Frequently Asked Questions
More About What We Do
How do I get started in lighting ?
How Do We Do It?
Well, it is definitely an all year hobby for a single month show. We usually start planning the next year when we reach a point in the current year when we know we can add no more to finish on time. We keep a list of wants and additions and then prioritize them based on want, time and budget. Every year we make some sort of addition or change or both…usually both. We’re constantly updating sequences, changing them out, adding old ones back into the fold that haven’t been shown for a few years and making them new. Always something to keep it fresh and new each year! Here are some details to help you build your own show and learn more. Of course, you can always Contact Us for any questions you may have.
Information and Support Resources
Aus Christmas Lighting Manual – This is a MUST read for anyone new to the hobby!
xLights Forum – Support for all things related to the xLights sequencing software…also General Support and Group Buys
xLights Wiki – More info from controllers to pixels to software
xLights Tutorials – A ton of videos and information from community members and the development team. Training and feature discussions
Falcon Christmas Forum – Support for all things related to the Falcon Player and Falcon Controllers…also General Support and Group Buys
Falcon Wiki – More info from controllers to pixels to software
Aus Christmas Lighting Forum – General support for the Christmas lighting hobby
Holidaycoro Blog – Good information to read up and learn
How does it all work together?
First you’ve gotta read, read and read! We’ve shared some links above that will provide hours of reading and videos. First step is planning. From the planning phase you’ve now decided how you want to layout your display. You’ll then take that planning information and start configuring it inside of the sequencer. Once the sequencer is configured it is time to start sequencing. What good is all this planning and sequencing without anything to show it off?!? You’ll need some hardware now. You’ll need something to play the sequences, some controllers to receive the player data and lights of course!
The following sections will cover how we do things though we will mention some other options and thoughts but there are just so many ways and options out there it’s impossible for us to talk about all of them here. This is why we provided the information above for you to read and make your own decisions, though if you follow what we did you’ll definitely have a great starting point with a lot of questions already answered for you. We’ll also cover props and tools we use. Hopefully you’ll find it helpful!
One last thing we want to mention around why we chose the sequencer (xLights), player (Falcon) and pixel controllers (Falcon) we did. The xLights and Falcon communities and developers are very close and work very closely together. As they continue to develop their products the more closely they work to integrate them. This makes for a very seamless product overall and is easy to manage and grow…and since we don’t plan on leaving this hobby any time soon that fits our roadmap!
What are the components involved ?
Sequencer
The sequencer is where you create the magic of your light and show display. Your sequencer not only controls the lights but all triggers for all elements in it. It works with its internal player or an external one to bring your display to life!
What we use
xLights – The program that allows you to to design and sequence your light display. Create models that you overlay on a picture of your lighting location. You’ll then place effects on these models and can get as detailed, down to a single pixel, or as broad, across an entire display, with the mapping of these effects! You can then play your sequence inside the sequencer to get a very good idea of what it will look like on your display and adjust as needed. You can do all this before you’ve purchased a single controller or light and see if what you’ve envisioned in your planning and design is really what you want. The possibilities of what you can do are almost endless and the developers are constantly updating it’s capabilities. It’s fairly amazing considering that it’s FREE! xLights is more than just a sequencer, it can also act as a player, but we do not use that feature. We depend on the Falcon Player mentioned here
Player
Falcon Player The player is what sends the sequences and triggers to the display elements. A lot of sequencers like xLights and Light-O-Rama have built in players. While those players are fine they do not offer the options of the Falcon Player mentioned below. This is what we use. Below we’ll talk about how we use the Falcon Player but it’s capabilities go well beyond how we use it and it only gets better as the developers are constantly working to improve it. There is no other player option out there that is this dynamic.
