Our Vixen Sequences

Our 1st show was amazing and we would like to share it everyone. Using the Vixen 2.1.1 software package, we put together the following sequences. You can get them at: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MBSDJ3J1 This includes the profile, sequences, daily show program and music. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

The View

Now that the show is up and running, how about taking a look around?

A walk through the display.

A view from across the street.

A view on the inside.

A view from the Highway.

Finally Underway! Full speed ahead to Christmas!

Due to a publishing error, we started a day early. I'm sure this wasn't noticed by many but we did. All channels are working and there are only a few minor problems mostly caused by the rain. Still not sure when the Home Illumantion Contest is but we will continue to try to find out. A second webcam was obtained and is in the process of installation. Some items are still being made and installed to the system to fill out some dark spots. Next year's upgrades are being discussed and some rearranging will be necessary to incorparate them into the system. Some feedback from our Runescape friends has ranged from "cool" to "Awesome!" as they are from all over the world. Local feedback is encouraging as well.

Calm before (during and after) the Storm

Setting up proceeded well and soon was into the testing phase, when.. a major rainstorm then snow swept through our town. Some things were blown down and the GFIs tripped constantly (as they should) but the display weathered (pun intended) through it all. 2 days before opening night, a practice runthrough was done and some repairs were made, making the system almost perfect for the show. Some curious onlookers were spotted taking in the sights and we don't blame them, it's really cool to look at!

Still some details to take care of and some last minute additions might be made. Hopefully, the crowd will be generous and donate to our worthy causes.

Test 1

Test 2

Half Way There

Whats done:
Most of the SSRs are hooked up, the majority of extension cords are in place, the weather is cooperating for the most part, music program now set at 1 hour 20 minutes so there will be 3 shows per night instead of 4, almost all of the inflatables are set up, Santa is in his chimmney (twice), donation box post is set up, the star base has to be put on the roof, webcam ready, yard music system hooked up and ready, all software and computers ready, donation box ready, more stuff I haven't mentioned.

Whats not done:
Reindeer ( the whole herd ), 1 SSR needs new Cat5 cable, intercomputer audio cable needs to be made, sign for the signpost needs to be painted, audio for intro needs rerecorded to match current info, star needs to be repaired and set up on roof, some more extension cords need to be added, some rebalancing of loads are needed, some elements needs to be shifted around, doghouses need to be set up and speakers installed, even more stuff i haven't mentioned.

With 9 days remaining until LIGHTS ON, we are very busy trying to get every detail worked out and set up so we will have a good show. So far, no major setbacks have happened (cross your fingers) that we will be able to open the show on time. We are looking forward to opening night just like it was Christmas :-)

Let's Get Started.

Lights go on the day after Thanksgiving, so its time to get started on setting up the 2010 Light Show. Substructures and posts were set and some lighting were put up on the roofline. More gets done everyday and soon it will be time to add the controllers. Some songs are still being added and finishing touches are being put on others. Also some new elements are being placed within the existing footprint of the display while others are still being acquired (just can't pass up those good deals :) Extension cords are being strung out in an effort to know if there are enough (never enough lol) to power all the channels and elements not on the controllers. With about 2 weeks to complete the display, it sure is a busy time.

I Want To Ad One More Thing..

2010 TV Ad posted on Channel 15 at WaveCable in Sheridan, Oregon. Thanks WaveCable (and Donna :)

After all the work building light elements, constructing controllers and SSRs, crimping numerous feet of cable, gathering extension cords, programming songs and making structures for your light display, lots of people should come to see it, right? Build it and they will come. That's just something you see in the movies and perhaps you need to do more to get the word out. With our display, we are using it not only to spread Christmas Joy but to raise money and supplies desperately needed at this time of year. Some say that Christmas is too commercialized and I say why not use that to our advantage? Advertise your display any way you can, that is the answer. Our strategy was to use word-of-mouth (and a bit of bragging), small ads dropped in trick or treat bags, flyers posted on every bulletin board we could find and we even placed an ad on our local cable ad channel which was free because it is a nonprofit cause. Some other ideas to advertise are radio announcements, signs posted in your neighborhood, newspaper ads to mention a few. Let the public know you are there and they will come.

Food Supplies at Food Bank Critically Needed

One of the charities that we are trying to help this year is the West Valley Community Services Food Bank. On the front page of our newspaper is a story of the food bank and how many families it helps every year. Food supplies are at a critical level especially at this time of year. It is important that we all try to help this worthy cause and contribute canned food items as well other nonperishables. Donations of food can be dropped off at the food bank anytime Tuesday through Thursday 9 AM to 4:30 PM at 120 North Bridge St. in Sheridan. Food donations can also be dropped off here at 334 SE Ivy St. in Willamina (place goods on the porch in Donation Box). Every item donated means someone is not going hungry, and it will make you feel good too. Please help any way you can.

Live Webcam to see the Lights

Some of our friends will not be able to come see the lights of our show. We thought since they could not come to the lights, we would take the lights to them, sort of. TimberTownChristmas is pleased to announce that we will be streaming a live view of the light show on the internet. A camera will be stationed on the porch looking out into the yard and street. Hopefully, a better view can be had if we can find the right equipment. At UStream.tv, webcams can be broadcast for free. During offline times, a slideshow will be broadcasted instead. Some testing and installing a webcam still has to be done but with a bit of luck, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. We are looking forward to showing the world our lights. To see our webcam, click the link on the right. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

I Pink Not....

With all the vast varieties of commercially made light elements (and even homemade ones) to choose from, there are just some things that will not go well with your display. Choose well as to what will blend into your light show. A lot of factors are at work and will also make your viewing public decide whether its a good show or not. Is it the right color? Are there enough of them? Is it in the right place? Is it installed correctly? Does it have enough or too many lights for the element? Does it fit into your theme? Review all your elements to see if some adjustments are necessary.

In this blog, we have shown what goes into our display and as a twist, below are some things that will not be appearing in our show.

A flying Christmas pig?

Pink?


OMG!

In all fairness, the pink reindeer are part of a fund-raising effort to find a cure for cancer. We have contributed to this cause in the past (and encourage others to contribute) but we will not be putting the reindeer in our show.

Halloween 2010

Using some leftovers from a yard sale purchase, we created a small Halloween display.

Enjoy!

Adams' Family

Dragula

Ghostbusters

Munsters

Thriller

Werewolves Of London

Power up!

A large light display needs plenty of safe power. Two new circuits totaling 40 amps were installed in the house panel box. Each of these circuits are protected by the breakers in the panel box as well as GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter) protected where the lights will plug into. A bit of effort was required to accomplish this as it was necessary to keep the existing circuits from overload. It wouldn't be Christmas with no power to make with the blinky flashy. Some rewiring will be necessary to bring more feeds from the garage panel box for next year's upgrades. Also some more extension cords will be needed to reach the SSRs further away from the GFIs.

Deer Santa...

A good friend of ours gave us these beautiful cutouts. We'll post them on the side yard and string some lights from Santa to his reindeer. That way Santa will have some control over his reindeer by using the reins. Isn't that teddy bear cute?

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Included in the set are 8 reindeer with one of them having a red nose. Not wanting to have 7 deer and a Rudolph, we will paint its nose black to match the others. We will give all the pieces a good coat of clear finish to weatherproof them. Another item of the group is a Christmas tree and some lights will be added to "spruce" it up. In addition, some fence posts will be put into the ground and the cutouts will be ziptied to them to prevent Santa and his team from wandering off. All in all, we simply love this outfit and we are sure the viewing public will enjoy it too. Thank you Cathy for giving it to us.
`

Being put on notice

In addition to handing out candy for Halloween, we will also be including a small card with the treats going into the children's candy pail. Never hurts to promote a good cause. Our Halloween display has be upgraded from last year by actually decorating our porch with our new light system. Last year, we only had 2 Trick-or-treaters come to the door. Perhaps with a bit of flashing lights, we will get more of them coming to get bits of candy and maybe watching the show.

