When you’re making an animated Christmas light display, one key part is often the music. While it would be really cool to set up a big PA system and blast your tunes through the neighborhood, your neighbors might not be excited about that approach! That’s why we use FM transmitters to play our music over […]
When it’s time to start getting the lights ready for the season, you want to have a general idea of how much you want to space them apart? The standard pixel light distance is about 30 centimeters. Now, some pixels you have the option to space them from anywhere from 1 inch to 3 inches […]
One of the biggest challenges of running a Christmas Light display is the weather! While we’d all love to be like Australia and enjoy the summer sun for our Christmas season, this simply isn’t reality! Keeping your display safe from the weather also doesn’t have to be difficult. There are proven ways to water-proof your […]
When these lights are unplugged, standard Christmas lights and pixel lights look very similar. But when the units are plugged it you can really notice the difference between the two! If you’re looking to stand out this year with your Christmas display, make a statement, or even pair up a music and light show, using […]
One of the most difficult parts of sequencing Christmas lights is the sequencing, or creating the patterns and motions in the lights which go to the music of your display. The good news is that sequences can be imported from other users, including sequences that you buy online. While the process isn’t super simple, it […]
We’ve all seen “that house” in our city that synchronizes it’s lighting to music, or perhaps watched an episode or 2 of “The Great Christmas Light Fight” and wondered – should I do that too? Should I sequence my Christmas Lights to music? If you’re going to take the time to make an elaborate Christmas […]
If you’re running a Christmas Light Show that includes pixels, then the signal that goes from your computer to your controllers runs over a network. Whether your display is simple, with just 1 controller, or complex with many controllers, the question still remains: should you run your display on your home network, or let it […]
In this post, I am going to help you build your own relay box for controlling your Christmas lights . I wanted to share and help you with this project because perhaps it doesn’t make financial sense for you to buy one of these when you don’t need as many channels for your display as […]
When I first started sequencing Christmas lights, one of the first questions I had was “What type of computer do I need for xLights or Vixen?” At the end of the day, most modern computers will work great for either xLights or Vixen. A good starting point would be a dual-core processor with a speed […]
When a pixel is only showing some colors, but not all colors, then you know that you either have a failed LED, or an addressing or patching issue. As you begin to light up your Christmas light display, over time you may start to see some of your pixels failing. But before you grab those […]
