Technical Details
I often get asked about what it takes to make my light show. Hopefully, this page will provide some insights into how it all works. There are several different components to making a complex light show. To get started, the lights used in my show are not the run-of-the-mill Christmas lights that you can purchase at the big box stores around the holidays. My show uses what are known as smart pixels in the hobby. Each light is a 12 mm bulb that consists of a integrated circuit, a red LED, a blue LED, and a green LED (aka RGB pixels). This allows each light to be individually controllable and can display any color. These types of lights are run by DC power (not the standard AC power used by traditional Christmas lights); therefore, DC power supplies are required to power the lights. Also, these lights do not "light up" simply by applying power to them -- they require a control signal to be sent to each light. Specialized controllers are required to generate and transmit these control signals to the pixels. Finally, a control center is required to orchestrate the show. The control center consists of a master control computer (in my case, a Raspberry Pi running specialized software know as FPP), a FM transmitter used to broadcast the music to vehicles, and networking gear to distribute the light control signals to all of the individual pixel controllers.
In addition to all of the hardware mentioned above, song sequences must be created. These "sequences" define the state of each individual light (color and intensity) in the show for every interval in a song (typically either 25 millisecond or 50 millisecond intervals). While the process of sequencing a song has greatly improved in the years that I've been doing my light show, it still requires a significant investment in time. For every minute of a song, I typically spend 2-3 hours sequencing the song -- sometimes longer.
In order to put on my show, I begin working on it in January and slowly work on it all year long. It is not unusual to find me working in my garage in June or July building a new prop, a new controller box, or repairing existing props. It is also not unusual to find me playing Christmas music in August or September as I sequence new songs. While everyone in the hobby approaches it differently, my general timeline is as follows:
In addition to all of the hardware mentioned above, song sequences must be created. These "sequences" define the state of each individual light (color and intensity) in the show for every interval in a song (typically either 25 millisecond or 50 millisecond intervals). While the process of sequencing a song has greatly improved in the years that I've been doing my light show, it still requires a significant investment in time. For every minute of a song, I typically spend 2-3 hours sequencing the song -- sometimes longer.
In order to put on my show, I begin working on it in January and slowly work on it all year long. It is not unusual to find me working in my garage in June or July building a new prop, a new controller box, or repairing existing props. It is also not unusual to find me playing Christmas music in August or September as I sequence new songs. While everyone in the hobby approaches it differently, my general timeline is as follows:
- January - March: Plan new additions to the display, order parts, store and repair existing props
- April - May: Usually slow. Cleanup my workspace and get ready to start building new stuff.
- June - August: Build new props
- September - Early October: Sequence new songs, begin pulling props from storage, testing
- End of October - Mid November: Setup. Usually house outline and windows for Halloween testing. Yard display in early November.
- Thanksgiving - New Years Eve: Run the show. Hopefully very little work is required during this time, but you will often find me in the middle of the display tweaking stuff or making a quick repair.
HARDWARE USED:
- Lights: Almost exclusively DC 12V WS2811 12mm bullet nodes. A few 5V nodes are used in some places.
- Power Supplies: I have about 18 DC 12V/30A power supplies throughout my display
- Controllers: I have a mixture of controllers including:
- 1 Falcon F16V3 with differential expansion board, 4 differential receivers
- 1 SanDevices E682
- 2 KulpLights F40D-PB with 11 differential receivers
- Controller Cases: Power supplies and controllers are distributed throughout the show and housed in waterproof enclosures such as:
- Cable Guard CG1500 cases
- Waterproof Sprinkler Control Boxes (when found on clearance at the big box stores)
- Ammo Cases (e.g., MTM ACR8-72)
- Networking gear: switches and wifi access points
- Control Computer: Raspberry Pi
- FM Transmitter: Vast HiFi-FMT V-FMT212R RDS HiFi FM Transmitter
SOFTWARE USED: