My Halloween Singing Faces Light Display. Using Light-O-Rama controllers.

[z96Cobra]

Bumping for updates...

 

[chef larry]

 

[hoosierdoc]

Indeed. Bump.

 

[Percolater]

Looks excellent! From a household that has nearly the same amount of Halloween decor as Christmas, I'm interested

 

[actaeon277]

No progress yet, due to life.
But I just finished evening shifts, so I have some days off to work on them.

 

[chef larry]

No progress yet, due to life.
But I just finished evening shifts, so I have some days off to work on them.

Week to go.

 

[actaeon277]

Ok. Finished 3-11s on Sunday. Just managed to do more work on the lights this evening.
Nothing like procrastination.

Now, photo bucket won't let me log on from my computer, so I'll have to do this on my phone.


Started marking off using colored electrical tape.

I'd make the one half, then mirror it on the other side.
I'd use small pieces of tape to mark a corner. Then use the strip of tape to connect the dots.

 

[actaeon277]

So, then I started drill the holes out a little more.
7/16 for the lights I'm using, from American Sale.

Now. All the holes are drilled.
Only problem with my plan is, figuring out which hole went with which color.

Might have been better if I planned it out on the computer. Or a piece of paper. With dots representing the holes.

 

[actaeon277]

All the holes are drilled out in the one frame, except for the "O" mouth.
I have too many to deal with now. After I get the lights in these, I'll mark those off and drill.

The other frames should go faster, now that I've got this one.
I will change each a little, so that they are not EXACTLY the same.


I will probably use graph paper to document them.
Then I'll either have to scan the picture, or use some program. Paint program maybe?
Any ideas?
Maybe just use a spreadsheet?

 

[actaeon277]

People that don't have a Light O Rama controller, can still make something similiar.
Just use one mouth, and light just a non moving face.

 

[Clay]

pretty cool!

 

[actaeon277]

I left unused lights at both ends, just in case.
Notice i used the colored electrical tape to mark it, so I'll know which output.
Not as important for the eyes, but will be for the mouths.

And the street side

 

[actaeon277]

Back side with both open and closed lights installed.

Street side

I would have gotten more done. But i was lazy.
And, i counted bulbs needed, and a couple of the mouths are going to need more than one string.
So I went to American Sale, and promptly crunched my passenger door against the concrete barrier protecting a light pole.
Because I was thinking about lights.
Arrrrggh.

 

[actaeon277]

Also, the lights aren't staying in like they should. Only "sorta" staying in.
After this is done I'll either have to glue them, or wire tie them.

And the 7/16th holes mean I have to "work" the socket in.
I may drill them out to 1/2.

 

[actaeon277]

Ok.
The bad news is, I was supposed to go shooting with some friends all day today. I overslept by a LOT. Figured by the time I drove there, I'd only get a small amount of shooting. So I skipped it.

The good news is, I worked on my lights. I'm kinda running out of time anyway.


One thing, after putting in the lights for the eyes, my fingers and thumbs were KILLING me. And the eyes don't even use all 50 lights of the string.
So, I figured I'd use my Channel Locks instead.
Each socket has flat space, that's where the pliers went. Be careful not to squeeze so hard you break the socket. Go into the flat. If you go too high, near the edge where the bulb goes, you can damage it. Of course, the bulb will be out, in order to push through.
Looks like this..

The Channel Lock pliers help immensely. My fingers don't hurt, and I was adding lights about 1 per minute or so. A 50 light string would take about an hour.
Here is a picture of a completed upper mouth (yellow) and a lower mouth (green).

These are the lights again, so this is what I mean by yellow and green.

 

[actaeon277]

I stopped for the night.
I have all the face done, except for the purple mouth, and the gray mouth.

I should be able to get them done tomorrow.
Then, I think I'm gonna get the sequence software updated, put the face up on the porch, connect a controller, and see if the sequences work.

Then I should be able to knock out the second face a lot faster.

Not sure I'll get much more done.
The plan was for 4 faces. I'm thinking 2 is gonna happen. 3 is a maybe. 4 is probably not.
We'll see.

 

[actaeon277]

Holy poop.
I worked my tail off. I got the one face done. JUST ONE.
Okay. I thought I had finished it. I forgot the "O" mouth.
So I'll have to do that tomorrow.


But the face is tie wrapped to my porch.
5 songs are singing.
The one face is doing the lead role.


[video=youtube;rfWG6w1cNv0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfWG6w1cNv0[/video]

A bush is in the way, looks like the corner of the mouth is messed up.




This one's quieter, because I stepped out of the car to get the bush out of the way.
[video=youtube;HFWXWriVXK0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFWXWriVXK0[/video]

 

[chezuki]

Keep at it, you can always have them sing Christmas carols.

 

[actaeon277]

Keep at it, you can always have them sing Christmas carols.

I've thought about that.
But then I'd need to buy 2 more controllers.

 

[actaeon277]

One thing, whenever I get around to the next face, I'm putting the frame on a box or something.
My back is killing me from working at ground level.