I have created a shopping list for the items to make the proposed display for 2016. I have left out the coro snowflakes and a couple other things that I do not expect to see in a pre-sale, plus I may want to construct some stuff myself instead of purchasing prefab items.
This setup should include most items to make a shorter Megatree, six arches built similar to Matt Johnson’s arches, two 4 foot trees, and the pixels for the snowflakes.
The preliminary list for holidaycoro.com is:
Megatree (9 outputs) – ~240 degree – (18x) 36w / 3a
900 Pixel – 8mm/12mm Square 12V – 50 per (18 units @ 17.49)
9 Extensions – 3 conductor – 10 ft – male/female (10 units @ 3.19 – min is 10)
Pixel Strips & mount gear
Megatree topper QT2
Mini Trees (4 outputs) – 270 degree – (8x) 27w / 2.268
400 pixel – 8mm/12mm bullet 12V – 50 per – 3″ black (8 units @ 16.75)
Coro Flakes (3 outputs) – (3x) 36w / 3a
150 pixel – 8mm/12mm Square 12V – 50 per (3 units @ 17.49)
Continue reading RGB Pixel Cost for 2016 →
After giving this some thought and talking with the family (more than I have been about this for the last few weeks), I think we are looking at well under $2000 in costs. More likely in the $1600 range. It would be $1400 but I am looking to have a backup controller.
With selling off old equipment (2 LOR residential units and a mp3 director), that should take a decent chunk out of the total. Add on dumping all the incan and led strings for maybe $1 each to locals and I think the net cost would be just over $1000.
So, with all that said, I ordered 2 Falcon F16v2 Pixel Controllers w/ mounting plates for about $425 and we are “doing this”!
Off to read more forums and wait for the holidaycoro pre-sale to pick up most of the other stuff!
I have used my shopping list to order $565.11 worth of items from holidaycoro.com. This is their pre-sale #1 that should be shipping out in February.
I picked up:
- Pixel strips for the arches (5 meters each, to be cut in 1/2, so 3 for 6 arches)
- Two 350w 12v power supplies (with cords)
- 25 pixnode stripes (so I have some extra for splicing and playing)
- 2 enclosures, one for inside and one for outside
- A ton of waterproof connectors (although I needed 20 of one type and they only had 19 left)
- Only 10 sets of bullet pixels (I waited too long and the square nodes for the megatree sold out… gotta wait for another presale)
- 200 feet of 3 conductor cable (checked on amazon and didn’t really see a better deal) – although I may not need it with the rolls of SPT1 i have in the garage.
- Waterproof labels, 2 sets, because why not…
- EasyPix Controller – was unplanned but I thought it would be nice to have a quick way to test pixels without firing up more stuff on the bench and I saw someone else mention using it for this purpose.
I was trying to get this order in a quickly as possible before something else ran out of stock (like the waterproof connectors and the square pixels). I will have to wait for the next presale to grab more pixels and the tree topper stuff.
Time for the second pre-sale purchase from Holidaycoro.com. I was looking to pick up remaining items for the megatree as I missed out on the square pixels during the last pre-sale. I also needed a topper mounting system and some strain relief clips for the PixNode strips that will be possibly anchored to the ground with huge nails. Not sure if I will use it, but I also grabbed a center post load spreader, although I will likely drill through the middle and drive a piece of rebar down to stop any movement if it lifts at all.
Order is below:
Continue reading More pre-sale from holidaycoro →
Ok, obviously I was procrastinating or this would not have happened. Holidaycoro ended the second pre-sale on Feb 14th at midnight CST and I kept putting it off as I needed to do the layout in xLights first for the last few things I wanted this year. Of course, it was a long day and even at about 10pm EST I thought… “no problem, I will take care of it shortly”. After all, zombies were everywhere (playing on the Tivo) from The Walking Dead episode that had just finished airing. After that I just had to watch Talking Dead, as “I still have time”.
Next thing I knew, it was 4am and I was on the couch with no order having been made. Oh well. I will do the layout this week and look for another sale in the future.
A journey into sight and sound (with RGB now)
