LOR Secret Sale

Today is the Light-O-Rama Secret Sale. The sale begins at 2:00 PM Eastern Time. That's only an hour and a half from now! I'll be ordering 4 more CTB16PC Complete Kit Packages. Regular price $179.95, on sale for $149.95 each.

Thanks Bulbby for letting me know about the Secret Sale!

UPDATE: During the final moments before Noon Local Time (2PM Eastern), I was pressing the F5 key at the Light-O-Rama website waiting for the sale to "go live". As quickly as possible, I navigated to the item I was interested in and added it to my cart. At this point, the site indicated that there were 249 units available. I updated my quantity to 4 and checked out as rapidly as possible. As soon as the transaction was complete, I went back to check their inventory levels and found that they were already down to 192 remaining. WOW! Regarding this blinking light obsession/addiction, I'm obviously not alone!!

Light stakes and transmitters

With the regularity of packages arriving at my doorstep, it is almost like everyday is Christmas! Yesterday, two packages arrived. The first from Ron's Home & Hardware containing 350 Light Stakes for the perimeter of my yard. Including shipping costs, I got them for a dime each.

The second package came from my sister, Julie. She had told me that they had an FM Transmitter laying around from when they sold their previous house. It was just collecting dust, so she would give it to me. It turns out it is an AM transmitter, not FM. Oh well - I'll still get an FM transmitter and then I can simulcast the show on both AM & FM! I played with it for a while last night - it works. It seems that a line level signal fed into the line input needs more attenuation and EQ adjustments though because the audio at the receiver sounded over modulated especially in the lower audio frequencies. Another issue I'm not certain yet how to overcome is that there is a low frequency hum that is heard in the reception. It does get drowned out fairly well when audio is present, but when all is quiet, the hum is rather obnoxious. If anyone has ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

Mini light color caps

The color and black-out caps arrived from Christmas Light Show today. These mini light caps will be used on roughly 500+ conventional mini lights affixed to painted wood cut-outs. The exact light count won't be known until the artwork designs are finalized.

These little caps work very nicely on conventional mini lights; however they are to small to fit over the M5 LEDs. The picture of the caps attached to the mini lights was difficult to get looking even this good. It really does look much better in person. The black-out caps are terrific! They completely block all light from the bulb.

UPDATE: At the March Meet Up, I discovered that these caps will fit over the 5mm concave LEDs. These LEDs will not go deep into the caps, however they should stay on reasonably well. They also look very good over the LED light (better than the conventional minis in my opinion).

The LEDs are on order

The LED lights order has been finalized with 172 strings of varying lengths. This combined with other LED lights I already have will provide 10,435 LED lights plus approximately 500+ conventional mini lights for the show.

We've been busy selecting the songs to sequence the lights to. I'm either crazy or very ambitious! (Maybe a little of both). We've chosen 18 songs!! So far, the sequencing for ONE of them is complete. There should be something for everyone's musical tastes - chosen artists include: Trans Siberian Orchestra, Relient K, Veggie Tales, Lawrence Welk, Stryper, Glenn Miller Orchestra, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Point of Grace, Go Fish/Brad Stine, Wynonna, and Selah.

The Lights On Townley

I created a new website for the project: http://www.TheLightsOnTownley.com/
Be sure to sign the Guest Book!

LOR Sequencing

I have completed the LOR sequencing of the first of 18 planned songs. It is a fun artistic process that the LOR sequencing software makes quite simple. That doesn't mean it's not time consuming... it most certainly is - especially for those with a perfectionist bent.

I have ordered a bunch of Emerald Innovations light stakes from Ron's Home & Hardware. These stakes which come in packs of 25 will line the perimeter of the yard.

From the beginning of this project, I've stated that MOST of the lights will be LEDs. Of course that still holds true, but I have decided to not go 100% LED. I have decided to utilize roughly 500 conventional minis to illuminate painted cut-outs. I have ordered some packages of various color and black-out caps from Christmas Light Show for minis that will enhance the colors painted on the cut-outs.