Hardware made easy (sort of)

Finally after several months of building, failures, testing, rebuilding and success, all of the SSRs are now completed and ready for use! Going through prototyping until final assembly was an almost grueling process to be sure. Countless checks and rechecking had to be done in an assemblyline-like procedure and was necessary to be sure of reliability and safety. A few repairs were needed to fix problems but it wasn't a major headache like the Grinchs. A lot of care had to be used to prevent the mixing of DC and AC voltages with the rain and snow of winter. The process will begin again after Christmas to build the other half of the SSRs for a total of 32. Shown above is the final product known as the SSR. Each has a designation (A1 to P1) and next year's (A2 to P2). The containers are mostly waterproof and some sealant was applied where needed around the cables.

Getting into the Spirit in Willamina Oregon

Don't be the guy on the right.

Willamina is a small town approximately 30 miles from Salem, the capital of Oregon. For the most part its a great place to live and reminds me of good friends and neighbors. Every year like most towns, the Chamber of Commerce for Willamina holds a Christmas Light Decoration Contest and encourages everyone to participate whether in the contest or not. While last year we did put up lights at our house, we were not aware of the contest until recently. Then one day, while I was looking at the Chamber of Commerce's website located at http://willaminachamber.com/community_events I saw there was a contest and thought Its' On Now Brother! We also encourage all in our town to participate in decorating their houses for the contest or not. Doing things as a community helps to better ourselves and helps us come together to help those who need it the most.

The city also decorates its streets with lights and garland, if you are in the helping mood you can volunteer (quote from website). November 7th. Christmas Lights will be put up. Volunteers are always welcome. They usually start at 8:00 AM by meeting at Coyote Joe's restaurant.

http://willaminaonline.com/events.html is another website for information about Willamina.

Local Artist Helps Out

Do you hear what I hear !!

For a while now, the second weatherproof speaker enclosure formerly known as the doghouse was given to a locally known artist for total makeover. For the longest time, the doghouse was an ugly dark green and was in a sad state of disrepair. The Artist is none other than Beverly Fetch of Willamina and my wife's mother. She accomplished a miracle in producing a weatherproof version of a gingerbread house complete with lots of yummy but plastic candy! Its gonna look fantastic out in the yard and hopefully nobody will try to eat it. Our thanks goes out to Beverly for helping us make a wonderful display.

Sign of the Times

Due to the large number of Light Elements to build this year, most of my builds were made somewhere between our garage and our computer alcove in the house. My wife, while a big help to me, still wanted to move it all out to the garage and for the most part, I agreed with her. There are workbenches and lots of storage for all the items being built or have been built. Now, I mostly use the garage to make the mess.. err make the lights for the display. One of my friends at work was joking about me being a secret elf, making items but not currently displaying them outside. So then, I decided to name my new build area and call it The Secret Elf Workshop. All good workshops have a sign to proudly let people know that they are working there and what they make. My wife did a wonderful job painting the new sign and then I added the lights. A lot of people have expressed an interest in animating their lights. Who knows, it might even catch on to being a seasonal business.

VIXEN in the off-season

Monster Mash

Time between Christmas shows is a long time to be sure, but what can you do during that time? How about giving VIXEN, the Grinches and the SSRs another job for other holidays? Having some spare time and Halloween coming up, we decided to make a small display using some leftovers from a yard sale purchase. Sometimes you don't know whats in the bottom of the box. Buying a set of 8 plastic pumpkin candy pails and putting a string of white lights in each of them, a unique set of Halloween lights were made. Adding a strobe, some strings, bone lights and such will round out the display when it is put up. Shown above are the pumpkin lights that were made and they will be zip-tied to the rail along with other light elements.

Christmas Future

It has just turned September and we are looking forward to setting up the display for this year. Even so, we are also looking ahead to next year with a bit of preplanning and also some wishful thinking. Next year's upgrades promise to be even more spectacular with the addition of 16 more SSRs! The Light Fences will be doubled as well as the Minitrees. Megatree #2 will be upgraded to match Megatree #1. Strobe lights will be added and the Side Light Trio will be broken up and each will have its own channel. The Secret Elf Workshop will be lighted including the back fence. Hopefully more inflatables will be added along with more roof lighting. More props and lighting are already in the works and probably some we haven't even conceived of yet. It will be interesting to see what the future will bring.

