New Pictures Added
Saturday, 23rd December 2006
I've now uploaded some new pictures! Enjoy!

I hope to organise a video of the computer animation/sequencing shortly too!



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More Pictures coming soon!
Friday, 22nd December 2006
Over the past few days, I've had some time to put up some more lights. I've taken new photos and am planning on uploading them later today.


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First 2006 Photos Online!
Monday, 11th December 2006
At last, I have had a chance to take some photos of the Christmas Light display so far. You can see them here. This is still work in progress - I still have some more lights to go up yet!

I'm yet to sit down and work out the total number of lights, but I think it's getting close to the 5000 mark.

Hopefully I'll have it finished BY Christmas!



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Computer Choice Magazine Article Online
Monday, 11th December 2006
As previously mentioned, I was interviewed by Australia's Computer Choice magazine. You can now read the interview on the CHOICE website.


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Nearly Finished
Sunday, 10th December 2006
Well I've almosted finished putting up the lights now. I've not been working on the lights non-stop - it does seem to be taking forever to do. Only got a few more sets to put up and wire in. Hopefully I shall have photos online soon!


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Setup Started
Tuesday, 28th November 2006
Last weekend I started putting up the lights. It's been so hot that I haven't properly worked on them before 3pm.

So far:
* Twin 500W floodlights have been mounted on top of the fence. These can light the entire roof of the house at night. They'll also light up 3 houses down the road if I'm not careful! This should be handy for when doing nighttime repairs.
* The "green" tree to the right of the driveway has been chopped down. Only the trunk remains.
* This trunk was extended, and a Christmas tree was formed using 8 packs of 150 clear lights. These 8 circuits have been wired back to the garage and are now working.
* The external 8 channel controller box has finally had it's cable extended, so it can be located on the opposite side of the garage. These 8 channels control the Christmas tree.
* The green spotlight is now located on top of this Christmas tree. A star will be added (once made) and this should hide the spotlight itself.
* 8 packs of the MortBay 'Chasing' Lights have been stuck to the roof line & front of the house. These will be wired in tomorrow.
* And the garage floor is covered in lights, cables and other bits. :D

Now for the bad news: I am also a little disappointed with the new chasing lights. They are only wired as 3 channels/circuits, intead of the previous norm of 4 channels! This kinda stuffs up the existing patterning and timing for the computer control. I do have an idea of how to update the software to support this - so time will tell has to how much of a real pain it is.

One thing is for sure - They aren't wired as the 4 seperate Red/Green/Blue/Yellow Channels. :( Instead they have 5 colours (red/green/blue/yellow/pink) wired over just the 3 channels. I'll find out how it really looks tomorrow night. Hopefully it won't look that bad. :s

Stay tuned - Pictures are coming soon!



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Planning Begun
Wednesday, 15th November 2006
Today I purchased 16 packs of 150 Fairy Lights, adding/replacing 2,400 bulbs.

Fairy Lights are cheaper than ever this year: AU$7.78 for a pack of 150 Coloured "Mort Bay" lights. Or ~$13.50 for 150 "Mort Bay" Coloured Chasers.

Arlec have 150 packs of clear or coloured for AU$7.95. These are slightly more expensive but have an advantage in the power outlet department. The MortBay's have a fat plugpack transformer unlike the Arlec's separate transformer. Having a fat plugpack means you usually loose 1 or 2 power outlets on a powerboard unless you are using the $$$ powerboards that are designed for plugpacks & transformers.


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Interview with Computer CHOICE Magazine
Friday, 3rd November 2006
Recently I was interviewed by Computer CHOICE magazine. You can read the interview in the current (Nov/Dec 2006) issue of the magazine.

In other news, I'm going to have to go shopping for new Christmas Lights soon. I'll need to replace quite a few this year.

Stay tuned. :)


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Lights to be Back for 2006
Friday, 29th September 2006
There's been a bit of interest from friends and this website lately, so I've decided that I will once again be putting up Christmas Lights this year!

I'm expecting I'll have to replace a lot of the lights this year. They'll still be computer controlled of course. Foreunately the controller still works perfectly after sitting unused for almost 2 years now. (Remember, I didn't put up lights last Christmas!)

Stay tuned!



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Merry Christmas!
Sunday, 25th December 2005
I hope everyone's having a great Christmas! I know I have!


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First News for 2005!
Friday, 23rd December 2005
Hello Everyone!

The news section is now working again! Seems the script got busted sometime though the year. More importantly, this year I've not put up any lights, hence the lack of website updates. The reason I've not put up any lights this year is because I've simply not had the spare time, due to changing work locations, increased travel time, being too tired, having to go out on weekends, a life heh, etc, etc.

I've had a couple of emails recently, addressing these questions mainly:
Question 1) What's your address - we'd love to come and have a look!
Answer 1) The lights aren't up this year!

Question 2) I want to computer control my own Christmas lights! Or I'm an electronics guru however I've no idea how to program. Or I know nothing about either topic. Where do I start?
Answer 2) If your experienced in electronics/programming, look at www.computerchristmas.com. Otherwise there's commercial computer software & controllers premade kits for Christmas lights now, so it's just a matter of plugging everything in and a few mouse clicks. Try checking out some Christmas light shop websites, like those that advertise on this site.

Question 3) Will my controller work with commercial Xmas light software like Dasher, Comet, or Light-O-Rama.
Answer 3) I don't think so. Check ComputerChristmas.com




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Finally a VIDEO of the lights in action!!!
Saturday, 25th December 2004
I've now got a video uploaded of the lights in action! Click here to download the video. It's about 3mins long and 8.5meg in size, and in Windows Media format. I recommend you "save" (or right click, save target as) the file to your computer rather than trying to play it directly off the internet.


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Some Interesting Facts
Friday, 17th December 2004
* Theres around 5000-6000 Lights.
* Up to 64 Lighting channels/circuits that can be computer controlled. Around 56 of which are use at the moment.
* Over 20 meters of gaffer tape was used to attach the lights to the roof! That's excluding the gutters - they are twister tied on using gardening-grade wire.
* At least 2 kilometers of low voltage power cable to connect the lights back to the computer/transformers.
* Electrical Power Consumption is around ~1500-1700W max. This is often a lot less if not many of the lights are on. But when they are, the power load goes right back up again.
* Took about 2 weeks of spare time to setup - although it ended up being 3 weeks cause of a week of rain. Not a good idea to climb on a wet roof or be under wet branches otherwise :)
* The controller computer runs custom software that I've written for this purpose. One program does the "controlling" and there's another program for creating the actual lightshow sequences. This is much like a storyboard style editor, with multiple channels and patterns are dropped in to place on a timeline. (Similar concept to Video Editing Software, like Windows Movie Maker, Ulead, etc - expect a bit more complex!!)
* Normally the Computer loops the preset lighting sequence, expect for testing there's an override ability to manually turn lighting circuits on/off or have them all flash, etc. This Makes it a lot easier to setup, test and "debug".
* The Security department has not been overlooked - however I'm not talking about that for obvious reasons :)
* A Laptop with Wireless Networking can be used to remote control the entire display from across the street or down the road!
* And in theory, I could remote control the entire entire display from the Internet, since the software driving the display has client/server TCP/IP ability.


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ComputerChristmas.com
Thursday, 16th December 2004
Looking for more information about Computer Controlling your Christmas Light Display? Checkout ComputerChristmas.com! If it wasn't for this site, I probably would've never got this far :)


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