Tuesday, January 22, 2008

In Full Swing

Most of my materials have arrived (except Light-O-Rama controllers, which I'll wait for the Spring sale before I order). I've been spending every spare moment working on the Merry Christmas sign. It's turning out OK. I think I'm going to like it. It's pretty time consuming though, making it up as I go... but learning in the process.

I've completed M E R on the Merry and a C on Christmas. I'm using the Planet Christmas rope light method to get power to my rope lights. It's easier than I thought it would be.

I haven't come up with a final song list yet but I'm thinking I'll probably edit the ones I choose down to be about 2 minutes long each. While watching all the vids of people's light shows I find myself getting a little bored if they're much longer than 2 minutes.

I know it's early... and I may change it as the year progresses but I recorded a Voice-Over track with a welcome message and some standard etiquette suggestions (park with your headlights off, keep your radio at a reasonable volume, don't block the neighbor's driveway, etc.) I've decided to dedicate the display to Operation Christmas Child and put out a box of flyers with info on how to get involved.

That's about it... I've taken the day off work today to take a break and go skiing. I haven't been in quite a long time but we've found cheap tickets for Tuesday and we're headed to the slopes.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Materials Starting To Arrive

The heat gun finally arrived a few days ago. It seems like Harbor Frieght takes their sweet time. Maybe it was the fact that they shipped through the USPS that slowed it down.

My arch prototype is finished. I used the method most people seem to be using. 3/4 inch shc. 40 PVC, 8 sections of 100 lights. Instead of taping leads to the outside of the PVC, I ran 7 lengths of SPT1 down the center of the pipe at about 13 inches apart. I had to use a little talc to get them to slide once I get all 7. I'll post a how to at some point.

I've decided to make a "Merry Christmas" sign out of rope light similar to the one discribed on the "Christmas In Kent" site. My 2 colors of rope light arrived from Action Lighting yesterday so I think I'll get started on that.

Feeling a little overwhelmed by the cost but hopefully it'll be worth it when it's all done.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

After Christmas Sales!

So, I hit the last part of the Target 90% sale and found clear 100 light sets for 20¢ a piece so I bought enough to wrap 8 10ft. arches with 8 sections each.

I also hit the Hobby Lobby 80% sale. There's where I spent most of my money. I got 3 foot trees for $5 each. Multi-colored 100 light sets (for the 3 foot trees) for 60¢ each and a few other odds and ends.

I'm getting a little worried about the price of the Light-O-Rama stuff. I've already purchased the software and I've been playing around and I'm already up to a significant number of channels (more than a hundred). I'm not willing to pay the more than $300 for 16 channel controllers so I may have to learn to put them together myself.

I'm a little frustrated with the software. I expect it to do more that it will. I want layered effects (Fade-up and twinkle at the same time). If I decide I want to scale down a bit I want to be able to merge channels.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Why "Christmas on 2400 East"?

So, why am I calling my display "Christmas On 2400 East"? Well... Addresses in Utah are a little different than the rest of the country. I grew up here (and nope, I'm not Mormon) so it's not that big a deal to me, but folks that come here for the first time are sort of confused by the naming convention of our streets.

You see, most everywhere else gives their streets names. Names that make sense... President's names (Washington Street, Lincoln Avenue, Monroe Boulevard, etc.), names of gems (Diamond Circle, Ruby Lane, Emerald Street, etc.), names of local Native American tribes (Navajo Street, Cherokee Lane, etc.), you get the idea.

While we have a few of those in Utah, most of our major streets have coordinates for names. Somewhere in the middle of major cities (Salt Lake, Ogden, Provo) is the 0,0 position and as you move north, south, east, or west, the names of the streets follow suit.

If you go south from 0 all the streets are named sequentially... 100 South, 200 South, 300 South, etc. Same if you go north from 0... 100 North, 200 North, 300 North, etc. Same for East and West streets.

House numbers follow the same sequence. If you live on a North or South Street, your house number would follow the East/West numbering system. If you live on an East or West Street, your house number follows the North/South numbering system.

SO... if your address is 1655 East 1300 South, you live on 1300 South Street on the East side of town and your house number is 1655.

If you think about it... it's actually easier than trying to find 1655 Ruby Lane... While Ruby Lane sounds better than 1300 South, you first have to find Ruby Lane (which could be anywhere) and then look for the house number.

Anyhow... this is a pretty long explanation of the fact that we live on 2400 East, therefore...

"Christmas On 2400 East"

So this is a hobby...

Well, I've never been much of a hobbiest, so I'm not sure if this is a hobby or an obsession.

