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. 
