StempleLABS Projects

Used for inital leanring and work with the Renard dimmer:
http://www.microchipdirect.com/productsearch.aspx?Keywords=DV164120

~$50 Kit when ordered from Micro

12/13/2006 News cast weather will include Mary and Dan from across the street. Looking forward to seeing the footage.

As News10 was filming my computer lights, their display was also filmed. Hope that it helps with their food drive!

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Tonight Brandon, a from Sacramento News10 called about doing a segment on my Computer lighting display. Was not sure what he was looking for but it was fun.  He came and taped the computer and dimmer controls, lots of angles of the house, talked to the neighbors and filmed both the MSR-  Carole of the Bells and TSO - Wizzards of Winter sequences.  I am looking forward to seeing it on the news and posted on www.news10.net.

I want to thank my neighbors Paul, Dan, Dan Cherrie, Mary, Marilee for their support and positive feed back.  Thanks to Dan and Mary for turning off their lights while filming, and to Paul and Cherrie for also turning off their lights during filming.

I was hoping that besides the technical stuff I mentioned a thanks to all the other DIY people over computerchristmas.com!!  Also I want to remember my Grandma Betty who always let me play with Christmas lights all year round!

Sandi got some air time too.  She was very supportive and I am really lucky to have found her!  I love you Sandi!

I will post links to the new stories and videos when I get them.

Investigation continues into why the Rainbow FMC2000 Kit isn’t working. I will have James from work take a look at it. Might have a part in the wrong stop?? Testing was promising, but the single was not full. Hope to have the transmitter running by Thursday so I don’t have to play the music through the speakers. I have heard these songs enough for the year… Still need to create a sign for passers by.

Also seeing a lot of people stopping to look at all of the lights on the block, but we still have people speeding though. I hope that there isn’t going to be an accident.

I updated the Vixen Times to running the following:

12a-5p - Everything_Off Seq - Sends an off to every channel every second.  T
5p-5:30 - No_music Program - Will hold lights only sequences with no Music
5:30p - 9:00p - 2006 Program 1 - Will contain songs and no music sequences as filler ~ 15 minutes
9p-10p - No_music Program
10p-12a - Everything_Off Seq

At this point all timers are set to run as repeating.

Currently running Vixen 1.1.10 (Vixen 1.1 Beta 4)

Tonight I added Wizzards of Winter by the Trans Siberian Orcbestra.  This sequence is a little more then 3 minutes long.  Total time to create was approximately  5 hours.  It went faster then Carol of the Bells.  I think only because it had more duplicate sections.

Since creating the Program in Vixen, adding the new song to the mix was easy.  At this point I have a program that repeats a 1:10 long sequences without music 7 times then plays the two songs.  This starts at 5:30pm running until 9:30. 

Paul mentioned that big lots had a bunch of lights cheap. Sandi and I checked it out and found new bells. The new bells are Red with a night light bulb. The light comes through when lit. They are in pairs so two sets were bought. I will need to modify it a bit to make each bell work on its own channel. This will be a lot easier then bells I made with the light stands and smaller bells. Also since putting up the smaller bells one of the 50 strings that were spliced isn’t working. When I am done being sick I will have time to change out the bells.

After digging through different posts on computerchristmas I found that everyone is using a different FM transmitter. Many are using an IPod FM transmitter that has been hacked. This solution is around $40.

Jameco stocks two different kits. Searching around on the web I found the company that makes these kits sells directly. For the same price as Jameco I was able to pick up a Kit that came with a power supply and case for $50. The kit will take ~1 hour to build. Should be no sweat after making the controller.

Rainbow Electronics Kit - FMC2000

To do list:
Build FM transmitter kit
Create lighted sign with Station Frequency and notice of computer show
Write new non-music sequence
Create additional Seq
Finish HowTo - How I did it paper with pictures
Video show

Tonight was a debut for the neighbors. 10 people were present. I only have 1 song ready - Carol of the Bells the Mannheim Steamroller rendition. At this point I have not yet setup Vixen to run a program. I am running just the 1 song manually.

I will be ordering an FM Transmitter kit to play the show music. However at this point I am using my DVD player surround sound system. I mounted two small speakers under the eves of the house to provide sound for now. I checked with the neighbors to make sure it won’t be an issue. Also the speakers will come in handy for the block party next Tuesday.

Next song to sequence will be Wizards of Winter by Trans Siberian Orchestra.