Build it yourself and keep it simple.

The Mini-tree
A simple light element you can build is a Mini-tree. Its a 3 foot tall cone shape made of fencing wire with 1 or more sets of lights on it. The ones we are building have 2 colors or is it 3? on them. One set is white and the other is red for 4 of them and green for the other 4. The total of 8 Mini-trees will occupy 16 channels on our system. This amount of channels will give us total flexibility for chases, blinking and color flashes. 2 Mini-trees will share a SSR using 4 SSRs for the group. Using Vixen to control them, some songs have the trees acting like choirboys, blinking to wording or rythms.

The Mini-Mega-tree
Our 4 Mini-Mega-trees are a bit more complicated using 8 channels and 2 SSRs each. Each tree has 4 "superstrings" on it and is about 6 foot high. A superstring is 2 or more strings of lights braided or twisted together to form a larger string with multiple channels. Our superstrings are 1 string of white braided with 1 string of blue. Each superstring is strung up and down from the top of the tree to the ring below at an angle 6 times in a quarter circle. Turning each channels on and off will give the illusion of a white tree a blue tree or a combination. Spinning, chasing and flashing effects are possible in many configurations.

The Mega-tree
In a future expansion of our system, we will make a Mega-tree. It will be about 10 to 20 feet high depending on what lights we can get. The construction of the tree is more complicated than any of the other trees. A footing must be secured at the base such as a pipe in concrete or a large base stand anchored with stakes deep into the ground to prevent the wind from blowing it over. A "topper" is placed on the top of the pole in the center of the base. The topper will have a star of some type on it, probaly a spinning set of star shaped set of lights. The topper also have anchors to hold the top end of the lights leading down to the ring at the base. At the ring near the base, the plugs for the strings will attach to the SSRs. The amount of SSRs will depend on how many channels we will assign it. We will probally have a tree with 24 or 36 channels. A multiple of 4 channels is preferred because of SSRs are configured in sets of 4 and also timing of music is usually a 4/4 beat.

Hunters and Gatherers

Once you decide to make this big wonderful dazzling display of photons, where do you get all the lights? From anywhere you can! A good price per unit is a nice thing but not at the expense of cheap strings that will fall apart and ruin your fun. Shop at places like Goodwill, yard sales, after Christmas sales, wholesale outlet even Craigslist. We purchased 50 quality 4' by 6' net light sets for 100 dollars off of Craigslist. Use your head and play it smart. After all, you may not get what you pay for. Make a list of what you need and stick to it. Upgrade next year. Other things to buy are extension cords, matierials for props, kits to make non-lighted props and other things. Think ahead and save bread.

Audio Components

Music being a big part of the show must be heard but how? Using spare parts from another computer audio board, we made a cable with 3 jacks on the end. One jack is for my computer's own speakers so we can hear what we are broadcasting. Another jack is used for audio that is ran out to the yard for people to hear it on the speakers hidden in Snoopy's doghouse. Paired up with the cable is another type of jack (RCA) leading to the FM transmitter we bought from Canakit.com for about 20 dollars. The range of the transmitter was supposed to be 500 feet but at 5 blocks away, you could still hear it. So we might broadcast Christmas music even if the lights are off. Noise ordinances forbid loud music after 10 PM so we won't play the yard speakers after that.

The Hardware

The subprocessor boards (Grinchs) were ordered from a man in Austrailia. Wjohn at doityourselfchristmas.com has boards for sale and also the SSR boards. 2 Grinchs and 32 SSR boards cost us 100 dollars including shipping. Its not a bad price considering you don't have to hand etch 34 circuit boards. Boards arrived safe and were of very good quality manufacture. To clarify, the Grinch does not dim or fade the lights although another type of board can be added later to do that job. We chose the Grinch because of cost vs light effects. The parts to populate the boards were ordered from USA companies and assembled here at our home. Over several nights, they were put together and checked, rechecked and checked again. Actual testing will be done when some of the light elements are done and good weather permits. Having a limited budget for this hobby means that not everything can be done in a timely manner. Use what you got to do what you can until the next bit arrives. The SSRs can be made in an assembly-line type of fashion because they are the same. Take it step by step to elimanate mistakes.

