Kevin Cook's Computer Controlled Christmas Light Project

Kevin Cook's

2008 Christmas Light Project
392 Dimmable Channels with 80,000+ lights!

What initially got me hooked

All I want for Christmas Is

The ULTIMATE

CURRENT Setup Diagram: (Changes A LOT!!!)

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Adobe (.pdf)

I officially started this project in October of 2007. I realized there was NO WAY I'd be able to get it done by December of 2007, so I've set my sights on Thanksgiving night, 2008. I started ordering parts in Early December of 2007.

	FM Transmitter, RDS Board, Antenna, and "Tune To" Sign. Progress		The FM Transmitter will broadcast the music played by Vixen through the Vertical Dipole Antenna to cars passing by. The RDS Board encodes and injects the song title, station name, music type, etc... into the signal and FM radios with RDS decoders can display the information. The "Tune To" sign lets people know that the lights are actually flashing to music (Not just randomly flashing) and to tune their radios to 100.3 FM This makes up HALF of the experience! Without it, it would all just look like randomly flashing lights :)

	Renard Transformer (REN-T) Parts List Schematic Assembly Progress		The RenT is a zero cross reference and an RS-232 to RS-485 Converter. It receives instructions from Vixen running on a PC from a serial port via RS-232, and then converts the RS-232 to RS-485 and sends it on to the Renard 64 boards along with the zero cross signal.

	Renard 64 (REN-64) Parts List Schematic Progress		The Renard 64 is a 64 channel controller that receives instructions via RS485 signals from the REN-T. I am making 3 of these - 2 to make 128 addressable channels, and 1 as a spare.

	SSRoz (SSR) Parts List Schematic Progress		The SSR boards are connected to the Renard 64's via CAT5 cable. The Renard 64's send 5 Volts DC to the SSR's which in turn act as Solid State Relays that switch the lights on and off. I'm making 35 of these - (They are 4 channels each.)

	DCSSR Parts List Schematic Progress		These SSRs do the same thing as the SSRoz, but for DC loads, not AC. I'm making 2 of these. There is a special setting for the PIC Firmware for DC operation, and each PIC controls 8 Channels, so make these in pairs of 2.

	Renard 24 (REN-24) Parts List Schematic Assembly Progress Tips and Tricks / FAQ Heat Sink Group Buy		The Renard 24 is a 24 port board, but unlike the Renard 64, it is self contained. (It has all of the SSR's on the board.) I'm making 11 of these for the Mini Trees and Mega Tree - 264 Channels.

	Power Supplies Pictures		3 For the Renard 64's 1 for the LEDTriks. 2 Spares.

	LEDTriks Parts List Schematic Assembly Progress Wiring Layout		Parallel Port controlled LED Sign. 768 LED's per board. 2 boards / 1536 LED's total.

	PIC Programmers and Miscellaneous Parts Pictures		1. USB to RS-232 Converter 2. RS-232 to RS-485 Converter 3. PIC Programmer

	Homemade SSR / Channel Testers Progress		I made these 2 testers to help troubleshoot the SSR's when it's time to lay them all out. The black one is to test the signals coming from the Ren 64's. The silver one is to trigger the SSR's without a computer / Ren 64 attached.

	Mega Tree, Mini Trees, Rope Light, and Leaping Arches Progress		There will be 1 Mega Tree, 24 Mini Trees, and 6 Leaping Arches.

	200 Amp to 400 Amp Electrical Upgrade Progress		My house currently has a 200 Amp Service, and the Christmas lights alone will use 232 Amps!!! (If they were all on at the same time, which won't happen, but still!) Needless to say, I have to get the main feed and service upgraded to 400 Amp.

	The Lights!		What do 80,000+ lights look like PRIOR to being opened up and hung? I can only hope that after Christmas 2008 I can pack them up neatly :)