Sneak Peek Telletran-style

Runescape Intro

Scape Santa

Sometimes hobbies overlap and here it is! A song from Runescape called Scape Santa (only heard around Christmas-time), coupled with a bit of programming, mix in a ton of lights and a dash of data and AC equipment to produce a dazzling tribute to both hobbies! Woot! This one is for Chief, Biggs and the rest of the clan of the Adult Lounge. Merry Christmas all.

Lets have a look at the whole thing before anyone else does! Lights officially go on December 10th but as usual, testing has to be done to ensure a flawless performance. Enjoy!

The Little Thing VS The Big Thing

Reindeer or Chihuahua? You be the judge.

With 9 days left til LIGHTS ON!, a lot of details have to be addressed. Some are easy fixes like broken bulbs or small repairs. These are always the things that will slow you down when setting up your show so you want to check over all your light elements during the year. Almost all of our data communications are in place with SSR O1 mysteriously missing (probably packed away in another box). Organize your items by type is the easiest way to keep things were they are supposed to be. Also, once your show is set up, go back to where things are stored and tidy it and reorganize whats left. You will be surprised at what was not put out for various reasons. Check these things to see if they will be needed in the future shows. If an item will not be used as is, perhaps it can be used in a project. Stow these items in a separate box and label it to keep it apart from your good stuff. Scrap the things that will not be needed and you will save on storage space. Allow a little more time for items that are new in the setup. Read the instructions if you are not sure how to go about setting items up. Remind yourself about weather and moisture getting in your cords or lights as its not a good thing if it all goes poof! A simple way to keep water/rain off cord junctions is to make a tape roof. Simply take 2 pieces of vinyl tape and attach them side edge to side edge with a slight overlap. Stick it on the junction without wrapping it around and it will act as a roof. Water will penetrate tape wrapped junctions and stay there causing a short. Another trick is to take 2 liter pop bottles and cut them into domes with long zigzag cuts to act as spikes to anchor in the ground.

Details, Details, Details! Now back to work!

Halfway there and lots to do!

All of the substructures have been put up and most of the lights are in their places. The inflatables are inflated and have stopped blowing their fuses. A few more icicles need to be put on the side of the house. Next will be the major AC lines and the data communication system with the audio system to be installed after that. Some additional programming will be needed to accommodate the new SSRs out in the yard but it will be a matter of copy and paste for that. Best news is that we have entered the Willamina Home Illumination Contest! First place is $50, second place is $35 and third place is $15. We are thrifty shoppers so any prizes we get will be spent on as much food as we can to be donated to the Food bank. I think we will finish in the top 3 at least (cross your fingers!). Also, there are still a few more items to be built or rebuilt so those things will have to be squeezed in there somewhere. All in all, we are on track to finish and test before LIGHTS ON!

Here we go again!

Its that time of the year again! Time to get going on setting up the new and improved display! Some of the old making a reappearance and some new stuff makes its debut. With the addition of new controllers, there will be more stuff to see along the side yard and in front of the shop. A few unusual problems popped including a melted data cable (total mystery how that happened) and a motherboard on Blitzen the Christmas Computer went kablooey! but all problems are solved until the next ones. LOL. More canned food has been collected before any lights were put up than was collected last year. Weird. Most of the substructures for the display have been bought out of storage and put in the yard. A new spot roughly 1/6 the space in the shop has be allocated to the new light storage and repair area. Shelves, part boxes and table space are now available for use in maintaining and storage of the light elements. The music program has been shortened by not using Intros. Although the controllers will be in roughly the same locations as last year, some of the jobs they did will be controlling other light elements. Also the start of the shows will be on December 10th due to costs for electricity. Nightly viewing will still be 6 Pm til 10 PM. Still not sure of the total number of lights but we are hoping to top last year because some the light we will be using are LED lights. As the price of lights drops, we will replace our strings with LEDs. Due to the number of reindeer collected this year, there will be a reindeer herd by the shop. Look for the sad reindeer, he is blue. Rofl.

Bulls on Parade

Each year, Willamina has a lighted Christmas Parade. This year, it is possible that we will entering the parade. First, a portable power supply was needed as a generator was not feasible for our Ford Taurus. Two APC's were found at a local thrift shop and will supply a total of 800 watts for at least 30 minutes. Secondly, lights draw a considerably huge amount of power very quickly so a large number of lights wasn't possible until we got a batch of 400 LED lights. With only 8 channels to work with, the Grinch and the audio system will not draw a lot of power either. Two strings of snowflake lights will added to the sides of the car with a inflatable Santa on the trunk. Net lights and more LEDs will fill out the rest of the car's twinkly surface. More issues like how to attach the lights to the car and other things still have to be worked out. Time is also running short to get everything worked out and find out where to enter the parade. Watch your step, that's the deep end of the pool. :)

Just the F.A.Q.s Ma'am.