Reuse, Replace, Recycle and Restore

When you don't buy new Light Elements, then you have to use what you have or what you have bought secondhand from yard sales, Craiglist or wherever you find them . Buying secondhand usually means it's been used more than you would like. Having bought at least seven yard reindeer from yard sales, it was clear that they also were used more than I would have wanted. But oh well you find what you find where you find it. Hopefully at a decent price. Once you get your treasures home, you start by spending several hours replacing bulbs, straightening wire runs, ziptie-ing parts together, cleaning, repainting and testing. I managed to bring 4 of them back to life and near perfect working order. Shown below is "Prancer", one of the largest reindeer in our herd. A bit of time spent will bring a nice return once the show starts.

Shown below is "Olive". You know, Olive the other reindeer? This is what she looked like when I brought her home. Her previous owner obviously thought the more the better. But sometimes this is just not true. In fact, I was feeling a bit sad about how this poor thing was looking trussed up like a Christmas goose. Putting her on my workbench, I set about correcting her situation.

After about an hour of undoing the proverbial Gordian Knot, shown is what was actually on Olive and yes, those are icicle lights. The green string can be reused elsewhere after some new bulbs are added to it. However, the other 3 white strings will not be reused on Olive because of wire breaks that had been taped up. We might be able to salvage some of them to make other Lighted Elements in the future.

Olive after surgery.

When reusing strings of lights, remember that "SAFETY" is always more important than anything. Wire breaks, broken bulbs, exposed wire, bad plug prongs, wrong, burnt or missing fuses, burnt or melted bulb housings are just some of the things that can go wrong with a light string. Make sure that the strings you are using are in good working order before you install them. Properly maintained lights will insure that shock hazards will be elimanated and not pose a risk to yourself, your family, your home or the viewing public. When in doubt, just pull all the bulbs out and throw away the string.

When in Doubt, Throw it out!!!

Away... in the Manger

While walking along a street near my work, I happened upon a yard sale that had a 3 piece Nativity set for the bargin price of 12 dollars. Seeing that the set was barely used, it was a great deal and I purchased it. Taking it home, it was plain that it needed a bit of dressing up to make it a focal point for our Show. We happened to have some large oak pallets on hand. I decided to cut them up and make a Manger for our three new additions to our show. Also as an additional benefit, it will hide the ugly Natural Gas Meter. Shown is the difference between Night and Day viewing. When it's set up for Christmas, I'll add in some dry grass around the figures to hide cords and make it look more like real straw strewn about. Maybe later, we can find some barnyard type animals or if we're lucky the 3 Kings to go with it. It will stay lit and not flash like the rest of the system. Not all props are the commercial, non-religious type and this prop really brings out the reason for the season as they say.

SSR Anatomy 101

The loyal minions of the Grinches are the SSRs (Solid State Relay) which control the actual off and on of the light elements out in the yard and on the house. Each are made up of a number of individual parts all acting to perform the Grinches' bidding. We built our SSRs from scratch more or less using a pre-etched circuit board from Austrailia. We populated each board with parts bought from USA companies as shown below at center. In the front of the board is the connector coming from the Grinches that leads to 4 smaller circuits which in turn control the TRIACs. TRIACs are electronic AC switches and generate a lot of heat doing their job. To the right is a heatsink made from a carpet step bar using it to draw away heat from the TRIACs keeping them cool. On the left is a power distrubution block made from a pair of standard AC outlets with the neutrals (white wires) sharing a common path to the circuit board. Each socket on the block is independant and each has a hot wire (black wires) leading to the circuit board. On the pieces of wood in the block are pieces of masking tape to identify the job of each socket. As the system evolves each year, each SSR may change its job but pretty much performs the same function.

