Still testing, please disregard.

I was lucky enough to be asked to teach a class on Soldering at the 2010 Lone Star Holidays Academy.  Attached is a copy of the presentation for those who are interested.  Please feel free to comment or contact me if you need additional information.

Soldering Presentation

2009 All I Want For Christmas from Ron Allison on Vimeo.

2009 Christmas Time from Ron Allison on Vimeo.

2009 Wizards in Winter from Ron Allison on Vimeo.

Yes, planning for next year has already started and I don’t even have all the lights down yet.  One partial tree left to take down and the roof lights to retrieve are all that I have left though.  Now the garage is a different story, that may take another week to get back in order.

The first Lynx Express controller coop for 2010 has already come and gone.  I’ve ordered an additional 4 controllers, though some of these may go to a friend.

Come on Christmas!

Well, the count is in (so far) and I have more lights than last year. This year we have 36,675 lights blinking to the music for you enjoyment. Maybe next year I can top 50,000!

Well, better late than never.  The lights are on and will be running from 6pm to 11pm each night, weather permitting.  Please stop by and enjoy the show.

I’m slowly making progress on getting the show up and running for 2009.  If it would just stop raining/sleeting/snowing I think I could get it done!

My plan is to definitely have it running by Saturday night, December 12th.  Hopefully I’ll have a few test runs before then.

I’ll update later.

I animate my Christmas lights using a program called Vixen. It runs on a PC and you create sequences for each song that tell each set of lights when to turn off and on, ramp up and down and such. I’ve had a couple of folks ask me for my sequences from last year so I figured I’d post them on the website and make them available for anyone to download. I’m also including my profile from 2008 so that you can load that in Vixen too and see how I did my channel grouping.

I am working on some new stuff for 2009.  One of the items I am working on is making my controllers wireless so I will not as many wires running all over my yard.  Ok, maybe just fewer wires because there will still be power cords everywhere, but maybe not so many controller cables. 

Here are the videos from my 2008 show.  I’m still working on these so more will be added and these might go through some changes.

2008 Wizards in Winter from Ron Allison on Vimeo.

2008 All I Want for Christmas from Ron Allison on Vimeo.

2008 Christmas Time from Ron Allison on Vimeo.