Doing a big light show like we do, people ask us a lot of questions about it. Here are a few of them..

Q: Don't you have enough lights?
A: Actually, no. Lets do the math. The system has 128 channels. Each SSR has 4 channels each. There are 32 SSRs that handle 7 Amps maximum. The average 100 count light string uses .33 Amps. That means 2100 lights per SSR max. For safety reasons, only 1800 will be on any SSR. 32 SSRs with 1800 each is 57,600 lights. Currently, there are about 31,000 lights in storage.

Q: Does Christmas mean that much to you?
A: Christmas means a lot to me and my wife, each of us for different reasons. Its the time of the year we all need each others help and to spread some joy the most.

Q: Doesn't that run your electric bill up?
A: It does some. Last year, with almost 22,000 lights on the property, the bill only went up about 48 Dollars for approximately a month's time.

Q: What are you buying that for?
A: It takes a lot of items, strings and other things to fill up a front and side yard like ours. Each year, the display changes a bit and more things are needed to fill in spots or replace old items.

Q: What do the neighbors think of you?
A: Before we started all this, we went around to each of the neighbors on our 2 streets. We are on a corner lot so the display wraps around the front and side of our home. We asked them if it would be alright if we had a large display, they said go ahead and loved the idea. Although we have yard speakers, the music can only be heard 1 or 2 homes away. City ordinances say loud music can only be played until 10 PM anyways.

Q: Don't you think you are going overboard on that?
A: Perhaps a little. Every hobby has something that interests that hobbyist. Electronics, computers and AC wiring were what I do for a living and I like Christmas lights. The ooh and the aah factor gets me.

Q: Shouldn't that much money be spent elsewhere on other things?
A: Sure it could. Who doesn't need more money for other things? We only spend a little here and there so we don't miss it that much. My wife won't let me spend a large amount all at once and I don't think I should either. Most of the items purchased are from thrift stores, yard sales, Craigslist but not many from retail stores.

Q: How much time have you spent on this project?
A: A lot it seems. Its a year-round hobby and the display evolves each year. The bigger it gets, the more time spent in preparing lights, programming the songs, shopping at thrift store, etc.

Q: Where do you put all that stuff?
A: Strings are put into separate plastic bags and sorted into bins by type and colors. Meanwhile the larger items are hung from the rafters in the garage to save on shelf and floor space. The rest are placed on racks or up high on shelves.

Q: Isn't that dangerous?
A: Electricity is always dangerous. Combined with water from rain like we have here in Oregon, even more so. Each circuit is equipped with GFIs (Ground Fault Interrupters) in case of shorts from water flow or breaks in the cords. Also, I have extensive training in computers, electronics and AC wiring. Don't try this at home without researching it a lot.

Q: Why are you doing all this?
A: For FUN! That's what hobbies are for. Also, we do it for other people's joy at Christmas time. Pack up the kids and go see the lights! We also do it as a draw to collect canned food for the local food bank. Most people give at that time but its needed all year long. Donate some to your local food bank.

Q: How long does it take to put up the display?
A: About a week and a half if I do it by myself. Some of my family usually help too. There are a lot of items to bring out of the garage like lights, reindeer, AC cords, supports and other things. Tearing it down takes about 3 days and we aren't sure why that is.

We hope this will clear up some of the mystery.

If I only had a brain...

At the heart of every "over the top" show, is a small workhorse doing all the number crunching just so everyone can see the twinklys. While we do have a number of computers, some old, some new, we did not have one dedicated to the Christmas show. Recently, we found a good computer at the Goodwill for around $25. Most of its hardware was gone but it had a good motherboard and other things. Using leftover parts and a lot of software upgrading, we got it running like new. Please be aware that when purchasing used computers from nonprofessional computer stores, there can be undesirable programs, viruses, videos and pictures on the hard drives. Since other components in the systems that have names, we gave the computer a name also. Meet Blitzen, the Christmas Computer! Transfering all the programs, pictures and videos associated with the show to this one computer from 4 other ones was a challenge but worth the effort to have a dedicated computer for the show.