Shown below is the screen VIXEN uses to display current patterns of the Light Show. Black lines represent items which are being used as props, such as the star, house, trees and fences. Yellow lines represent AC lines running from the light elements to the SSRs shown as a red block. AC lines will connect SSRs to branch lines and then to trunk lines leading back to the panel boxes supplying the whole system with power. Multiple layers of systems acting as one make for a really nice display of blinky flashy. For our first year of computer controlled lights, we decided to only use half the capacity of our system because we didn't have enough resources and time to get everything online before Christmas. With the basic system in place this year, it will be easy to add the other half and upgrade the display with almost double the lights next year! Its amazing that with only 16 SSRs with a combined total of 64 channels, so much brillance can be created to bring joy and wonder to all that see it.

D-Fence! (Part 2)

The Light Fence after final assembly.

Christmas Canon Rock

We thought we were done with testing but we never finished the Light Fence project. So after a few hours of finishing the lights and setting up, a test was in order. This is the result of that test. Sorry about the audio as we didn't put the speakers close enough to hear it clearly. The Light Fences were created to mark the border of the yard so nobody will park along the yard or drive into it. Earlier this year, someone did actually drive into our yard off the hill and ran over one of our cherry trees. The tree is ok with only some scarring of the trunk on one side because its still a young tree and bent over when they ran on top of it. The Fences will be suspended about 2 feet off the ground as not to be in the view of the rest of the show. Because of a SSR shortage, there will only be half of total amount of Light Fence put up which will total 80 feet this year and 160 feet next year.

Introducing....

And now a word from our sponsors...

Actually, its our flyer and audio from the Christmas Light Show Intro combined. Or if you prefer, an InfoIntro.

Christmas Past

By now you probaly have a good idea of what kind of Light Show we will be having this year, but what did the house look like last year?

Almost looks like an ice cream sundae, doesn't it?

Redragonlady seeing her home after arriving from work.

The view from the street.

We think it will a lot brighter this year to say the least. A little bit of hard work will yield great results. We hope that it will bring out the Christmas spirit in even the most Grinchiest person.

Whats The Frequency?

Earlier this year, we got a very nice FM transmitter from a Canadian company. We set it up and tested it with very good results. We selected an unused frequency on the FM band and then thought all was well but..... somehow a few months later when we were retesting it, now there is a radio station on it! Rrrrrrr. We assume that its a new station or thats its bleeding over into the frequency we had chosen. So began another search and selection process and now the frequency is: (DRUMROLLLLLLL) 87.9! So now, you can listen to the music from your car on 87.9 FM. How do you know what frequency you can use? You can tune your car radio listening for faint static between stations or visit this website: http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/vacant
Add your zipcode and it will predict what signal strengths and locations for your area. I found its not 100% correct but will give you a pretty good idea where to look on your radio. By the way, the place where we got the transmitter is at the Canakit company. http://www.canakit.com/
We made 2 signs from plywood and painted them red and white to let viewers know where to tune into so they could hear the music. These will be posted on the front and side of the house.

On The Fence

Some light elements you will have to build yourself. We had this little fence that wasn't being used for anything and being only 6 foot long couldn't enclose much, so we decided to let it fence off the fire hydrant in the corner of our yard. My wife painted the tops of the pickets to look like lights and then I added a multicolor string of lights to accent it. Another cooperative effort between us resulted in a nice addition to our show. It will be attached to another string for power and it will blink on and off as the other string does.

The Craziness Continues....

Tis The Season / Zat you? Santa Clause

After a delicious summer BBQ, we decided to treat our guests to a preview of the Christmas lite show. (Actually, its just another test to check load limits of the SSR's, but don't tell them that ok.) Also it'll be the last test out in the yard until we setup for the show about a week before Thanksgiving. Please note that the light elements are not in their correct places and not all channels are represented but it does give you a pretty good indication of what will be there for Christmas. The results of the test proved that the SSR's could handle the load for at least an hour (the length of time for one Showing) and none of the SSR's showed signs of overheating. YEAH!!! Still a lot more work to be done and now we're sure it'll be completed on schedule.

