I haven’t visited these forums in years, but as you can see on my profile, I’ve been a member for 22 years. I used to really enjoy this place, learned a lot, contributed, and even met a few people in real life.
I left because the moderators turned into a bunch of jerks who had power go to their...
Believe it or not, we actually agree with you. The Star Trek show is just a medley of songs and not a cohesive story. This was actually “plan B” because we ran out of time. We had a lot of curveballs in 2018, including the death of my father.
We’re usually pretty secretive about our creative...
Oh and for commercial installations, I forgot to mention that I’d also have to contract installers that are licensed, insured, and bonded. And I’d have to train them - this isn’t the same as stringing up normal lights.
Differences in layout are a major time consumer and hurdle for “recycling” shows between different houses, parks, or commercial buildings. We do have a solution, however it’s 100% novel and would require a LOT of software development.
We were approached by an HOA to do a light show on their...
All good ideas and we’ve thought about it. What it boils down to is time and money that we just don’t have. The money part is two-fold: we need to spend money to be able to offer those products/services, but we’d also need to quit our day jobs to have the time to do these ideas, which then...
With more money, we could buy, rather than build, tools and equipment. There is a massive effort in custom software and physically building the lights, both of which could be avoided by just spending more money. Trust me, the commercial stuff is EXPENSIVE.
As far as a side business, I’m very...
It dies down after the 25th, but before that, absolutely yes. And we always have to be out there to control the crowd, direct traffic, and keep the neighborhood happy. The biggest problem is that we’re very limited on space, so we need to actively keep things running smoothly. On very busy...
It’s a combination of DMX, WS2811, and direct PWM. But a vast majority is WS2811. A permanent installation is very, very hard to accomplish. You’ll find out why once you start your research spike. :)
We have lots of tricks up our sleeves and, to our knowledge, we do it very differently from the rest of the DIY light shows (there are many out there). If I told you our secrets, I’d have to blast you with a photon torpedo. But I’ll give you some hints.
1. Want to get started? Look up the app...
It’s done in “hobby time,” meaning 15 minutes here, half an hour there, etc. That said, it takes a calendar year to do the whole thing. We’ve already started on 2019, which will be quite a triumph because we also have our wedding ceremony, our honeymoon, and there’s a chance we’ll be moving...
It takes A LOT of work to put this together and there’s just no way to do it all. We have to make tough decisions while developing the show, including the removal of great parts, due to resource limitations, budget, and average viewer attention span.
However! We do have a pre-show for when...
A little late on the video, but better late than never! My wife and I are both musicians and engineers and we do crazy shenanigans like this.
We do a new themed show every year. This year’s show is “Star Trek: The Light Show.” Hope you like it! :)
We are working on filming our Star Wars...
The protocols used are all industry standard stuff. There’s sACN/e1.31 and DMX. Same stuff used at concerts and theme parks. I’ve got nothing to patent. ;)
I’m surprised ANYONE remembered that!
Due to lack of time and severe curveballs pitched to me in life, I haven’t had the time to make our random pieces of software into any kind of marketable package. We use them ourselves behind the scenes, but they are junky prototypes that we know how to...
We do something a bit... different than Christmas. If you want to see Christmas lights, go to one of the many, very nicely done Christmas displays. If you want to see something else, come to our house.
Teaser video: https://www.facebook.com/HolidayPhotonics/videos/473926023135357/
Facebook...
So obviously, a $5k truck is going to need work, maintenance, repair, etc. I suppose another question would be whether I’m better off with a high mileage Toyota, which is known to last basically forever with proper maintenance, or a lower mileage (or otherwise cheaper) domestic that may need...
Hello everyone. My wife and I are strongly considering a larger utility vehicle. We currently have a Mazda 3 and Mazda Miata, so trips to Ikea, Home Depot, and other random things are somewhere between difficult and impossible, forcing us to need to borrow or rent vehicles. We’re moving soon...
Here's the 2017 refresh of our 2016 show, "Star Wars: The Light Awakens," based on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Some new effects and other tweaks were added.
Here is the first of our videos from 2017! Enjoy!
The main show for 2017 is called "Star Wars: The Original Saga." It's based on the original Star Wars trilogy. More videos to come...
Enjoy it in 1080p at 60 FPS! :)
I’m loving it so far. I’ve got one episode left. You definitely can’t take it too seriously; it’s very much a self parody. In some ways, it kind of reminds me of older Leslie Nielsen movies like Wrongfully Accused or Airplane.
I’m buying a few of them. One for my office, one for my bedroom, another for my bathroom, another for my Tesla, one for my elevator, another by my helipad, the guest house, my garage, by the pool, and a few more for stocking stuffers.
Last year, I used 36 arduinos on WiFi. Ridiculous. Not this time - I used a commercial controller: Falcon F16.
I’ll post some pics for you this weekend. Tough week for me - I actually won’t be home during the day time until the weekend. Haha!
Sure. What are you looking for, specifically? Fair warning: if you see them up close, you see just how crappy they really are! Zip ties, duck tape, hot glue, and even band-aids. PVC pipe, plasti-dip... you name a ghetto way of building or fixing something and I have it. I even used Bondo... hehehe
Yep, that’s also my house from last year.
I’ll post a pic of what it looks like now, but we’re not posting videos until it’s already taken down. This is so that people actually come and see it (video doesn’t do it justice), plus it lets us make tweaks before a final shot. :)
Bumping this year old thread. Why? Because we’ve done it again this year. We did the original Star Wars trilogy with almost twice as many lights and new cool special effects, including R2D2’s hologram of Princess Leia. We’ve had so much traffic in the neighborhood, I feel bad for my neighbors...
Looks like I’m mistaken. It was at Busch Gardens, but not the Tampa one.
Ref: https://www.google.com/amp/www.dailypress.com/entertainment/blog/dp-popcorn-fabio-goose-0814-story,amp.html
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