Create & build a light show - construction stage Part 1

For the adventurous people, this section discusses how to construct your own light show on a panel. You should have chosen a show design and created your scenes as described in previous DESIGN section.

1   Making a panel

The size of your light display is your choice. The bigger it is, the more work to do and the heavier the panel will be.

It's best to use a side of a plywood packing crate as the panel because it's cheap and usually framed for strength. (If not, you will have to build one to required size.) Then cut it to size, clean it, remove excess nails and paint it white (reflects colour best) on both sides. Remember to keep it light weight because you and a friend will have to carry it to site, lift and screw it into position.

2   Transferring image onto the panel

If you're gifted, free hand transfer the drawing onto the board's front side. 

If you're like me, here's an easy way to do the transfer:

• Draw a grid onto your drawing and mark all the curve intersection points with grid lines. HINT: see red dots on grid in above drawing.
• On the board, mark up a scaled replica of the grid. This is easy to do, count the number of cells/ squares in 2 right angle sides of grid, say 20 cells in width, 30 in length. Using a 2B grade lead pencil, draw a rectangle onto board with one corner where you want the bottom LHS of display. Measure out your required width and length of the image, say 1.0m (W), 1.8m (L). 
• Divide each image dimension (width, length) by number of drawing squares to get the cell measurements, ie Width = 1.0m/ 20 = 50mm; Length = 1.6m/ 30 = 53.3mm (I would resize down to 1.5m = 50mm). 
• Make a grid on the panel by marking the appropriate measurements along each side of rectangle, ie along each width side mark every 50mm; along each length side mark every 50mm. 
• Draw the grid by marking from one side to the opposite side, 
• Transfer intersection points from your drawing (as in first dot point), then free hand join the dots to give the shapes - see above example. Repeat for all lines.
• Stand back from board and see if it looks good - adjust as necessary. You can use an eraser to remove the soft lead pencil.

3  Installing LEDs

If you are using LED strips, lay the strips down onto the board and work out where to cut at marked cut points as shown below - for more info ... see BASICs- LEDs. You will have to use discrete LEDs for tight curves because the strip can't bend tightly and lay flat.

Where you are using discrete LEDs, I suggest:

• On the object's outlines, drill holes to mount LEDs every 25mm/ 1" for straight lines, 20mm/ 3/4" for slight curves, 15mm/ 5/8" for moderate curves. This presents a good image for the eye to visualise the object and to easily interconnect the LEDs in series. 
• A cordless drill is best and use a 5.1mm (13/64") drill for 5mm LEDs. 
• If the panel is thick, it's necessary to countersink the LED hole at the rear. 
• Now it's best to draw the object onto the rear of the board (using the drill holes as guides) with a coloured pen for each object. This will enable you to work from one side and remove pencil marks from front side. It's a good idea to paint the holes to seal the timber.
• If the hole becomes too big, use silicone (neutral cure) to glue the LED and allow to dry.

NEXT >> Part 2 of CONSTRUCTION STAGE

Create & build a light show - Design stage

For the adventurous people, we'll look at how to create and build your own light show on a panel. This will require you to chose a design, layout the light displays onto a panel, attach/ connect/ test LEDs, program a light sequence controller. This project may require around 100 hours to build but the results will be mind blowing to your family and neighbours.

I'll assume you have selected a story which is told through a number of scenes and you have drawn or cut and paste images from the internet for each scene.

I'll define a light object as a group of lights which form part or a whole subject eg the figure shows Santa as a subject which contains the white, red, blue LEDs and he's divided into 2 light objects (legs & boots; body, arms & head).

Design stage

1   Look at each scene drawing and circle the common light objects between scenes. The purpose is to re-use light objects as much as possible. So see if you could cut light objects into sections and use the top half for some scenes and whole character in other scenes (ie when required, turn on 2 light objects to get a whole object). This needs some creative thinking!

Examples: 

i)  This can be seen in the figure where Santa's lower feet & boots were cut off the body: Santa's body is used in the sleigh; his feet are turned on when he's standing.
ii)  Merry Christmas (#13) and Christmas Eve (#14) signs are derived from the 3 individual words.

2 (a)   Count the number of scenes and light objects. Use a word processor software to draw a table similar to the one shown below. Now write the scene no. and description into left columns. Write the no. and light objects along the top rows. 

