computer controlled lights -- was Re: [SGVLUG] [OT] Slashdot my server!

[Claude Felizardo]

On 12/5/05, Brian Belgarde <bbelgarde at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Amazing....  Thanks Tom
>
>
> Here's a link about the guy who created it.
> http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/xmaslights.asp
> There's also a Today interview with Matt Lauer on that page. The video there
> shows the house in the daylight with the lights on in the background.

[snip]

> This display was the work of Carson Williams, a Mason, Ohio, electrical
> engineer who spent about three hours sequencing the 88 Light-O-Rama channels
> that controlled the 16,000 Christmas lights in his annual holiday lighting
> spectacular (from Christmas 2004). His 2005 display includes over 25,000
> lights that he spendy nearly two months hooking up. So that the Williams'
> neighbors aren't disturbed by constant noise, viewers driving by the house
> are informed by signs to tune in to a signal broadcast over a low-power FM
> radio station to hear the musical accompaniment.

While digging around I ended up at the site of another Light-O-Rama user
http://www.plymouthlights.com/x10.htm

This guy started off with regular X-10 modules for a few years then
graduated to the Light-O-Rama controllers when he doubled his number
of channels from 40 to 80.  He too has his lights synced to music you
can hear from your car via a small FM transmitter.   X-10 is too slow
for dynamic effects like twinkling and shimmering so he uses x-10 for
the static displays and the newer stuff for the fancy effects.

I've always wanted to put up more xmas lights and Halloween
decorations but hard to justify as we are at the end of an L shaped
street and most of the houses along the way are dark so no one would
ever see it.  So I make due with my measly 2 channels of lights that
are programmed to come on at dusk and off by midnight.

claude