FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Where is your display located?
A. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Not posting my address/suburb up. See the next question :)

Q. Do you enter the Christmas Lights competition?
A. Actually no. Well not yet anyway. ;-) I highly suspect I'd cause a major traffic jam in our small dead-end-street if I did. Certinally notice increased cars "turning around" in the street without any public advertising at all!

ELECTRICAL / ELECTRONIC RELATED

Q. Your power bill must be massive!!
A. No it's not. We don't notice a huge increase at all. Infact we notice more of a difference in winter when running heaters and more hot water.This is because unlike the americian displays, almost all outdoor christmas lighting sold in Australia is low voltage based. So being low voltage, the lights draw very little power.

Q. What sort of current draw do all your lights pull total?
A. Tested it with a large UPS and computer monitoring software. It's around 1500VA, with 26 transformers and 3x80W PAR38 spotlights. Thats well under the 2400W 10A powerpoint limt. No problems of protection circuts tripping out yet.

I might also mention, that having a computer LAN and running those 6-7 high end PC's off a single outlet would be drawing loads more power than my entire display! :p

Q. Do the transformers get hot?
A. Yes, they do a little. Hence why they are spaced out (and not stacked on top of each other). Standing next to the transformer bank, sometimes you can notice the (slight) combined heat from them all.

Q. Why do you do switching on the low voltage side of the transformer instead of the 240V mains side?
A. Switching on the low voltage side is much safer and seems to work just as well, if not better. Also I suspect that the actual reaction time for the lights is quicker, since the transformer is already "charged". During testing, when I manually was switching the transformer on/off at the powerpoint, there was a noticeable (although slight) lag from when I hit the switch and the lights coming on completely, since the transformer had to get power through it first. Switching the low voltage side still has some delay for the lights to warm up (~40ms??) but it still seemed like it was a faster reaction time

Q. Do the transformers go nuts from having load/no-load?
A. They don't appear to. They all worked fine thoughout last year's display.

Q. Is the 150obm+LED in the SSR required?
A. No, these 2 parts are only required if you want a on/off status LED. I'd highly recommend keeping it there, as it'll make debugging/testing a lot easier! And of course, flashing lights are EXCELLENT eye candy for when showing people the electronics :)

Q. Why didn't you use printed circult boards?
A. When I originally started the project, I didn't have PCB making equipment nor skills. I can guarantee if I ever build another 64 of these things they'll be on PCB's!!!! I've since found out the hard way that protoboard construction on a large scale makes assembly extremely time consuming!!!!!

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Q. How long does it take to put up the lights?
A. Few afternoons after work + an entire weekend.

Q. Where do you buy your lights from?
A. Bunnings Warehouse (Hardware chain), Kmart, Big-W, Dick Smith Electronics, Crazy Clarks (discount store). Who ever has them on special. Even Woolworths supermarkets have them cheap from time to time!

COMPTUER CONTROL RELATED

Q. What software do you use?
A. I wrote my own control and sequencing software. At this stage, it's not being made public.

Q. How long did it take to build?
A. Abosultely ages. I have no idea of the total build time, but I've spent weeks of spare time on it..

Q. How much did it the controller cost?
A. Best not ask ;) $1, $2, 50cent parts sure add up after a while. But it was WAY cheaper than buying premade kits or SSRs.

Q. Where's the cheapest place to get electronic parts from?
A. Triac's - Jaycar, rest of the stuff was from WilTronics. As well as the local Dick Smith Electronics store too.

Q. Why did you use a parallel port interface and not a Digital I/O card?
A. Cost - Building a parallel port interface was going to be much cheaper than buying a Digital I/O Card with the same amount of channels. It also gives the flexiblity that the controller can be connected to any PC. This is handy during software devlopment, since my main computer is considerably more powerfull than the actual PC that will be running the final compiled software.

Q. Is there any performance issues of using a Parallel port interface?
A. Not that I've noticed when using an old Pentium 200. Sending commands to change the state of all 64 channels is done pretty much instantly. Switching can be done that fast as to create a strobe effect. The only performance issues will be related to how complex the actual controlling software is, particually if it's windows based and your updating the screen everytime you turn a SSR on/off :)

Q. How fast does the computer have to be?
A. Basically any computer made within the last 20 years, so even an old 286. But again, it'll depend on how complex your program is.

Q. Why didn't you use the DASHER software?
A. I wanted control software that did exactly want i wanted it to, so I ended up writing it myself. And it saves me $$$ too. :)

NEWBIE QUESTIONS: *** READ BEFORE EMAILING *** :-)

Q. Can you help me program my lights?
Q. Can you help me build my controller?
Q. Can you teach me electronics?
Q. Can you teach me programming?
Q. How do you program in Visual Basic, Qbasic, C++ ?

Look I simply do not have the time to offer complete courses in electronics or programming. This is very technically complex if you don't already have at least some digital electronics AND programming skills. Of course if you've got specific questions, then sure I don't mind answering them when I have a chance. :-)

Got a question? Email Me!