(b)   For each scene, put an X into the table's cells for the light objects which should be ON. What you have done is create a control chart of what light objects will be turned on or off for each scene. This is a very important step to get right.

3   Decide how you will build each light object by using a combination of LED strip lighting (easiest & dearest) or individual LEDs which could be cut from a ready made light string (easier) or discrete LEDs wired together. Your budget will also influence what type of lights you will use. I use discrete LEDs because they fit any shape, cross over of shapes can be managed and soldering is easy for me. 

4   You will have to consider what voltage the power supply will be. Note you could use a 24V power supply for discrete LED lights and a 24V/12V inverter for strip lights. This is a cheap solution that simplifies wiring of discrete LEDs. I used a 32V supply to minimise the number of strings of discrete LEDs. See following sections for more details.

5   You will have to consider what amount of current will flow in each colour group of LEDs (ie brightness) and the number of LEDs in each series group (see BASICS). It's very important for all LEDs to be complementary in brightness, ie don't make very bright LEDs - increase the resistor value to reduce brightness. I find a current of 7 - 10mA is good for low brightness LEDs and 3 - 5mA for high brightness LEDs . Diffused LEDs have more even colour than clear LEDs.

Also use oversize wattage value for resistors (approx 4 times actual wattage) - you don't want a hot resistor causing a fire!

6   It's best to group LEDs according to colour and a part of the object, eg Santa's white parts are white LED groups, etc. This will give evenness of colour. To give 3D affect, you can use slightly different colour LEDs to give this affect, eg dark and light green LEDs for tree or brightness of LEDs. Look at photos for ideas.

7   In latter years, you could add some fun things like a turbo mode (#12) where Santa's hat moves back, reindeer's nose flashes red, tail flashes white, etc. This stimulates more interest because people start looking for them.

NEXT >> Construction stage

Design - Developing a story & scenes

In this section, we'll discuss how to develop your selected theme into a story and then into sequences. I can only offer suggestions to help you develop these important design outcomes. There are plenty of ideas on Google (TM) and an attachment.

The design progression:

• your theme gives a story which is told through a number of sequences or scenes;
• work out what the content for each scene - keep it simple because complexity means more labour;
• work out what the changes are between scenes;
• work out how to reuse characters or objects or parts thereof. This is the tricky bit and the example below clearly explains this step;
• work out what type of LED lights you will use to make each object, eg strip or discrete LEDs. Take particular care where objects overlap because the LEDs must overlap clearly and cleanly.

NOTE: temporary problem with editor prevents picture inclusion.

So what story would you like to tell? If you're not sure ask your family for suggestions but keep it simple. Each part of the story gives you a sequence of scenes.

Now work out what is being done in each scene and the required parts of each light display. Obviously this must be balanced against the budget and what light displays are available or what you can make. It's easiest to give 3 examples of themes and stories:

Story 

It could be as simple as Santa climbing onto a sleigh in 4 actions or scenes. (In latter years you can expand the story or add fun actions to stimulate more interest, eg reindeer's red nose turns on.)

Scene 1: Santa standing by himself

Scene 2: Santa standing with 1 reindeer

Scene 3: Santa standing beside sleigh with 1 reindeer

Scene 4: Santa inside sleigh with 1 reindeer and presents

Here's mySanta story which has 14 scenes and many light objects which were selected for each scene (marked X). This info is presented so you can see that a long story is broken into scenes and light objects were made and reused for each scene. It is this simple!

Music

The type of music gives the theme and the song gives the story. What you need to do is get music with a wide dynamic range of loudness to suit your sound transponder which will make discrete electrical signals to control the light displays, ie this determines the number of light displays to come on. We'll discuss this complex task in its design stage.

Natural Resources

The theme is natural surroundings and the story is a journey from left side to right side of you property (looking from street) seeing the individual/ collective features. The left to right is a natural progression for people.

It's best to walk around your house/ land and write down the features which can be used, eg long roof line, gables, columns, stairs, fences, tall trees, small bushes, garage doors, chimney, silhouette lighting, windows, etc.

Then visualise how you can move from left side to right side of property using these features and the type of light displays, eg spot light, light strings, light strips, reflected light, window reflections or internal attractions, etc. You can create depth by lighting foregrounds and backgrounds and having a smaller bushes in front; taller at back, etc.  If you're on the side of a hill, the opportunities are endless!

This is enough reading - go and start creating a story and scenes!

NEXT >> Design stage