For me, it's the joy of building something and seeing it come to "life". Yes the programming of each little movement or light que can be tedious at times, but for me it's knowing that each of those is something I created, not a preprogrammed off the shelf prop that thousands of other people have. I have not used Light O Rama but I believe it is just for the on/off functions of relays. You will no doubt get many opinions as to what is the "
best" and what "
you" need to have. Before making an investment in any control system, take a look at what it will do for you and how it fits
Your needs. I started out by purchasing a kit 74 relay board (controls 8 relays) and an old computer. After I decided I needed more relays, I added 2 more parallel ports to it and got 2 more kit 74s. The problem with that was I couldn't control all 24 relays with the software that came with them. After much help from the brain trust here (mainly Randyaz), I decided on VSA, a software program that will control 64 different channels of relays, servos, etc. Most presently available output devices are compatible with it. I also have a Prop2 controller that will be triggered by one of the VSA channels for a separate
scene.
I quess what I'm saying is don't jump out and buy something because of a single recomendation (including this one), or because it's on sale. Do your research to see what the different methods are and how they will fit into
your long term plan for
your haunt.
You can check out VSA for free here
Visual Show Automation - Overview
There are lots of people here that are more than willing to help you, so ask away...