Falcon PlayerPlugins
Projector Control – Plugin used to control (On/Off/Input Setting) on our projector which runs our Virtual Santa display
Twilio SMS Control – Plugin used to allow visitors to text messages onto a matrix on the house and send greetings to friends and familyTwilio SMS Control Plugin Supplements
Twilio – Service used to provide the endpoint to send and receive SMS
Webpurify – Service used to provide profanity and key word filtering
Falcon Player Hardware – This is what we use but you have many options, some listed here
Raspberry Pi 3 – Computer that runs the Falcon Player
Power Supply – Power supply used to power the Raspberry Pi 3 as well as the USB attached devices
Sound Adapter – USB sound adapter that provides higher quality sound than what is built into the Raspberry Pi 3
USB Flash Drive – Used to store sequences and configuration for the Falcon Player
Micro SD Card – Used as the operating system storage
Case w/ Heat Sink – Case used to protect and mount the Raspberry Pi 3
Heat Sink – Used to keep the Raspberry Pi 3 cool under high processing load
Wireless Adapter – USB wireless adapter that provides better wireless connectivity than what is built into the Raspberry Pi 3
Audio
In order not to annoy your neighbors it’s good to send the audio over an FM transmitter rather than place speakers outside your house. You can still place speakers outside your house but I’m guessing your neighbors wouldn’t love that later at night.
EDM-LCD-RDS-EP FM Transmitter – One of the highest quality FM transmitters available. Warning that there is some assembly required. With the right antenna your FM transmission will be so clear and the stereo separation and sound will be amazing
Volume Control – It is suggested that you control the volume of the audio coming from the Raspberry Pi 3 to the EDM FM transmitter as it is usually a bit too hot and causes distortion in the transmitter
Audio Input Cable – The cable I used to run audio from my Raspberry Pi 3 to the EDM FM transmitter
Noise Suppressors – These will suppress any noise coming from surrounding electronics. Good practice to use at lease one on your audio input line
J-Pole Antenna – The quality of your antenna makes all the difference, especially when using a quality FM transmitter like the EDM. Just be careful in how much power you send from the EDM as using it with this antenna could yield some long distance results and you’ll end up with the FCC knocking on your door
Available FM frequencies – In order to make sure you’re able to provide the best quality audio as well as not irritate the local radio station it’s best to check out this site to see which frequencies are available for you to transmit on
Controllers
The controllers are the devices which receive DMX data from the player. In our case it comes from the Falcon Player and the Kulp 32a-B in the form of SACN E1.31 whic is DMX over Ethernet. To simplify this a bit we’re using a network connection, similar to your home internet connections, to send multiple DMX universes over an ethernet network using a single CAT5 cable. A DMX universe is a set of 512 channels used to define a level or intensity between 0 (Full OFF) and 255 (Full ON) / 8 bits. The controllers then map the DMX data to SPI / Pixel String or DMX outputs. We calculate the number and type(s) of controller(s) we use based on the number and type of lights in the Planning phase.
Falcon F16V3 Pixel Controller – We have one of these. One is on the roof as a pixel only controller for our MegaTree and some roof elements . We send E1.31 data to this device from our Falcon Player and it maps the DMX data to the SPI / Pixel outputs or DMX universes to DMX ports on the controller that the controllers listed below connect to. It’s primary function is as a pixel controller and what we use to control all of our pixel elements. Pixels are explained further here
The Kulp is my main controller and drives 75% of my show , it also plays coordinates and plays the music , and drives the main show.
What makes it special?
The 32 local ports provides more outputs than most controllers providing the ability to run a lot of pixels for dense props.
The 4 RJ45 ports provide additional output capabilities to allow for future expansions. All 4 of the ports can be configured to drive a ws2811 pixel differential receiver board (available from pixelcontroller.com ). Both the “Smart Receivers” and the normal receivers are supported.
The BeagleBone can be powered by the same power supply powering the pixels. There are jumpers on the board to select either 5V or 12V power. Alternatively, the BeagleBone can be powered by its own barrel connector if an on-board jumper is removed.
You WILL Also need:
ws2811 pixels
A good quality SD card with the latest FPP image installed on it. The latest FPP image can always be found at http://dankulp.com/bbb/
A BeagleBone Black, BeagleBone Black Wireless, BeagleBone Green, or SanCloud BeagleBone enhanced.
Lights
The lights are why we do it. There are all sorts of different types of light sizes and styles. Here are some that we use in our display, but there are many, many more. Check out the Vendor List, for even more ideas! We calculate the total number of lights we’re going to use in the Planning phase.