Light Elements

A light element is a section of the display that will be controlled by a single channel or many channels if it is an animation element. A string of lights is usually a common type of light element while others can be very complicated. Some elements such as light archs can have many channels controlling it in a sequence to give the illusion of water jumping in a arc or like a mega-tree with 24 channels giving the illusion that the tree is spinning in multi-color. Options for light elements are unlimited. A Santa train can have each engine and car body lit up while the wheels can be controlled by a few other channels making it look like they are turning. Snowmen can have snowball fights, elves throwing gifts into Santa's sack, Angels singing, toy soldiers drumming you name it. By turning on and off of a few channels, movement can be simulated and magic happens! Choosing which elements to add is a tough one because the imagination runs away. Start with the basic lighting elements such as the house and major points in the yard, counting channels as you go. With the leftover channels, you can get creative and make a few elements from scratch. Basic matierials going into contruction of a light element will be specific for the kind of element it is. A simple Mini-tree is 1 to 3 strings of light wrapped around a cone shaped bit of fencing wire held on by some zip ties. Sounds simple enough but the results in the dark are amazing. Some other examples are stars made from plywood stuffed with lights, archs made from plastic pipe and wrapped with strings of lights and Mega-trees made from poles staked into the ground and strings draped at an angle around it. During the day, these contructions don't look like much but at night are spectacular!

Data Communications

Once music is set, the patterns chosen, the lights rigged up, then its time for the computer to give commands to the system. Vixen sends signals out through the printer port on the computer into a special made cable that converts D25 pin layout to RJ45 pin layout. The RJ45 uses CAT5 cable similar to Ethernet/DSL/Internet connection cabling. This cable connects the computer to the sub processor boards (Grinchs) working in tandem. Having the signals sorted and divided into 32 groups of 4, each of the quad signals leave the Grinchs on a CAT5 heading toward the SSRs. Terminating at the SSR, the signal is broken down and sent to it own channel. For our system, we needed 33 custom made cables to reach outside to the various SSRs on the house and in the yard. Buying ready-made cables is too cost prohibitive so we made our own. A box of CAT5 cable can be bought at home supply centers for about 70 dollars per 1000 ft of cable. Buy a few more RJ45 cable ends than necessary in case of bad connections. Be sure to leave a bit of slack in the cable to prevent stretching it and in case you want to move your connection location as your display evolves.

Power Distribution

On a separate subsystem controlled by SSRs are the AC power lines. Trunk lines running out from the panel box terminate in GFI (ground fault interrupter) boxes to eliminate shock hazards and breaker tripping in the event of the lines shorting due to water penetration or line cuts. From the GFI boxes and heading out to the SSRs are extension cords made up from SPT2 wire. Each amount of current demanded from the string of lights is less than the rated load of the cord. On our system, we have 2 sets of trunk lines. One each coming from a separate panel box. Each GFI box has 2 or more GFI receptacle mounted in the box. A lot of cords running all over the yard leads to hazardeous conditions especially from snow and rain, so be sure to cover up any connections between cords with plastic wrap and securely tape closed. Keep connections off the ground if possible. Posting some warning signs like High Voltage ones will keep most curious onlookers off the grass.

System Layout - the long and short version

The entire system is actually a collection of subsystems each working together to create the blinky flashy effect associated with a good display. First, there is the computer to control everything and saying when to blink (or not to). The computer we use is just a standard Compaq computer off-the-shelf type. A specially made cable from the computer to the subprocessor boards sends signals from Vixen. The twin subprocessor boards are called Grinchs (the designer's favorite Christmas character and ours too)and are capable of controlling 64 channels of lights each for a total of 128 channels! (I want more channels) Each of the channel signals are routed outside to another board called a SSR (solid state relay) in groups of 4 channels. Each SSR then splits up the group of 4 channel signals individually and send the separate signal to its own channel to control a Triac circuit. A Triac circuit is an electronically controlled switch. Each string of lights on a particular circuit will all go on or off at the same time according to the signal sent to it from the beginning. Sort of the roots of a tree telling the leaves what to do kind of thing.

