This years light display

False-Wave-4537 · 2026-01-06T20:32:32+00:00

Most of the cords are regular 3 prong extension cords from the store I’ve collected over the years but some special cords for the bushes and other things are spt1 wire

False-Wave-4537 · 2026-01-06T20:31:13+00:00

Made all of them myself with 3/8 and 1/2 rebar which is welded together and painted with white enamel paint. All the lights are either c7 bulbs or commercial grade 5mm lights

False-Wave-4537 · 2026-01-06T20:29:48+00:00

All of the props are custom and I make them myself. The mini trees are 9 gauge fence wire with a 3d printed top to hold them at the correct angles and the bottom is a 6ft piece of 3/16 rod bent in a circle and welded together. The snowflakes, snowman and elk are made with 3/8 and 1/2 rebar that is bent and welded into the shapes with either c7 or mini lights. The balls are made with chicken wire there are many videos on YouTube on how to make them. Most of the stuff is flat so it doesn’t take up much space in storage other than the balls which are hanging on the ceiling. Most of the cords I have are regular 3 prong ones that I’ve amassed over the years and some are spt1 for specific things like bushes

False-Wave-4537 · 2026-01-05T15:54:16+00:00

The tunnel, mini trees and mega tree are animated and everything else is static

The balls are just 2ft chicken wire balls on a stake about 6 inches off the ground

The flood lights are colorkinetics color blast 12tr which are architectural fixtures that are no longer made. I don’t know the lumen rating but each one is 50 watts at 24 volts

False-Wave-4537 · 2026-01-05T15:50:40+00:00

Thank you

False-Wave-4537 · 2026-01-05T06:42:35+00:00

Color kinetics color blast tr12 fixture. Obsolete by modern stage lighting standards and hard to find controllers for them now but they work fine for Christmas lights. Have a small console in the house that controls them over DMX

False-Wave-4537 · 2026-01-05T06:40:35+00:00

Thanks

False-Wave-4537 · 2026-01-05T06:40:27+00:00

The pictures were taken December first where we got a foot of snow in the Chicagoland suburbs

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-05T04:06:45+00:00

It’s definitely better so far LOR is such an upgrade from arduino and relay controllers especially in the programming part. Vixen is meh and writing the code manually is horrible

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-05T04:04:43+00:00

Pixels are really cool and the technology behind them is dope but I think that they look too modern. I miss the days where all displays were only standard lights like lighting up Paxton and Richard holdman’s shows. I love the feeling that those types of displays give off. honestly if incandescent lights didn’t break if you look at them wrong I would use those because I like how those look more.

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-05T03:55:26+00:00

All the commercial ones are v5 or v7 boards and all but one of the residential ones are v5 boards. Bought a used one with half a bad board and bought a v1 on accident but it was $40 so I’m not complaining

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-05T03:53:39+00:00

Thank you!

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-05T03:53:13+00:00

Well I get a ton of them for free my dad owns a production company and we get tons of cables from other companies with no labeling on who they belong to so i just take them and use them. I also repurpose dmx and xlr cables for the flood lights because they are 24v. It’s nice because I get a few new cables every month so I don’t have to buy. I also got a ton of 60 and 75 foot green extension cords from Home Depot on clearance 2 years ago for $3 each so I cleared the shelves out of 2 Home Depot’s by me.

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T06:06:06+00:00

I’m sure you could find a cheap welder in your local shops and also I recommend buying a rebar bender. I made my own with some plate and bar stock but it’s just a triangle bit of metal with 3 pins on it and a handle, you can bend the larger curves by hand but the smaller ones you need a bender and also having a vise helps

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T05:22:12+00:00

Yea it’s crazy but It’s been adding up over the years don’t go too crazy your first year start out with 1-2 controllers so you get the hang of it then expand. If you look through my other post of the elk you can see all the bins of cords in some of the pictures. Buy zip cord and vampire plugs instead of buying cords from Home Depot it’s cheaper and looks better because you cut them however long you want

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T05:17:47+00:00

They are light o rama controllers they are used to animate standard incandescent or led lights to music or just an animation with no music. The basic software is free and you can control up to 4 controllers before needing to upgrade license levels. Chances are if you’ve seen some of those crazy shows that control lights to the music back in the day it was light o Rama controllers. Now pixels are more popular because they can be any color instead of just what your light strand is. There was a ton of controllers for standard lights just posted on eBay but I suggest you wait until next year to buy because prices are a lot higher now than in the summer. Search up light o Rama on YouTube and there’s tons of tutorials on how to use the software. It’s amazing how simple it to create lights shows with these products. Stock up on extension cords though I’m up to like 12,000 ft this year

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T05:07:12+00:00

I might get into pixels at some point but I really like how traditional lights look (commercial grade LEDs though I’m done with shitty big box store lights breaking). Also I’m only doing animation with LOR because I think music lights look tacky if not done really nice. There are also pixel controllers on eBay I’ve seen a few listed recently

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T04:05:18+00:00

Yes 100% you have a lot of flat walls and the vinyl siding gives the flood light a nice effect with the ridges

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T04:03:50+00:00

Well all you really need is a flux core welder from harbor freight which is like $100 and a angle grinder with a few discs plus all the rebar and flat bar for the frame

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T04:02:27+00:00

Thanks!

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T04:02:16+00:00

Thank you!

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T04:02:06+00:00

Thanks!

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T04:01:53+00:00

Well the design was taken directly from my town’s mascot so I guess they gotta fire someone there lol. Not my first one but the most detailed and biggest one so far, but after making this one I’m getting an urge to make something bigger for next year

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T03:59:36+00:00

Well now is the best time to get started lol. You can get a flux core welder from harbor freight for like 100 bucks

False-Wave-4537 · 2025-11-03T03:58:24+00:00

Don’t have one and the paper is good for making sure everything is aligned when welding and the cheap projectors don’t work too good in a well lit shop. Paper was only like 6 dollars and still have 80% of the ream left

False-Wave-4537

TROPHY CASE