The Sound Of Music

Finally, after several months of hard work, we've completed all the song programming for this year! We're hopefully going to have one set of non-Christmas Rock n Roll songs for one night of Rocking Out! There are more songs to program for next year, but that will be next year. LOL Below are the songs we've prepared for this year, with the Intro bringing information about the show. Enjoy!!

2010 Song List

00 Intro
01 Get Ready
02 Jingle Bells Techno
03 Winter Wonderland
04 Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
05 Hallelujah
06 Tis The Season
07 Sled Zeppelin
08 Intro
09 Zat You Santa Claus
10 Santa Claus Is Back In Town
11 Wonderful Christmas Time
12 Linus And Lucy
13 White Christmas
14 Run Run Rudolph
15 Intro
16 Wizards In Winter
17 MusicBox
18 Christmas Canon Rock
19 Santa Clause Is Coming To Town
20 Holly Jolly Christmas
21 Decorations
22 Amazing Grace Techno
23 Silent Night
24 I Want An Alien For Christmas

Getting Organized

Most when they see a really nice light display, they usually think its mostly outside where the action is but what is behind the scenes? Shown is my desk in the alcove of our living room which has the cable modem, wireless router and second tower (to the left not shown). At the time, I'm still contructing more SSRs and sequencing songs, thats when I'm not playing Runescape. In the center of the picture is my energy source, ROFL. However, when its time to run the show, this is where all the action will come from. Halfway up the curtain almost hidden from view is the FM transmitter that will broadcast the audio to be heard in cars driving by. Bottom center is the yard audio system that will be put into the doghouses. Stacked behind the computer tower are SSRs for next year's upgrade. Due to some shortages in matierial, the system will only be at half capacity this year. It looks like a bunch of clutter, but I know where everything is. Once the SSR construction is done it will all be cleared away. Getting everything done the first time is always a messy process and hopefully the end result will be more than worth the effort of getting there. Almost looks like one of those hidden object games, doesn't it?

Christmas Broadcasting System

I Want An Alien For Christmas by Fountains of Wayne

We had to make a number of cables for the SSRs to communicate with the Grinches. Even with a quality Ethernet cable crimper, we still had to test the cables so we set up the Minitrees in the front yard. Also we needed a test of the scheduler of the Vixen program so there wouldn't be any problems later. Combining the two tests, we hooked up the data cables, AC power cords and fired up the Grinches. It took a lot of patience to wait til it got dark and we got a number of weird looks from passersby but at least our neighbors were used to the crazy people at the end of the block (that being us) :) The end result was very cool and we are eager to set the rest of it up but its still August :( Its all good as we still have a lot of work to do on the rest of the system. Blink on my friends! A shout out goes to my peeps at the Adult Lounge on Runescape!

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.

Megatree Time

This is one of two Megatrees that will be in our yard this Christmas. The Megatrees are 10' high, 20' circumference and about 7' across at the base. The camera's flash washed a bit of brillance out of the picture but it still looks good. It still needs a bit of work but you can see what the difference is between night and day! 800 white lights and 800 blue lights twisted together gives it an amazing effect. Hopefully, we will equip both Megatrees with a star topper for added effect, perhaps even a strobe. With 16 strands total, there are also 3 controlling options available using 1, 2 or 4 SSRs. This year, the Megatree in the front yard will be using 2 SSRs while the Megatree on the side yard will only use 1. Whatever option we end up using, it will surely make viewers go WOW!

Seen but heard

In order for anyone who is walking near the yard to hear the music for the light show, a set of boxes were made for the stereo speakers. Think of it as a set of computer speakers on a 80' cord, hehe. Out in the yard near the front yard tree is a fake doghouse. It was a collaborated effort between us. I made the doghouse which only weighs about 15 lbs. Constructed out of 1 x 2 boards and vinyl siding, then painted. Sitting on top of his Sopwith Camel, is Snoopy, Our Hero! My wife did a terrific job on him! Between the two of us, we made a very nice weatherproof speaker enclosure and it has a bit of a "boom" effect as well. The other speaker enclosure is an actual doghouse of chihuahua size. I gave it to my Mother-in-Law to repaint as it was a hideous dark green. I gave her "Carte Blanc" as to how she wants to paint it. She's a well known local artist here and we're very anxious to see the results.