A cable comes together

Since purchasing the 36 ft 50 amp cable with the RV plug on one end and the other end bare, I've been searching for the best price for a CS6364 twist lock cable end. Turns out, they are not the easiest thing to find. Plus, the typical cost is around $70.00 -- even on eBay! Finally I stumbled upon a website (http://www.bestmaterials.com) showing retail price $49.99 on sale for $39.45. As I was about to place the order, I noticed a local phone number on the page. OOooo! I could even eliminate the shipping cost by picking it up at will-call! So, for a grand total of $42.72, I purchased a CS6364 twist lock cable end! Tonight, I prepared the bare end of my cable and attached the end.
Tomorrow, my father-in-law will be helping me evaluate exactly what I need for the best method of installing a permanent RV outlet at the side of my house. He has worked numerous commercial jobs as general contractor and definitely knows his stuff!

Building the first controller

One controller -- in 299 separate pieces...
On Saturday I began building the LOR CTB16PC kit. The day started with a trip to Radio Shack. I already had a 25 watt soldering iron, but in addition to this, I needed a 40 watt soldering iron as well. I found what I needed with no problem and also found a "helping hands" project holder with magnifier, iron holder & sponge. Having this item was a tremendous help! However, before I had 40 components soldered into the board, its weight became too much for the "helping hands". Once this stage was reached, I used a roll of painter's tape to support the opposite end of the board.

Step 1 of assembly was soldering resistors, diodes and ceramic capacitors to the bare circuit board. At this point, I was beginning to get comfortable and into a routine of insert component, solder the connection and nip off the long leads on the backside.

The second step added the resistor networks and IC sockets. These items just barely poked through to the backside of the board. As it turned out, these items weren't any more difficult.

Getting serious now, the third step was soldering various ICs directly to the circuit board. Again, these barely poked through on the backside and by this time I began to feel comfortable with these.

Finally some proof that I truly was becoming more comfortable with the project: I forgot to take a picture after step 4. Step 4 added the status LED, pin headers and the fuse holders. Step 5 added all of the spade lugs. Beginning with the fuse holder and continuing through the spade lugs, it was time to switch to the 40 watt iron. For the spade lugs, the instructions stated that either a 40 watt iron or a 100 watt soldering gun could be used. I suppose the lugs would have gone quicker with a 100 watt soldering gun, but the 40 watt got the job done.

Back to the 25 watt iron for step 6. Voltage regulators, network jacks, a resonator and electrolytic capacitors are added. It truly is beginning to actually look like something!

Another example of feeling comfortable with the project - I again skipped a photo opportunity following step 7. Step 7 added the triacs with the 40 watt iron. Step 8 completes the soldering portion of the build by adding the transformer. Heat sinks are added to the voltage regulators. An 8-pin IC and the main processor are pressed into their sockets. After jumpers and fuses are installed, it was time to test!

I only ran into one snag. The USB485B adaptor configured itself on my laptop as Comm port 18. However it turns out the LOR software expects a Comm port number of 10 or lower. I had to manually change the port number of the device for it to even consider "talking" to the LOR network. It turns out, for what ever reason, my bluetooth adaptor was hogging 5 of my Comm port numbers. WHY? Who knows?! I didn't have the bluetooth adaptor plugged in, so I "stole-back" Comm port 8 for LOR.

I attached the electrical supply and pigtail outlets to the controller along with a CAT5 cable. Plugged 16 strings of lights into the controller pigtail outlets. Upon applying power to the controller, the status LED starting blinking right on cue as it awaited communication from the laptop. The status LED went steady-on after assigning a unit number to the controller. Everything was communicating properly. It was time to turn on the lights, make them dim, chase, etc. etc. It was a beautiful thing! But wait... we're not done... this was only a test - and fortunately, a successful one!

It was time to install the regular heavy duty heat sinks, prepare the cable strain relief bracket and rubber grommets, then mount everything in the plastic box and route and attach all of the wires properly.

Finally, the build is finished! Controller #1 is done! Doesn't it look pretty?