RGB Bullet Pixel Nodes – We have thousands, upon thousands of these attached to props, matrices and strips throughout our entire display. The RGB pixels we use consist of 3 LED’s, Red/Green/Blue, and a 2811 chip that receives the SPI data stream to control the different intensities of each LED. Each LED is capable of 256 color variations (8 bit) and all 3 LED’s in combination allow it to create 16,777,216 color variations (24 bit). Each pixel node chip receives its data stream and takes what is on top then passes on what is remaining and retransmits a fresh data stream to the next pixel node chip. Contrary to popular belief, these chips are not addressable. They receive their data serially and only take the next portion of the payload before passing on the rest of the data. The chips are not identifiable in any way from a controller or sequencer perspective…it’s all based on the order they get their data. You can read more about SPI in the link above and more about the different types of chips here
RGB House Floods – These are the RGB flood kits used to light up the house in colors with the music. You’ll also need a waterproof case to hold the kit
Audience Floods – These are 12V White LED Floods facing the audience and used to accent parts of the sequences in bright white
Snow Flood – This is the flood light we use to light up / highlight the snow
Strobe lights – We use these on parts of our house and in the grass to create a great accent effect with our sequences
C9 Stakes – What we use to hold our strobes in place in the grass
C9 Socket Strobe Light Kit – This is what we screw the strobe lights into and the wire we use to connect them back to our AC controllers
Power
It’s all about quality power. If you’ve been in this hobby as long as we have you’ll find that cheap power supplies are more headache than they’re worth and can cause all sorts of strange problems. Even worse, they can damage your equipment or shorten its life. Do yourself a favor and spend the money now for quality and save yourself the headaches later. It is a worthwhile investment. You should run 12 gauge wire, at a minimum, from your power supply to the distribution boards and controllers. Your needs will vary based on the number of lights and controllers you’re powering. Each light will have its own maximum voltage rating. We calculate our total power needs based on the number of lights in the Planning phase.
Mean Well RSP-500-12 – These are the power supplies we use to power all of our pixels and controllers
Power Supply Cord – The standard three prong cord connecting the AC portion of your power supply to the outlet
Power Distribution Boards – These boards allow us to breakout 8 power ports per 2 (4 ports each) on the Mean Well RSP-500-12 in order to provide a termination point for power injections. We install 2 of these Power Distribution Boards in each CG-1500 Case to provide 16 power injections per box
45Watt 12V Power Supply – This is another DC power supply that we use for smaller sets of items. We use them to power our House Floods
Power Injection T’s – These are what we use to inject power about every 100 pixels or so. Your injection will depend on the type of lights and voltage you’re using. Power injection is used to maintain a minimum voltage level to all of your lights otherwise your light will begin to dim or stop working all together. Please read this page on Power Injection for more info. The one portion of that page we don’t agree with is the statement regarding not letting +V from different power supplies connect at any point. While we understand it is in there as a best practice to keep those of us whom are not power experts out of trouble…it isn’t necessary if injection is done at the right point. Essentially, you cannot connect the +V from different power supplies directly to each other as they need balancing resistors in order to prevent the power supplies from being damaged by continuously trying to balance themselves. Since we inject about every 100 pixels, the pixels themselves act as balancing resistors preventing damage to the power supplies…as stated here by AussiePhil. We’ve been running this way for years without issue. You can read more about what AussiePhil states about it and the entire article here. We’ve spoken with him directly and he knows what he’s talking about…and it’s served us well!
Power Box – We had a 50AMP circuit run just for our show. This box connects directly to it and splits out 6 different 20AMP L5-20R’s to connect to
3 Way Power Adapters – These L5-20P’s connect to the power box mentioned above to break out our power into 3 way 5-15R’s
Wire and Cable
Depending on the size of your display you’re likely going to need a lot of wire and cable. This will be used for providing connectivity to and in between your light strings, for running power and power injection and for data. There are a number of different wire and cable options to choose from and there isn’t a one size fits all for everyone. Some cables are also harder to work with than others. Many different choices and colors. Below are what we’ve chosen to work with and it’s a fairly standard choice amongst others in the lighting hobby. We calculate our total wire needs based on our display layout of props and controllers in the Planning phase.
