I have 5 of the medium arches using 3/4 pex for the arch into 1/2" pvc fittings and pipe for the base. You just need to heat up the end of the pex to get it to fit into the pvc, i used a blow drier but a heat gun would work well too.
One suggestion that I found helps with yearly assembly is to mark the middle of the pipe with some indelible mark (I started with black permanent marker (aka Sharpie)) then I put a piece of red electrical tape in the middle of the boycoyo template. I have also marked the ends of the pipe and board with pink and blue electrical tape (pink for the female end and blue for the male end). This allows me to have multiple helpers to install these type of props. I really appreciated that you pointed out the need to easily store these type of props and having them be easy to assemble/breakdown is a very helpful suggestion.
Thank you very much for the suggestion! I don't normally have anyone help me while I'm setting the show up, but I've been considering it since it's been getting so big! This would definitely help if I ever have other people set up the show too, thanks! I'm glad you found the video useful!
FANTASTIC SERIES. I have been watching a bunch of your content repeatedly. You have a great style and present useful information without dragging it out and lot of B.S. I REALLY appreciate that. I personally don't care how long the content is as long as it is not fluff and cliff hangers. Just finished putting together a couple of small controller setups, a Raspberry Pi 4 show controller running FFP, assembling a dedicated show network and just finished the tutorial on Xlights. Have started the first sequence and started the episode on the Xlights effects as a continuation of working the sequence. I am stilling the design phase for our display and I have been thinking about arches and that style of prop and now this gets posted. It is like you are reading my mind. Dang! Had to watch this before continuing the rest of the saga. LOL Do you know about how many pixels are used in beginning setups? I realize it is all relative to the size of the project. Just wondering if there a general number that it takes to produce a decent show for the first year of doing this? Also is there a minimum number of pixels that can used to produce a good show? Got to get back to watch this video and then back to the others. Thanks Nick. Wish you and yours the best.
Thank you! I'm really glad the videos have been useful! My opinion is any amount of lights is better then no lights. So if you can only get around 100 pixels for your first show, that's fine. If you can get 10,000, that's also fine. My first pixel show only had 400 something lights and I thought it was pretty cool because it was new, you don't need all pixels to make a great display. What I did is also add in some regular Christmas lights that year and blow ups. Sure, I couldn't program them with the show but it helped light up the empty spots. So do whatever you can and I'm sure your neighborhood will still love it no matter the size!
@@How2Pixel as far as the lighting is concerned, At the moment I have 400 RGB pixels and 9 RGB 10 watt flood lights and 6 RGBW 10W flood lights. Oh ya and some Govee Permanent (not the pro version) under the edge of the roof lights (about 150 ft spaced at like 18inches apart and some Govee Flood lights and some Govee and curtain Lights. I had a show last year that was reactive to mucis that was decent. I want more control over the sequencing. Funny how that happens... Go figure. LOL. I may break down and order another 400 to maybe 600 RGB pixels and call it done for this year. Idk. I can see where I need 3000 just to get things moving in a great direction and then add another 3000... and so on and so on and so... LOL Did the math and I can go total Clark Griswold with only about 20,000 pixels... and then I will have to address the yard... LOL anyway ... maybe someday... FYI the Govee curtain lights are a matrix with seed RGB LEDs spaced at 3 inches horizontal and vertical. they are decent space fillers and have some animation/effects that look decent but it is kinda a set it and forget it kind of thing. Will probably use a combination of everything tradition, Govee and new pixels setup this year and setup for more RBG pixels for next. BTW I was able to program a very basic test sequence and render it. Now I just have to figure out how to setup the rest of the lights on the pixel controller and upload the test to the Raspberry pi FFP and see if I can it all to work. Thanks for your previous replies!
Nice job with the new series! Alot of thought about what kind of props people want to use. It might be nice to have a link to one of your other vids regarding sequences or wiring to understand how the chain is going to light up and work in the show later. Also, drill a small hole thru your pipe (1/8" maybe) at the ends and use either zip ties, wire, a screw or a cotter pin to secure the end of the pipe to the board. That will keep it from popping out of the base. I'm in the process of teaching myself how to weld. I'm building a large set piece for this year's Halloween display. I'll try to put something up once it's done
great video, been watching your collection very helpful. one newbie question which end of a string of lights in node (light) one? Just to sure i don't start at wrong end and have to redo it. Thanks again
No problem! The male end of the strand is the beginning. If you have ray wu type pixel connectors, it's the end that has the little screw part to connect the two and the little water ring. You can also normally look inside the pixels and it'll say "DI" for data in on the side of the pixel where data comes in, and it might say "DO" for data out on the other side.
