Monday, August 31, 2009

Less than 90 days to go

We're now "on base, ready to turn final approach"!

Saturday night I finished the light sequencing for "A Mad Russian's Christmas" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. That places me at 11 songs completed and 7 yet to go. Sequencing is where I'm feeling the most pressure at the moment for getting things finished.

Also over the weekend, I built 32 extension cords from SPT-2 wire and vampire ends. I have 81 more to construct. When the project is complete, I will have slightly more than 1/2 mile of extension cords.

I've received word from LED Holiday Lighting that my order of LED lights should be shipped/delivered within the next couple weeks. Then I'll be wrapping the arches and clipping light strings to my Stars, Poles, etc.

The end is within sight and approaching quickly!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Director and FM Transmitter

Today I mounted the DC-MP3 Director and the EDM Design FM Transmitter into a controller enclosure. Even though the box has a ton of mounting holes all over it, the combination of these two items in the one box forced me to slightly angle the Director to get them both to fit decently. Overall, I'm quite pleased with it! I'm running out of time this afternoon, so a full-scale test will have to come later.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Building stuff continues

With only 110 days until the lights are switched on, it is time to shift into high gear to complete the project. Light-O-Rama had their July sale. I have received the DC-MP3 Director and an enclosure to mount it in. I still have two more controllers to build but they only take me a day each to build.

The LED lights should be delivered mid-to-late August. I'm getting anxious for them to arrive!

Last weekend, William Morris helped me finish up the welding work I needed done. The Mega-tree Star Topper now has mounting hardware to attach it to the top of my basketball hoop pole with hooks around it for stringing the Mega-tree lights.

The 4th light pole now has a detachable cross beam which secures with 4 bolts.

The tomato cages have their tops welded together to make them into mini-trees.

I purchased 6 10ft sticks of 3/4" PVC pipe for the Arches. Cut three of them to 6ft and the other three to 9-1/2ft. They assemble with T joints. I secured the 6ft base of each one with PVC Pipe Cement and painted them Hunter Green. The 9-1/2ft pieces will remain "loose" to make wrapping lights simpler.