Cat5e Ethernet Cable – This is the cable we use to run our DMX connections from our controllers to DMX devices. This is also the cable we use to run our ethernet connections carrying our E1.31 (DMX over Ethernet) data stream as well as any ethernet connectivity between controllers, ethernet switches and the Raspberry Pi running the Falcon Player for our show
RJ-45 Plugs – These are the plugs we use to crimp on to the ends of the cable listed above. These plugs will crimp on to either solid or stranded Cat5e and work very well
18 AWG Wire – We like the 18 gauge wire as it isn’t too thick, it’s easy to manage, and carries the signal strong and a decent distance. We buy it in two versions, the 18/4 version to carry data, power (+/-) and clock (if you need it) and the 18/2 version purely for power (+/-) injection. You can find both options selectable for purchase here. This isn’t the cheapest but it isn’t the most expensive either…this is actually competitively priced even with the cheaper wire options. We like to use the purest copper wire to provide the best connectivity. You can go with cheaper Copper Clad Aluminum (CCA) but you’ll get shorter effective distance. So in the end the extra few bucks is worth it!
10 AWG Wire – We use this for connecting to our controllers and power distribution units from our power supplies. We use two colors, Red Silicon 10 Gauge Wire and Black Silicon 10 Gauge Wire. We use the silicon wire because it is softer and much easier to manage!
SPT1 Wire (Need to find the link from christmastlightshow.com) – This is the wire we use for all of our AC elements to run back to our AC controller
SPT1 Male Plug – Used to terminate the cables we make with the SPT1 wire
SPT1 Female Plug – Used to terminate the cables we make with the SPT1 wire
Props
The props are used to add to the overall effect of the show. There are many different types of props we use and we’ll list them all out here.
Projector – Viewsonic projector we use for our Virtual Santa. This projector provides the right amount of brightness and quality of picture to make Santa come to life!
Additional hardware connected to the Raspberry Pi for the Projector Control plugin used by the Falcon Player
USB to Serial – Used to connect the USB port on the Raspberry Pi to the serial port on the Projector
Null Modem Serial Adapter – Not all projectors need this but essentially this flips the pins to receive the serial data from the Falcon Player Projector Control plugin as our projector is not made to receive data from a Raspberry Pi
Virtual Santa Videos – These are the HD videos we use for our Virtual Santa
Snow Machine
Snowfall Box Machine – Great snow machines that provide quality falling snow. The kids AND adults love it!
How To Make Snow Fluid – Don’t pay for their fluid, it’s not worth it and it’s NOT going to damage your snow machine no matter what they try to make you believe. We’ve been doing this for many years now without a single issue. We’ve never used their fluid, not even the bottles that came with the machine and it’s produced many years of quality snow!
Relay Switch – The amperage required to run the snow machine is well beyond what you should be running off of any one output of the AC controller. In our case it’s the Light-O-Rama CTB16PC AC Voltage Controller. In order to get around this we use a relay switch which is connected to the AC controller and this essentially acts as an on/off switch for the snow machine. We then send DMX commands to the AC controller telling it when to turn the relay switch on or off for the snow machine
Snowflakes – We have these snowflakes all over our display and they make a great addition
Bethlehem Star – This is on top of our house and plays well into the show as a star effect in different parts of the show
Matrix Net – We use these for our roof matrix, the Twilio SMS matrix, and the bushes
Mounting Strips – We use these for our window outlines as well as our roof and gutter outlines
Megatree Strips – We use these strips to hold the RGB pixels that make up our 16 string megatree, 200 pixels per, 20 foot megatree
Megatree Roll – Similar to the megatree strips above. This is just a roll that you can cut to your own size needs and not have to splice multiple strips together or ever waste any extra. There are different roll sizes to choose from
MISR Clips – These clips are used to strengthen the ends of your megatree strips so that you can provide the tension needed while not risking damage to the strip
Arches – We use these in the front of our yard and they make perfect arches
Candy Canes – We use these along the side of our grass next to the arches to complete a sort of outline of the grass
RGB Tune To Sign – This is the sign we use to inform our viewers of the FM frequency we’re transmitting our audio for the show on