24" wreaths