Currently ringing in the New Year 2010
(credit goes to Kyle for this one)
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Turn off the lights......the party's over
The board that controls all of the lights burned up a relay sometime Christmas night. It made it from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day, so ended up being perfect timing.
Monday, November 30, 2009
How it all Works - Hardware/Software
The controlling hardware is a “Kit 74"(picture below) relay board which is a 8 output lighting controller that hooks to a PC and provides 8 individually controlled plugs. A computer is hooked up to the relay board with a parallel cable and the lights are controlled by the board based upon the software.
The software application used to program the lights is called "Vixen". The programming of the lights must be done for each channel(string of lights). For each channel we have to tell the lights to be on or off at the certain time period. The time is broken out into a tenth of a second, .1sec for each time period. As you can see in the screenshot below, a white square indicates that the channel is ON while a gray square means that it is OFF. For just a 3 minute song, there are over 12,500 decisions (180sec x 7channels x 10period/sec=12,600) that have to be made regarding the sequencing of the lights. For each minute of a song, it takes anywhere from 1-2 hours of programming time depending on the complexity of the song.
The software application used to program the lights is called "Vixen". The programming of the lights must be done for each channel(string of lights). For each channel we have to tell the lights to be on or off at the certain time period. The time is broken out into a tenth of a second, .1sec for each time period. As you can see in the screenshot below, a white square indicates that the channel is ON while a gray square means that it is OFF. For just a 3 minute song, there are over 12,500 decisions (180sec x 7channels x 10period/sec=12,600) that have to be made regarding the sequencing of the lights. For each minute of a song, it takes anywhere from 1-2 hours of programming time depending on the complexity of the song.
New Videos
There are currently 6 songs playing in the program. Below, you can watch 4 of the videos. Keep in mind, they are not in the best quality. If you like them, then they are only that much neater in person. If you don't like them.....well then, BAHUMBA
Wizards in Winter
Aggie War Hymn
Deck the Halls
Dueling Banjos
There are 2 videos of songs that will be available soon.
There are also 2 more songs that will be added to the lineup once programming is finished.
Wizards in Winter
Aggie War Hymn
Deck the Halls
Dueling Banjos
There are 2 videos of songs that will be available soon.
There are also 2 more songs that will be added to the lineup once programming is finished.
Update
The lights are in place, the tune-to sign is made.
The light show begins on the hour (6pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm) and lasts around 20minutes. Tune to 88.1 within your vehicle to hear the synchronized streaming audio.
The light show begins on the hour (6pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm) and lasts around 20minutes. Tune to 88.1 within your vehicle to hear the synchronized streaming audio.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
D-Day
Set-up today: almost all of the lights in place
Power and controls hooked-up, just not in it's finalized location.
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