best way to start

[fishinggeek]

I am starting with my son this year, 2010, to do a show for both holloween and Christmas. I was wondering how the best way to start would be. By this I mean, how many lights and what is the best configuration to start with. RIght now I have about a thousand lights, all white. As many of us, I am tight on the money, and am looking to make sure my son likes this before going full bore into it.

So, I had an idea of doing the basic lights from the eve, outline the windows, and maybe some on the roof, but not sure what would look good. I have a small single story house, will have a pic tomorrow if anyone wants to see. The music will start out with something basic, like Jingle Bells, as I want my 10 year old to do all of the work. From soldering to programming the lights. This will give him a stake in what he is doing.

Ok, well that is my long winded question.

Thanks and Merry Christmas to all of you,

Charles and Kendall

[tbone321]

Are you sure that is a good idea?  This hobby can be difficult for an adult at times and may be a bit much for a 10 year old to do alone.  I would suggest that you work on it together.  You are also dealing with high voltages on these boards which again in my opinion, is way too dangerous for a 10 year old to work on alone.  I would work on it together letting him solder some of the easier connections and have you take over when it comes to the more difficult connections and during the final testing when 110V is present on the board.  If you are going to use Vixen, I would download it now and start playing with it.  Sequencing the lights is in most cases the hardest part and it is never to early to start learning how and creating sequences.  Being familiar with the software you are going to use will make it much easier to debug problems when you get to the point of creating and displaying an actual show.  Good luck and have fun.

[RJ]

I agree with Tbone on this. There is a reason you have to be 18 years old or older to join DLA. It is because what we do in our hobby does involve high voltage electricity with enough current to kill you. Together with an adult I see no problem but there are dangers that require adult supervision. We just want you guys to have a happy holidays enjoing your lights and not a sad one because someone got hurt. Have fun and we are here to help. But most of all be safe.

RJ

[gjbankos]

I agree with the others.  This isn't something I would put in the hands of a 10 year old by himself.  If you are going to actively supervise him, and you deal with anything directly relating to electricity, it would be best.  You will find there are 4 distinct aspects of animating your lights:
1.  building the equipment
2.  picking the song(s) you want in your show
3.  applying that song to the features of your house
4.  programming the song

This is my 2nd year of blinky on my house, the 1st year where I built my own stuff.  While I got some satisfaction in building the equipment, the most time is spent after the equipment is built.  If you want your son to get that sense of ownership and involvement, believe me when I say you will acheive that by letting him do steps 2 - 4.  More time is spent on those 3 steps than on step 1 and there's no electricity involved in steps 2 - 4.

You build the equipment, let your son pick the song(s), figure out what distinct features of your house can be broken out into a channel for individual control, and program the song(s).  He will have invested a lot of time and thought into these 3 processes and he will still be alive.  You will not lessen the experience by building the controller yourself.

That being said,  just start out with 1 lynx express and the necessary dongle.  That will give you 16 channels to program and that will get your feet wet.  You will know after that whether or not you want to do more.  Coops will start up next month. 

[fishinggeek]

Are you sure that is a good idea?  This hobby can be difficult for an adult at times and may be a bit much for a 10 year old to do alone. 

I think you might be misunderstanding me. We are going to do it together, but he is going to do the work. I will show him how to solder and how to handle the parts, but I want him to be highly involved in the project. Sorry for any misunderstanding with that.

I feel kinda bad now, but we are doing this together, it will just be him doing most of the work.

With that said, I have ordered the dongle and parts today, so we will be able to start with that in the next week or so. After that I will know how involved he really wants to be in the soldering and stuff. He might like the programming of the stuff more.


Thanks for all the help.
Charles

[gjbankos]

Good luck and enjoy!