{"id":331,"date":"2019-10-16T20:00:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T01:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/germannlights.com\/?page_id=331"},"modified":"2024-11-18T19:52:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T01:52:20","slug":"technical-details","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/?page_id=331","title":{"rendered":"Technical Details"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For those wondering how it&#8217;s done here&#8217;s some technical details about the light show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What&#8217;s Your Electric Bill?!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We never run our lights at more than 30% brightness &#8211; which means significant savings on energy &#8211; and the fact that unlike a traditional Light Display, our lights are not on all the time &#8211; we see our electricity go up by a few dollars for the months and that&#8217;s it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2024 Nerd Stats<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Number of Pixels: 6,200 &#8211; all 5V minus our Gutter\/Peak lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amount of Controllers: 2x Falcon F16v3 w\/ 3x Smart Receivers, 2x Dumb Receivers <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mega Tree stats:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Roughly 12-13ft Tall <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-16 Pixel Strips &#8211; 50 each &#8211; for a total of 600 pixels<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-Made using the ASAP Pole by Walter Monkhouse: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=P8XRpqi3dvU\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=P8XRpqi3dvU<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Software<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For the majority of the life of the light show, I used Light-O-Rama (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lightorama.com\">http:\/\/www.lightorama.com<\/a>) software. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"393\" src=\"http:\/\/germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/xLights-Logo_large-01-1024x393.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-335\" style=\"width:533px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/xLights-Logo_large-01-1024x393.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/xLights-Logo_large-01-300x115.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2017, I switched over to Xlights software, as it provides much more flexibility with Pixels and the cost is free (Minus a yearly donation to the developers for the great work!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Xlights can be downloaded at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xlights.org\">http:\/\/www.xlights.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sequences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>ALL of the Programming at Germann Lights is done by ourselves. You won&#8217;t find any of our sequences on any other houses! Songs can take anywhere from 30-80 hours to complete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"473\" src=\"http:\/\/germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-1024x473.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-586\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2.1649048625792813;width:599px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-1024x473.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-300x139.png 300w, https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-768x355.png 768w, https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image.png 1353w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"355\" height=\"355\" src=\"http:\/\/germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/61hYCzbptQL._SY355_.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/61hYCzbptQL._SY355_.jpg 355w, https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/61hYCzbptQL._SY355_-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/61hYCzbptQL._SY355_-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of my lights are WS2811 Pixels &#8211; running at either 5V or 12V depending on which light they are. At last count I have about 6,000 RGB Pixels in the light show. These Pixels are obtained by local dealers, as well as directly from Chinese manufacturers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of 2022 &#8211; we are 100% LED!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Controllers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To run scheduling on the Light Show and Run the Light Show itself, I use a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ with FPP (Falcon Pi Player) Installed.  <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/FalconChristmas\/fpp\">https:\/\/github.com\/FalconChristmas\/fpp<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I use 2x Falcon F16 controllers and 1x Raspberry Pi with FPP for Christmas. For Halloween, I only need to use 1 Falcon F16 Controller. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"509\" height=\"346\" src=\"http:\/\/germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-2.png\" alt=\"Falcon F16V3\" class=\"wp-image-589\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4710982658959537;width:297px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-2.png 509w, https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-2-300x204.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To control my pixels, I use a variety of devices, anywhere from SPI to DMX adapters. My main controller these days are the Falcon F16 controllers available at  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pixelcontroller.com\/store\/index.php\">https:\/\/www.pixelcontroller.com\/store\/index.php<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A variety of my lights are running direct DMX control via the Falcon&#8217;s 3\/4 DMX outputs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those wondering how it&#8217;s done here&#8217;s some technical details about the light show. What&#8217;s Your Electric Bill?! We never run our lights at more than 30% brightness &#8211; which means significant savings on energy &#8211; and the fact that unlike a traditional Light Display, our lights are not on all the time &#8211; we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":639,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-331","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":658,"href":"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/331\/revisions\/658"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.germannlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}