All Aboard!

All Aboard! Whoooo Whooo!
As I mentioned before, good deals are to be had on Craigslist.com. I was looking for Christmas items and I found this train. It was actually located about a 4 hour drive from our home but we wanted to go for a drive anyways, lol. Brand new, it costs about $300 but we got it for $10! After fixing some lights and straightening a few things, its good as new! My wife says it's her train, rofl. We will mount the train on 2 "sleds" for easier handling and will place it almost where it is in the picture in front of the house. In other news, Grinch 1 was powered up for the first time and had limited success in powering a SSR. Not sure what the problem is exactly but I think it's the primary data cable, possibly unused wires shorting together is my first guess before ripping it back apart. Nobody said it was going to be easy. HeHe. The first of the Light Fences were put together and it looks great. In a upcoming test, our 2 mega trees will be further assembled and lit up. That should be really Cool looking!

Sequencing Songs

Sequencing a song is not as easy as it sounds. After you find that song you want to put in your show, now you have to synchronize the lights to it. Making the lights blink exactly when you want during the song is called sequencing and its a bit tricky. Listen carefully to the song a few times and you will notice that it has a beat, different instruments, some parts that are the same, voices or choirs, sometimes different beats, silences, sound effects and even characters talking. A good show will reflect all of this at your bidding coming from your imagination. Think of it as adding layer upon layer of patterns until a full sequence is made. Every light element can be an instrument like maybe the lights on the minitrees can be keys struck on a piano or the star may be coming from a choir. All these choices are yours to choreograph as you like. Vixen uses a structure that has periods of time or "events" going across the horizontal of the grid and the amount of channels going down the vertical. Any point where these two intersect is an event that can be manipulated on or off. If your system has the capability, even to brighten or dim from 0% (off) to 100% (on full). A good sequence will have lights coming on to create the most dramatic effect according to the music. Also note that not all the channels have to be doing something all the time. Build the suspense to get that oooh and aahhh factor your audience will talk about long after Christmas is over.

The Primary Data Cable

The Primary Data Cable is the link from the computer to the twin Grinchs. Its a homemade cable that is made from a printer (DB25) cable that we weren't using. Only 4 of the pins out of 25 are used and are grafted onto another cable that is commonly used as an ethernet cable (RJ45). Of the 8 pins of that cable again, only 4 are used. It took some time to identify the wires leading to the correct pins and attach them to the correct wires of the RJ45 since not all cable companies use the same color code. After splicing the cables together, We checked and rechecked to see if it was correct with a multimeter to make sure it had continuity along the right wires and pins. We ran a plastic wire across the joint and ziptied it to give it added strength to avoid being pulled apart. On top of that, a good amount of tape was applied to give it a better look. This cable will be in the house and won't get any moisture on it (unless I spill my tea on it) so it will be mostly safe from harm.

Schedules and Updates

When you have a deadline to meet, its best to have a schedule to keep you on track. For the most part, this is a good idea and a fair percentage of the time it works out. However, life doesn't live on a schedule so its best to have a PLAN B. The arch light elements we had planned didn't seem to be working out, instead we changed that design into a "light fence" that will be 160' in total. Sometimes you roll with the punches. So far, we haven't had a lot of major setbacks (crosses fingers). Its time for a status report on our progress, so here it is...

Software: 100%

Sequences: 50%

Data Cabling: 10%

AC Cabling: 20%

Yard Audio System: 100%

FM Transmitter System: 100%

Grinchs: 50%

SSRs: 1 of 32 completed

Mini-trees: 50%

Mini-MegaTrees: 20%

Star: 0%

Light Fence: 10%

Christmas Sign: 0%

Santas/Snowmen: 75%

String Lighting: 80%

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!