www.ksoChristmasLights.com

[Anarchtica]

www.ksoChristmasLights.com

I just finished putting up a site for my Christmas display. I have used a lot of neat services such as a Movable Type blog, Google Maps API, Flickr photos, and Soapbox videos.

I will be continuously updating it as I work more and more on this year's display.

[Anarchtica]

The site has been completely redone since I last posted it here. It now has a How-To section that I continually add to as we get closer to Christmas. Look for more articles, pictures, and videos as I start getting this year's display ready just after Halloween!

[stempile]

Nice site. I have to work on mine. I am not yet sure what I want to include on it.

Suggestion: Update your howto to remove the bit with the cable modification and replace it with using this part: 636-RJADK25P7080831 (mouser part#)

It will save the person looking at your site a lot of time and effort. Before getting clued in on the connector, I wasted a bunch of time making cables in that way, it was no fun.

ms

[katie]

Hi I am totally new to this. I have been reading over this forum and the wiki how to's all week. I was really starting to feel like this was to much till I read the how to on your site. I really appreciate the simplified explaination. Having no idea how this woks, it really helped make sence of the basics. How soon do you think you will have the other instructions available? I want to put together a very simple set up for this christmas. I am not sure if I will have enough time, but I would really like to. Thaks again

[Josh]

Katie,
check out http://computerchristmas.com/christmas/link-how_to/HowToId-2/A_simple_8_circuit_parallel_box

That is a simple 8 channel controller. Not a large channel count, but it will get you up an working this year, and is fairly easy to build.

[Anarchtica]

Thank you for the suggestion stempile. I didn't even know that part existed, it would have saved me some time, lol.

The goal of this site is to make it really easy for people who are new to this hobby to not feel intimidated. For example, I am still new at this hobby and I didn't even know that part existed. What I am trying to do is aggregate all of the information that I've learned over the last year into one place so that new people to the hobby can have one place to go to. And that's the problem I've faced over the last year, all of the information is spread out over numerous websites and forums, it's hard to find all of the really good information in one place.

I plan on having the other tutorials done by Halloween. I am going to start putting up this year's display just after Halloween, so anything I post after Halloween will all have to do with this year's display setup. The reason I am putting up all of my lights after Halloween is because last year I did it after Thanksgiving, and I feel like I didn't give myself enough time to get everything setup cleanly and professionally. Last year's display was awesome, don't get me wrong. I just feel this year is going to completely blow last year out of the water!

Katie, I got into this hobby last year after reading THIS (http://www.spiffomatic64.com/lightshow/) article. For only $40 bucks I was able to pick up an 8 channel controller. That is exactly what I ran last year's display with. It's great for your first year, as you will no doubt learn a lot in the process. Unfortunately, all of my how-to's will focus on the Olsen 595 style, and not on this 8 channel controller.

[katie]

Ok this is where I am getting confused. Do you need both a controller and SSR's or just one or the other? In the link josh posted it looks like there are only SSR's and in the link Anarchtica posted it looks like a controller only with no SSR's. But on your website tutoial it looks like you need both. Maybe there are just many different ways to do it. If so which is the best and cheapest.

[Anarchtica]

Ok this is where I am getting confused. Do you need both a controller and SSR's or just one or the other? In the link josh posted it looks like there are only SSR's and in the link Anarchtica posted it looks like a controller only with no SSR's. But on your website tutorial it looks like you need both. Maybe there are just many different ways to do it. If so which is the best and cheapest.

The link I pointed to is just a simple 8 channel controller. That's it, no SSR's or anything else. You just plug a printer cable from your parallel port on your computer directly into the controller. What I also did was I took a power strip (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:US-power-strip-rotated.jpg) and cut the 3 prong end off. I then bought some really cheap 20 ft. extension cords from Harbor Freight for about $2 bucks. I then cut one end off of the extension cord and soldered that end to the power strip. I did this 8 times for each of the 8 channels. I then laid the power strips out in the yard, and connected each of the extension cords to each of the 8 channels. The Christmas lights then just plug into the power strip.

I believe this is the easiest and cheapest way to get into the hobby. The controller is only $40 bucks. I bought about 25 extension cords for about $2 bucks each. And I bought 8 power strips for about $3 bucks each. So all together for just the electronics it was about $114 bucks. That was the cheap part, I spent another $1000 just on lights.

[cmurray]

Depends... dont you just love that answer.

Fist there are at least 3 designs that have the controller separate from the SSRs

The original 64 channel Olsen 595. Is on off only no dimming.
http://www.christmasinshirley.com/forum/files/100_0448_1_104.jpg

The 64 channel Grinch. On off only but a low part count.
http://www.christmasinshirley.com/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=17
picture will not embed you have to click

The Renard 64. A new design that allows dimming.
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/3904/renardpopulated2re1.jpg

All these designs need 16 of these 4 channel SSRs to complete the 64 channel output. Cat5 cable is used to connect the SSRs to the controller.
http://home.sw.rr.com/bowf/SSRV2.4built.GIF

Two new designs that incorporate the controller and SSRs on one board are the..
Xmas 16 A 16 channel Renard dimming design.
You would neaed 4 of these for 64 channels.
http://www.ritzfam.com/ChristmasMadness/Renardx16SSR/Release/100_0088.JPG
too large to embed. you have to click.

and the
Frank's 24 A 24 channel dimming Renard
http://www.ahwatukeeholidays.com/2007/images/IMG_3021.JPG

It all depends on your display density.
How many channels you need in one location.

The 4 channel distributed designs are good when you need to cover a lot of space.
The all in one designs are good when you need a lot of channels in one place like a mega tree.

If you still do not understand keep asking questions.

Joel

[Anarchtica]

Wow, that was awesome jrock. Thanks for the post.

[katie]

Wow thanks so much for the in depth answers. That really clears things up for me. I did have one more question for now, many more to come later on I am sure. LOL How many strings of lights can you connect (if running them end to end) per channel without over loading.

edited to add: In the case of the power strip, how many could you plug into it without overloading?

[Dan Ross]

Wow thanks so much for the in depth answers. That really clears things up for me. I did have one more question for now, many more to come later on I am sure. LOL How many strings of lights can you connect (if running them end to end) per channel without over loading.

edited to add: In the case of the power strip, how many could you plug into it without overloading?

you should be able to run 3 strands of 100ct mini's per channel without a problem. Here is a post with some discussion about it. http://www.christmasinshirley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=626

[Anarchtica]

I just added an article that explains how to setup your display with an 8-channel controller. It is very newbie friendly. Please enjoy :D

How to animate your Christmas lights using an 8-channel controller (http://www.ksochristmaslights.com/how_to/index.html#article4)

[katie]

Thanks again for putting this up. I really like the idea that the board comes ready made. I am not very confident that I could learn how to put a board together by this year. This looks much simpler.