The coro that holds the pixels? I bought that off of Boscoyo Studios, I'm pretty sure they ship to Australia. If you're talking about the pixels themselves, I get them from multiple different places, but the ones I use the most are Holiday Light Express, Wired Watts, and Gilbert Engineering.
Nice. I bet you could get away with using 2x3’s if you want to go cheaper. I always thought those plastic pieces were expensive but if you can just keep using the same pieces every year I guess it’s worth it. Just keep the pixels attached. I wanted to do arches around the plastic picket fence in my front yard but I’ll have to go with custom lengths to fit in between the vertical sections.
I know it comes to preference, but do you prefer to use 5v or 12v pixels for your arches? I know 12v most likely would require power injection but I'm just curious on your preference.
I prefer 12v for all the pixels in my show, mostly because 12v actually need less power injections then 5v. With 12 you can get around ~100 pixels at 100% brightness with no power injection, and even more with lower brightness settings. But with 5v it's more around 50 pixels at 100% with no power injection. There are some other pros and cons but I do have a video from a year or 2 ago where I talked about the differences with both 5 and 12 volts if you'd like to check that out.
Are you talking about when it's wired into the controller box? I have multiple behind-the-scenes videos from the previous years setups and I show all the controller box connections and everything else. You might find one of those useful!
@cshandley there's really no difference between xConnect and Ray Wu just different connectors. I went with Ray Wu because I notice a lot of people use xConnect and those lights and pigtails are usually out of stock faster than Ray Wu stuff. You can also mix and match xConnect and Ray Wu stuff there's adapters or the cheapest way is just buy a bunch of different pigtails and make your own adapters.
Thanks for pointing that out to me. In the next episodes I'll make sure to better word everything and if I say exact measurement, I'll say the exact measurement!
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Great idea 💡
You're awesome. The way you explain is priceless. Even English is not my mother lenguaje i can understand. Gracias, Merci
I'm really enjoying your videos you have inspired me to start my first Christmas light show thank you for all you do. 😊
I was just thinking i need a video on how to make these :) cheers dude
I have 5 of the medium arches using 3/4 pex for the arch into 1/2" pvc fittings and pipe for the base. You just need to heat up the end of the pex to get it to fit into the pvc, i used a blow drier but a heat gun would work well too.
Awesome!
would love to see window outlines!
One suggestion that I found helps with yearly assembly is to mark the middle of the pipe with some indelible mark (I started with black permanent marker (aka Sharpie)) then I put a piece of red electrical tape in the middle of the boycoyo template. I have also marked the ends of the pipe and board with pink and blue electrical tape (pink for the female end and blue for the male end). This allows me to have multiple helpers to install these type of props. I really appreciated that you pointed out the need to easily store these type of props and having them be easy to assemble/breakdown is a very helpful suggestion.
Thank you very much for the suggestion! I don't normally have anyone help me while I'm setting the show up, but I've been considering it since it's been getting so big! This would definitely help if I ever have other people set up the show too, thanks! I'm glad you found the video useful!
FANTASTIC SERIES. I have been watching a bunch of your content repeatedly. You have a great style and present useful information without dragging it out and lot of B.S. I REALLY appreciate that. I personally don't care how long the content is as long as it is not fluff and cliff hangers. Just finished putting together a couple of small controller setups, a Raspberry Pi 4 show controller running FFP, assembling a dedicated show network and just finished the tutorial on Xlights. Have started the first sequence and started the episode on the Xlights effects as a continuation of working the sequence. I am stilling the design phase for our display and I have been thinking about arches and that style of prop and now this gets posted. It is like you are reading my mind. Dang! Had to watch this before continuing the rest of the saga. LOL Do you know about how many pixels are used in beginning setups? I realize it is all relative to the size of the project. Just wondering if there a general number that it takes to produce a decent show for the first year of doing this? Also is there a minimum number of pixels that can used to produce a good show? Got to get back to watch this video and then back to the others. Thanks Nick. Wish you and yours the best.
Thank you! I'm really glad the videos have been useful! My opinion is any amount of lights is better then no lights. So if you can only get around 100 pixels for your first show, that's fine. If you can get 10,000, that's also fine. My first pixel show only had 400 something lights and I thought it was pretty cool because it was new, you don't need all pixels to make a great display. What I did is also add in some regular Christmas lights that year and blow ups. Sure, I couldn't program them with the show but it helped light up the empty spots.
So do whatever you can and I'm sure your neighborhood will still love it no matter the size!
