Christmas Lights Synchronized to Music
If you came by and caught some nice photos or a video you would like to share, contact us via the Contact Us page, or link to it (them) on the Visitor Comments page. It’s always fun to see what others liked about the show 🙂
After tomorrow, it looks like we aren’t going get above freezing for a week or so. As I see it, that gives everyone a couple options: -Come out and see the lights tonight while it is still warm. Tune into 101.7, and watch the lights from the comfort of your car, windows up or windows […]
KCRM has published their 2013 Holiday newsletter. There is a blurb about our display on the bottom of page 2. Pretty neat: 2013-holiday-connection Page 3 includes current lists of needs at both the men’s and women’s centers, so if you feel inclined to help out, that is a good way to start. If you prefer […]
At the least there was a lot of rushing 🙂 A big thank you to my dad, who helped through crunch time getting everything up and going. We managed to get the show together and kick it off Thanksgiving night, only about 5 minutes later than planned. After a few tweaks outside on Friday, we decorated […]
I’ve been spending a lot of time on the display the last couple of weeks, and have been neglecting to post any updates. We have made a good amount of progress. The main display area is all set up, and will be wired and tested this coming weekend. The roofline and snowflakes are up. The […]
I have been spending a lot of time on the display prep, and consequently, the frequency of my posts has suffered. I did take some time over the last couple days and I managed to clear up a couple conflicts and get my calendar plug-in up and running. I have added some dates that I […]
Most people are familiar with earworms- that song, or chunk of a song, that gets stuck in your head, looping relentlessly until you have to go find something else to listen to. Of course, if it works, you then have a new earworm… but I digress… Sequencing songs for our light show is akin to […]
One of the things I am asked about regularly is where I found my props for the display. Most of the items in our display are hand built. I do this for two main reasons: you won’t see 30 of them in other yards on the way home, and it’s generally cheaper. I am adding […]
Those big round numbers make good measuring marks… Yesterday this site had it’s 9000th view. I remember being excited about the first 100 or so 🙂 As the date draws nearer for the show kickoff, we will look to spread the word and get as many views as possible. More progress notes: -Window frames built […]
I might actually get this stuff done in time 🙂 I made a lot of progress over the last few days: -Finished wiring up 16 SSRs. Now they just need to be stuffed into enclosures. -Cut and ended wiring for the last two unmounted controllers. I will assemble these as soon as they enclosures arrive. […]
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Well, I have approximately five weeks before I start putting stuff out in the yard. From past experience, I can say that it will fly by, and there will suddenly be the need for late nights, early mornings, playing hooky from work, and probably other means of making up time to get it all together. […]
After another round of testing, I have all of the new electronics for this show functional. These include three new SS24, the two new RP32, and also repaired SS8 and SS16 controllers that were swapped out during last year’s show. That is about 160 channels worth 🙂 Now I need to spend a little […]
Soldering iron, that is. I completed two new low-voltage controllers last night: These are going to used for the new strobes that I am building. We’ll see if we can add some more sparkle to the display 🙂 I think these are the last of the controller additions that I needed for this season. […]
More concrete progress on the show: -I have completed two 32 channel controllers and have them ready to go. Here is the first one, shown while programming the onboard microprocessor: Here is a shot of the second one, set up with a snap-in board for wireless operation: -I have come up with a bunch of […]
I was contacted yesterday by Julie @ KCRM. They are going to include a write-up about our display in their Christmas Season newsletter this year. I think that is pretty awesome. The more publicity we can garner, the more support we can provide to them. Its a win-win. If you have media outlets at your […]
…and got a heck of a deal in the process. I stumbled across a Craigslist ad in a town a couple of hours away in which an entire display was listed for sale. I talked with the owner and he was in the process of moving, a little burned out, and ready to start over […]
I have had several people ask me about what the sequencing software looks like, how I lay everything out, etc. I took a quick screen capture of one of my short bits in the sequencing window, scrolling through the channel list, and then playing it in the preview window that I made. I will give […]
The KCRM has published their Winter 2013 newsletter: Nice to see that the Women’s Center has progressed so well (see page 4). Looking forward to collecting for them again this season. Be sure remember that the links on our Donations Page are functional year-round. If you are on facebook , you can also like and follow them […]
…at least as far a the display is concerned 🙂 I finished the Profile file last night. This file is where the entire layout is assigned channel numbers and grouped to begin sequencing. This is a big step, because now my actual sequences can be made. Several of last year’s sequences will be revised to […]
I am making small, but sure, strides forward in preparation for this year’s display. As of tonight, I *think* I have all the audio picked out, with a total of 28 tracks for this year, including both new music and pop culture bits. The show playlists will vary this year, rather than being the same […]
Some more progress is being made: -If you poke around the site, you will see a new calendar being implemented for show information. You will also notice some new logos and links as I freshen some areas of the site. -I have purchased new ‘tune-to’ banners with the website info on them rather than the […]
It’s been pretty quiet, as far as our show goes. I have done a few things: -I managed to build another Ren SS24 last weekend, which was the last unbuilt controller I had from last year’s group buys. -I picked at my backup FM transmitter and the RDS board I bought to integrate into it. […]
We collected a little over $320 during the lights show this year, and then padded it out to an even $350 that we will be giving to the Kansas City Rescue Mission. I don’t know what they will use it for specifically, but using their Thanksgiving meal campaign amount of $2.07, that would cover almost […]
It is hard to believe that the time has come to shut it all down already. All in all, it was a good year with the display. We had less traffic this year, probably due to the new location and being included in a different part of the driving tour. Even with that, we had […]
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