Today's Light String Tally is: 46

New!  Download a QuickTime movie of our Christmas lights (The movie makes them  twinkle way more than in reality.)

XMASLights.MOV (1.74 MB)  Caution, it's a huge file. If you don't have broadband, too bad!!

There has been an unspoken competition among our neighbors during the holidays. The goal seems to be attaining the maximum wattage of Christmas lights without blinding any landing aircraft or burning the house down. Last year, one neighbor added two new 20 amp circuits just for Christmas lights. Ro and I participate actively in the competition. We have tried theme lights - a depiction of the cover of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon", Multi-colored arrays, lights upon lights, light blankets and so on. This year, will be trying a new approach: technology.

The plan is to use an eight-bit microcontroller to sequence the lights through various patterns. The chosen controller is a Rabbit Semiconductor Rabbit 2000 Controller Board. I selected this device due to its comprehensive set of features, a cool development environment and in-circuit reprogrammability. The primary consideration was however, it was free. I scrounged it out of the garbage at work. The Logo for the company is also cute. "White Rabbit" to those who may be reading this on the first of the month.

The plan is now a reality. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I mean a real long time... since I was seven or eight years old. I realize that it was a great expenditure of energy and brains to do something totally useless. BUT IT IS WAY COOL!!! Blinking lights have always fascinated me, it's one of the reasons I enjoy my work so much.

Click Here to See the Source Code

The High Power Assembly This converts the small signals from the microcontroller to high power lines for the lights.	A Close Up of the Switches These are the solid state switches that make up the high power assembly.
The Distribution Assembly Eight sockets are controlled by the high power switches.	The High Voltage Assembly Eight of the sockets are controlled by one of the switches on the high power assembly. One is on all the time and one is switched by the switch on the far right.
The Extension Cord Collection Since each set of lights needs its own circuit, lots of cordage is required.	The Whole Thing A little wood stand holds the completed blinkie thing. It is going under low power testing in this photo.
The Brains This is the controller for the blinkie thing. A Rabbit 2000 development board.	20 Amp Circuit A circuit just for Christmas lights.
Installed Here is the blinkie thing installed. Note all the cords!	Tools These are the ends of 8 foot long poles. Each one has a hook on the end to aid in placing lights on the tops of the trees.

 

UPDATE 11.25.01
By Nick:
When I installed the new circuit for the garage (Christmas lights), I used a GFCI circuit breaker.  "GFCI" stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. It's function is to trip the circuit if it detects even a tiny amount of current flowing from hot to ground. Many times the path from hot to ground includes going through a human. It is a safety device required by code for all outdoor and damp location circuits. It has been raining real hard the past couple of days and the lights are very wet. Now that damn GFCI keeps tripping and we have no Christmas lights... Weeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhh. I plan on connecting the lights to a regular circuit that does not have GFCI protection. So much for being safe.

UPDATE 11.22.01
By Nick:
The neighbors started adding more lights today. So, Ro had to install more lights too. The latest tally is shown below.

Happy Thanksgiving!

UPDATE 11.17.01
By Ro:
Well, with the exception of the 2 clear bubble lights that I've ordered from TheChristmasDepot.com, that should arrive on Tuesday, I think we have all of the lights up that we will display this year:

I may change my mind and get a few more strings, just in case anyone wants to out do us, but I think for the most part, our neighbors to our right, Max's [the cocker spaniel] parents, and our neighbors to our left, The Sousa's, and us will be the first holiday cheer in our neighborhood. For three houses, we generate a lot of light!

Nick will be reprogramming the lights a bit to slow down the "Vegas" effect, as when I was trying to fill in the empty spots last night when the sequencing program was on full-force, I almost had a seizure, but managed to stop fiddling with the lights before a migraine got triggered. After Nick slows down the program, the sequential switcher will still have all of the prime number programming components as well as the random settings. Should be fun to watch and we'll try to get a video bit on the site shortly after Thanksgiving (posting it before Thanksgiving would be way too obnoxious)....

Yesterday, when I was trying to take a nap (CNN refers to it "recreational sleeping"), Nick woke me up to say that the neighbors began putting up their lights. So, half asleep and not fashionably dressed, I shuffled out to the garage to grab a string of lights and grab a ladder. The light war had begun... After Nick ran the 4th heavy-duty extension cord just under the eaves, our neighbor, Larry, came out, saw the wires, and said, "What are you doing????" His wife, Reggie [Regina] said, " I told you already, Nick wrote a computer program to run the lights off of a separate circuit." "No way!", was Larry's response, followed by, "Not fair!" Then he went back into the house, only to emerge a few minutes later. "You know, we'll ALL get cancer." [because of the lights] Then he popped back into the house, and came back out a few minutes later... "I've got a Geiger counter over here, you know." All in good fun. They've got a red, white and blue theme going as well. Our main concern is that the planes at San Jose Airport may accidentally use our street to land! So, we are this close to being done-done, unless I see some houses that have more lights than us when driving home from work this week....

Saturday, May 23, 2009 02:35:15 PM