You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.

As stated before, the heart of the data transfer system is called the Grinch. The Grinch can control 64 channels and can be daisy-chained together with other Grinches for more channels. We have 2 Grinches for a total of 128 channels of blinky flashy. Over the course of a few months, the Grinches were put together, tested a bit and they were not performing well (to put it mildly). After using the troubleshooting guide for the Grinch, we weren't happy when it continuely failed (needless to say). Then rereading the forums, the troubleshooting guide and other people's problems, the following was concluded: I needed to place a 1N4001 diode inline with the incoming +5V supply to limit it down to +4.5V. Also upon closer inspection with a heavy duty magnifying glass, a number of cold solder joints were found. Adding the diode and reflowing the cold joints resulted in 100% operation on the first test for both. We were excited (I even did the Snoopy dance!) and then I was able to do the final assembly of the Grinch unit. The Moral of the story is: read the directions carefully several times if you need to before assembly. Doing some preassembly solder joints on spare matierial will bring your soldering skills up to par. Follow the troubleshooting guides to the letter to insure accurate test results. After assembly DOUBLE CHECK really close to see if mistakes were made. The show must go on!

Redragonlady and the Grinch.

The Meaning Of Christmas

What does Christmas really mean to you? Putting aside the religious side to it, look at what is left and what does it mean to you? What do you remember about it? What will it mean to you in the future? Take a moment and think about it.

Here I am with my sister (right) and my cousins (above) Age 2.

Crying on Christmas?

Santa and us.

Thats me in center behind my brother (right) , sister (far right) and my cousin (left).

There I am on the left side this time.

This one was from a few years before the last one. Thats a cookie I'm eating.





That me on Santa's lap with my sister and brother again.

To me, Christmas is more than a holiday or going to church. Its a feeling of family, friends and reaching out to help those who need it. Christmas happens when we need it the most and for the right reasons. Christmas makes us feel special and that in turn is given to others making them special. Its that warm fuzzy feeling everyone needs.

Go Fourth!

Where are the Stars??? At the Fourth of July when we were working on some of the light projects, we put up this special net light. Of the 80+ net lights we have, this is the only one that is multi-colored. We built a framework of PVC pipe and ziptied it along with another 10 light string into this 1 piece unit that we hung on our living room window. We got a lot of good comments on it and it will be in the Christmas show as well.

D-Fence!

Because we live on a corner lot, there is a fire hydrant in that corner of our yard. At the same time, that corner is also raised up about 5 feet from the level of the yard. We have some concern of people parking on our side of the street or of people actually entering the yard with a mix of water and electricity going wild. We decided that to curb (bad pun alert) some of that, we would put up a "light fence". The light fence is constructed of plastic electrical conduit and net lights rolled onto it, then ziptied tightly. Each section is 10 feet long and connects with the others to form a barrier that will be suspended about 2 feet off the ground in order not to block the view but keep that line of the yard clear of people and hopefully cars. Each pair of sections will have a SSR controlling it and the lights will run up and down the length of the fence. One street side will have a red fence while the other street side will have a green fence. The picture above shows 8 sections or 80 feet of the fence. This year will have 80 feet and next year will have 160 feet to completely close off the yard.

And now... The Star Of Our Show!

Every show needs an over-the-top light element to really bring out the oooh and ahhh in order to make the crowd remember it after its over. Every show also needs a star of some sort to pay tribute to that special star of long ago. After looking at several stars from other shows, we decided that ours would be a combination of some of them. We definitely wanted a 5-pointed star but also wanted it to point in all directions so that could be seen from both streets. We also allocated 4 channels to run the various sub elements of the star. Our star went through 4 redesigns before settling on it current design. As the channels cycle through star channels 2 to 4, it has the illusion that it is turning. In the picture above all channels are turned on and this will happen sometimes during the show as well. Star channel 1 is connected to a strobe light mounted in the center of the star to give it a twinkle effect. If we were closer to the ocean, it could double as a lighthouse, lol. Constructed of plastic PVC pipe, cut, glued, ziptied, painted black, strung with 2101 lights, ziptied some more, screwed together and rewired, it was quite a challenge to build. It will be on top of a 6' PVC pipe mast connected to a wooden platform held down to the roof with sandbags with guy wires securing it to the outer edges of the roof. The pipe mast will also be strung with lights connected in parallel with the strobe to give a bit of a boost too. The star will have its own SSR to run it and will draw about 7 Amps of electricity. Testing of the star also drew the attention of our neighbors and they really liked it.