The Software

Running the show is a unique set of software called Vixen (named after the 4th reindeer on Santa's team). Every song is laid out in a grid with time along the top and channels of light down the side. Each section in the grid is called an event and is on for a period of standard time such as 100th of a second. Each event can have a light value ranging from 0% (off) to 100% (totally on)with any other value a function of ramping up or fading. This program is free of cost to download and free from viruses. You can get it at http://vixenlights.com
Believe me when we say that its easier to do the hardware for the display than to come up with choreography for 128 channels of lights. Others have said that it can take up to 4 hours of programming per minute of music but we have't reached that point yet. Don't be put off by this but it will take a lot of time to program your entire selections so don't wait for the last minute.

Musical Selections aka the Christmas Program

From the time we are little til we grow old, we hear various Christmas songs (which from time to time get stuck in our heads) that speak to us in different ways. Choices of songs can include childen songs to traditional church music to songs from television shows. The selection of songs of the display can be changed daily or not at all depending on what you like. Currently, we have about 30 songs we can choose from for the daily show. Hopefully, we would like to add another set of songs that are not directly Christmas related that can be played on a few nights to boost viewers. The Christmas Rock n Roll Show could be a feature to give your display some musical flexibility. Also audio tracks are not limited to music. Maybe you might want to add some Christmas comedy or voiceovers announcing some event or the like. Speakers set up in the yard and a FM transmitter is what we will be using to play our music. Please be aware there are noise ordinances in most communities so you might not need 100 Watt amplifiers to broadcast the Grinch song.

Let There Be Light!

After knowing how much power is available for use, then its time to pick what you want to light up. Choices include the house and its features such as rooflines, windows, doors, walkways and various other elements of the structure. Be aware that water is not friendly to lights so place them out of water runoff areas. Trees, bushes and other yard foliage is a good prop to light up as well. Some light elements you will have to create to achieve your idea of the perfect display. Light structures can be made in all sorts of shapes ranging from trees to trains and everything in between. You are only limited to the number of strings you can use! We started out by taking photos of our house and yard, then downloaded them into the computer. Using a drawing program, we sketched out where the light would be and after a number of times redrawing the plan, we came up with a good selection of locations to place the lights. Take time to consider all the possibilities and future expansion of your display. The sky is the limit (yes you might see it from space).

Electrical Considerations

Next, you will need a good supply of power. Mostly, this means good feed coming from an approved electrical panel box. Modifying panel boxes is best left up to licensed electricans instead of doing it yourself (that way you aren't in trouble). Not only will you need enough power to light your display but you will need the standard amount to properly run your home. Try not make your wife mad when you tell her to turn off the TV because you want to add another string of lights on the garage. Currently, we have a panel box in the house and also one in the garage. By sharing the load between the two boxes, we will have more than enough for the display and enough for upgrades for next year. Adding up all the light strings' amperage used when turned on, will give you the total amperage needed to distribute on the breakers in the panel box. For safety sake, try not to exceed 90% of the rated breaker load. Typical breakers for light circuits are 20 Amps. Thats enough for about 50 strings of lights (.33 amps per 100 count light string). Exceeding breaker ratings can be a bad thing and we don't want that at Christmas time. Also by using new LED type lights, you can increase the number of strings on a circuit. LED strings cost a bit more than incandesents but operating costs will be a lot lower in the long run.

How do you go about making a Light Display?

Once you have decided to make a light display, how do you make it happen? It takes a bit of electrical knowledge, a budget, a place to light up and a bit of whimsy (or craziness depending on who you talk to.) Best place is to start at the beginning with a place to light up. The more space, the better I say. We live on a corner lot so there will be 2 streets to view it with the light wrapping around the house and yard. There is also a street a bit higher from the corner to view it from.

Hello to Everyone and Merry Christmas (all year long!)
After seeing a local display of Christmas lights set to music, we decided that it was possible to do it ourselves and for our town. This blog will be a chronicle of what it takes to make a nice display that we all can be proud of. We also hope that it will be enough of a draw to encourage others to donate much needed food, supplies and money to the charities we are supporting. This year we have decided to help both people and pets. The two charities we are choosing are West Valley Community Services(Food bank and other services) and the Homeward Bound Pets Adoption Shelter. As our project progresses, we will update it here. Thanks for coming and Merry Christmas!