You can click on the pictures on this page for a larger version.

One of the ways we've use to make our display "magical" is  to use the computer to control it.  The system we use allows us to split the display up into dozens of individual circuits, which can be precisely controlled, dimmed, and to use special effects like twinkle and shimmer.  It also allows us to synchronize the display to the music we broadcast over our FM frequency. 

For the 2007 season we have 144 computer-controlled lighting channels (circuits).  The system we use is modular and expandable to hundreds of channels, if we ever desired (our first year of using it, in 2003, we only had 40 channels).  The parts of the display that are on all of the time are also controlled by the computer, but in a different way, via a protocol called X-10 (click the link for more on that).  

We utilize the Light-O-Rama lighting control products, which we first saw demonstrated at the PLUS Christmas lighting conference we attended in Nashville in 2003.  Light-O-Rama is easy to use and cost-effective compared with some other alternatives.  Being modular which allows us to buy only the channels we need and can budget, and expand later.

The computer which controls the light show is located inside our home office.  A single, telephone-like control cable is run out through the window and into special light control boxes located near the displays.  The boxes are linked together to provide a "lighting control network" of sorts.

For most of our controllers, we chose to buy only the circuit boards from Light-O-Rama, taking care of the enclosures and wiring ourselves.  This saved quite a bit of money, and also helps us customize the boxes for our needs.  Light-O-Rama also sells the control boxes completely assembled, and we have one unit of that type as well.

Most of our control boxes look like the picture at the left.  We got a very good deal on the enclosures several years back and they work very well for this purpose (unfortunately they are no longer available).  Each enclosure holds either an eight-channel or 16-channel controller board.  .

Here is the box with the cover open.  This particular box controls 8 individual lighting circuits.

Our original boxes, which we built for the 2003 season, look quite a bit different.  They actually use a food-type container, similar to Tupperware but a much harder plastic.  They look a little 'goofy' compared to the boxes above, but they actually work very well.  

In 2003 we built two control boxes especially for the  Mega Tree display, each containing two 8-channel boards for a total of 16 channels per module.  For the 2006 season, we eliminated one of these boxes and reappropriated the two boards for use in two separate enclosures of the style above.  One of the modules is still in use, and pictured to the left.

Here's a picture of the same box with the cover off.  At the time we built these, LOR didn't have a single-board 16-channel solution.  They now do, and we now use one in place of the dual-board module that we eliminated.

We also have an 8-channel box of this style for controlling the icicle lights, and some other displays. 

Here is the single module with the cover open.

Here is a screenshot from an earlier version of the software which we use to control the display -- the LightORama sequence editor.  Each row is a different computer-controlled display channel, and each column represents a timed event.  Events can include lights on, lights off, fade up, fade down, set intensity (dimming level), twinkle, and shimmer.

This page was last updated on Friday, November 30, 2007

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