I Want to Do This

I want to do a light display on my house, what do I need? Where do I start?

A common progression path for people is:

1. Doing a static display (normal lights, just on, not dancing or anything)
2. Mr Christmas (you pick up one of those boxes for Home Depot or Lowes that will play songs and flash lights at the same time)
3. Dynamic display (using conventional lights with light controllers)
4. RGB Display (adding RGB dumb/smart color changing lights to the display along with specialized light controllers)

On this page I'm talking about #3.

First on this page I'm talking non-RGB (not the color changing lights). That will be covered on another page.

In 2014 I wrote an article for Nuts and Volts magazine on how to do a synchronized display.

A good place to start is the Light-O-Rama website. Light-O-Rama is not the only solution, but is a very solid off the shelf solution. Their website has some how-to videos, and an active user forum and Facebook group.

The diagram below gives an example of a typical system configuration for a Light-O-Rama light display.

The entire display is controlled by a Windows PC that is running Light-O-Rama's S3 software. LOR does have a "mini director" that can replace the PC in this system, but in this configuration you can get away with a cheap PC. The PC runs Light-O-Rama S3 software that runs a sequence which sends commands to the light controllers to turn the lights on and off. It also plays the music out the PC's audio-out, which you can connect to speakers or a FM transmitter.

The Light-O-Rama controllers are daisy chained together with CAT5 cables. The PC talks to the light controllers via a USB to RS485 converter which also plugs into the daisy chain with CAT5 cables.

With the Light-O-Rama controllers you use regular lights that would normally plug into an AC outlet. They can be LED or incandescent.

[Youtube Link] Slideshow giving a high level overview of what you need to do a Light-O-Rama light display in terms of materials and costs.

[Youtube Link] Video of setting up a working Light-O-Rama Christmas light display. We plug everything in, hook everything up and kick off a light show. Gives you a hands on look at how everything is hooked up.