Hello from San Jose, CA!

Hello all!

I've been a Christmas light junkie for a couple years and I saw a post from covewi on the doityourselfchristmas forums and he had a link to video on this forum - - all I can say is WOW!!! My wife will kill me but I think I've found another hobby! Great stuff folks - I hope to start on a project (don't know what yet) early next year some time - can't wait!

Brian

That is great

Welcome to this forum, and good luck with your new project\hobby :-)

Btw:What christmas light project have been working on?

I did try some LED light on my house last christmas, but the color on led and the 50hz flashing (from the powerline) was not what I wanted.
So all my 1000 LED is now been used on other projects

But this christmas I want a WHITE tree that is prelite with built in LED..
Any ideas what to buy ?

Cheers

Brian,

Welcome to the forum! My story is just opposite from yours. I was looking for fountain info several years ago and found computerized christmas lighting. Now I'm really excited to be able to include working on laminar fountains.

Theron

hmm - I posted a rather lengthy reply but it didn't seem to show up? Let me try again...

Last year was my first year of using light controllers and I used two Light-O-Rama pre-built controllers. They're very nice controllers - built like tanks - but very expensive. This year I knew I would be adding more channels so I decided to try the DIY route. I initially built a controller called the "Helix" which is a wireless, standalone 128 channel controller. It's a great design but after building it, I had a few problems with it. Because of this I scrambled to get something to back-up/replace the Helix and someone had posted a simple 16-channel controller using a PIC 16F722 for the controller.

After experimenting a bit, I found it worked very well so I ended up building about 10 of these which I will be using to run regular mini/LED light strings (120VAC) but also some LED strips using 5VDC. The strips use 18 RGB SuperFlux/Piranha LEDs and are very bright. I will be using these to cast light down the front of my house and I will have 19 of them spread out under the eaves of my house.

I'm afraid I don't have any recommendations for you for a pre-lit tree - - however if price is no object check out http://www.galaxialighting.com - very cool (but VERY pricey) stuff. I think they have some demos of their lights on a christmas tree with video on it!

Anyway - if you are interested in Christmas light stuff be sure to check out the doityourselfchristmas.com forums - it's a great site. They have several DIY light controllers available there - most use the "Renard" protocol developed by one of the forum members and some use standard DMX.

Thanks for the Welcome! I'll probably start to look more into your side of things after the holidays.

Hey Brian! Glad to have you! This forum is a great place. Everyone here is helpful and nice. If you have any questions just ask.

I know you just joined up, but what are your goals for this project?

Hi John -

I'm not 100% sure but was thinking of creating two fountains for my backyard pool area - it would be great to draw the water from the pool but I understand there may be issues with that and the chemicals used. If that could work though it would be perfect for me.

Brian

I'm not aware of any issues stemming from the chemical that they put in the pools. In fact I think most ponds and fountains have to have some chemicals in it. There's a builder/maker here named covewi. I believe he is planning on putting it in his pool. That seems like a good idea to me. Now I just need a pool.

Are you planning on putting lights and cutting to it?

What do you do for a living?

Actually it's covewi's "fault" that lead me to this forum!

Definitely will be adding lights - cutters maybe... if I can figure out how to get them working... I still have a lot of studying to do! I just find it amazing that a pile of PVC pipes and drinking straws can turn into these cool displays! (not to make it sound too simple of course!)

I test 802.11 wireless network gear for a living and specifically healthcare devices (patient monitors, IV pumps, phones, etc).