However, that being said, I'll do my best to chronicle my progress in this venture so others might benefit from mistakes I'm sure to make.

Let me give you a little insight into how I became interested in creating a light display. My partner, Ralph, and I have friends in Colorado Springs, Dan and his wife, Rusty, who began their display in 2007. When we visited them in December, Dan showed off the fruits of his year long endeavor.

Being the geek that I am, I had to know the particulars and Dan was happy to show me. "Light-O-Rama", he said. So, when I got back to Utah, I began researching. I began learning about sequence editors (which weren't that big a deal for me to master, since I'm already familiar with MIDI sequencing software), controller boxes, after Christmas sales, electrical cords, Mega Trees, Leaping Lights, hundreds of channels (and dollars), and a whole year of planning and building, followed by weeks of setup.

Here it is, January 5th, and I'm already feeling the 2008 Christmas Crunch! I'm WAY behind schedule. My arches aren't wrapped, my sequences aren't done (I haven't even chosen all my songs!), my heat gun hasn't arrived yet, I don't know where I can get heat shrink tubing locally.... what the heck is SPT-1, and why is SPT-2 better? WHY CAN'T I SEE THE PICTURES ATTACHED TO THE POSTS IN THE PLANET CHRISTMAS FORUMS!!! I may become a nervous wreck before this is over!

So, anyhow... it probably isn't as bad as all that. I do have a preliminary plan for the projects I want to complete for my 1st display in 2008 (besides outlining the house in lights):




  • 1 Mega Tree (hopefully 5 colors but we'll start with 1 to be safe)

  • 8 Leaping Lights Arches

  • A group of 9 small trees

  • A "Merry Christmas" sign

  • A "Bethlehem Star" on the housetop

  • A Nativity (starting with Jesus, Mary & Joseph... maybe shepards and wise men will have to wait until next year)
So, I've started gathering materials. Ralph shakes his head a lot but I think he's secretly as excited as I am.

I'm up to about 124 channels worth of stuff... gotta make it divisible by 16 since I'm planning for the 16 channel controller boxes from Light-O-Rama. That L-O-R Spring sale better be a doozey!


I snagged a Belkin Tunecast II from eBay for $11 and modified it according to the tutorial on ChristmasDisplays.net (it works great). I also picked up the L-O-R software so I could begin sequences.

I picked up 64 sets of 100 lights from the Target 75% off sale so I could wrap the arches, 8 sections, 8 arches, 100 lights per section.

I 've ordered a heat gun from Harbor Freight (it really hasn't arrived yet). I found the 2 temp model on sale for for $9.99. I'm not yet sure about what size of heat shrink tubing I'll need for the SPT-1 lamp wire I purchased.

So, I'm impatient and I started my prototype arch yesterday. I've found several tutuorials and suggestions (***). I was having trouble with wrapping since the Target lights are spaces 4" apart. They all seemed to bunch up on one side of the PVC. So, after a few trial and error runs, I think I finally have it. I didn't use the method that most folks seem to use, which is to wrap the string as tightly together as possible. I sort of used a candy cane stripe pattern up and down the section, criss crossing the string until it was used up. That seemed to work on the 1st section. I want to solder and heat shrink the SPT-1 extensions so I guess I'll have to wait for the heat gun and heat shrink tubing before I continue on.

I've been kicking around ideas for songs. I know everything's probably been done before but heres what I've come up with so far. This will probably change over the next several months.

Draft song list:




  • Carol Of The Bells - Monique Danielle (The best vocal version I've found... my opinion of course)

  • Mister Santa - Amy Grant

  • Oh Holy Night - Eric Cartman and the South Park gang (OK Dan, if you're reading this... imitation IS the highest form of flattery... or so THEY say.)

  • Feliz Navidad - Jaci Velasquez ( I like this song but Jose's version is a little outdated)

  • Christmas With A Capital "C" - Go Fish ( I got just a little more than annoyed with the phrase "Happy Holidays" this year.)

  • Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Cliff Richard (A great upbeat version, should go great with a light show)

  • Joy To The World - Mariah Cary (I love the 3 Dog Night/Christmas Carol merge)

  • Gloria - Michael W. Smith (From the 80s but an interesting twist on Angels We Have Heard On High)
  • Hallelujah - Lakewood Church (An incredible upbeat version of Hadel's classic)

So, that's about all I know today. Will update when I have time between projects, work and feeding the dog.



P.S. I guess my Planet Christmas account hadn't been activated yet because now I can view the photos attached in the forum posts.