@@How2Pixel as far as the lighting is concerned, At the moment I have 400 RGB pixels and 9 RGB 10 watt flood lights and 6 RGBW 10W flood lights. Oh ya and some Govee Permanent (not the pro version) under the edge of the roof lights (about 150 ft spaced at like 18inches apart and some Govee Flood lights and some Govee and curtain Lights. I had a show last year that was reactive to mucis that was decent. I want more control over the sequencing. Funny how that happens... Go figure. LOL. I may break down and order another 400 to maybe 600 RGB pixels and call it done for this year. Idk. I can see where I need 3000 just to get things moving in a great direction and then add another 3000... and so on and so on and so... LOL Did the math and I can go total Clark Griswold with only about 20,000 pixels... and then I will have to address the yard... LOL anyway ... maybe someday... FYI the Govee curtain lights are a matrix with seed RGB LEDs spaced at 3 inches horizontal and vertical. they are decent space fillers and have some animation/effects that look decent but it is kinda a set it and forget it kind of thing. Will probably use a combination of everything tradition, Govee and new pixels setup this year and setup for more RBG pixels for next. BTW I was able to program a very basic test sequence and render it. Now I just have to figure out how to setup the rest of the lights on the pixel controller and upload the test to the Raspberry pi FFP and see if I can it all to work. Thanks for your previous replies!
Excellent information. Thank you very much.
Great video!! Thanks for sharing
Awesome! Ill be watching! Thank you!
Nice job with the new series! Alot of thought about what kind of props people want to use. It might be nice to have a link to one of your other vids regarding sequences or wiring to understand how the chain is going to light up and work in the show later.
Also, drill a small hole thru your pipe (1/8" maybe) at the ends and use either zip ties, wire, a screw or a cotter pin to secure the end of the pipe to the board. That will keep it from popping out of the base.
I'm in the process of teaching myself how to weld. I'm building a large set piece for this year's Halloween display. I'll try to put something up once it's done
great video, been watching your collection very helpful. one newbie question which end of a string of lights in node (light) one? Just to sure i don't start at wrong end and have to redo it. Thanks again
No problem! The male end of the strand is the beginning. If you have ray wu type pixel connectors, it's the end that has the little screw part to connect the two and the little water ring. You can also normally look inside the pixels and it'll say "DI" for data in on the side of the pixel where data comes in, and it might say "DO" for data out on the other side.
Where did you buy your ones from? I need it for Australia.
The coro that holds the pixels? I bought that off of Boscoyo Studios, I'm pretty sure they ship to Australia. If you're talking about the pixels themselves, I get them from multiple different places, but the ones I use the most are Holiday Light Express, Wired Watts, and Gilbert Engineering.
Nice. I bet you could get away with using 2x3’s if you want to go cheaper. I always thought those plastic pieces were expensive but if you can just keep using the same pieces every year I guess it’s worth it. Just keep the pixels attached.
I wanted to do arches around the plastic picket fence in my front yard but I’ll have to go with custom lengths to fit in between the vertical sections.
I do pex arches with pixels. What I do is only one hole for the pixel through the back side.
i would love to see window outlines
I know it comes to preference, but do you prefer to use 5v or 12v pixels for your arches? I know 12v most likely would require power injection but I'm just curious on your preference.
I prefer 12v for all the pixels in my show, mostly because 12v actually need less power injections then 5v. With 12 you can get around ~100 pixels at 100% brightness with no power injection, and even more with lower brightness settings. But with 5v it's more around 50 pixels at 100% with no power injection. There are some other pros and cons but I do have a video from a year or 2 ago where I talked about the differences with both 5 and 12 volts if you'd like to check that out.
please do window outlines!
What is 1 quarter in..?
Is it possible if you haven't already, to show how you wire the prop up, etc. What pixels do you recommend?
Are you talking about when it's wired into the controller box? I have multiple behind-the-scenes videos from the previous years setups and I show all the controller box connections and everything else. You might find one of those useful!
@@How2Pixel Can you tell me the difference between xConnect and Ray Wu connectors? What is the biggest take away from it?
@@How2Pixel Welp. I just stumbled upon a video from 2 years ago explaining it a bit. Thanks!
@cshandley there's really no difference between xConnect and Ray Wu just different connectors. I went with Ray Wu because I notice a lot of people use xConnect and those lights and pigtails are usually out of stock faster than Ray Wu stuff. You can also mix and match xConnect and Ray Wu stuff there's adapters or the cheapest way is just buy a bunch of different pigtails and make your own adapters.
That drill bit is called a spade bit. The trademarked name that people use is Speedbor.
Thank you for that! Yea I looked it up after making this video and found the name 😂
window outlines!
Thanks for all of the great info, but.....the EXACT middle is ABOUT 5 1/2 inches? an EXACT measurement is never ABOUT a measurement
Thanks for pointing that out to me. In the next episodes I'll make sure to better word everything and if I say exact measurement, I'll say the exact measurement!
plz do window outlines!