Christmas In Greatwood

Soldering Presentation

Ron — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 04:25:05 +0000

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 Videos

Ron — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:50:42 +0000

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.

Planning for 2010

Ron — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:31:10 +0000

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!

2009 Light Counts

Ron — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:57:19 +0000

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!

Lights are On!

Ron — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:54:07 +0000

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.

2009 Show Progress

Ron — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:52:00 +0000

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.

Vixen Sequences

Ron — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:56:22 +0000

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.

Did I mention that Vixen is free too? You can download it and run it on about any old PC.

Ron’s 2008 Vixen Profile

Wizards in Winter by Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Christmas Time by Go Fish

All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey

New for 2009

admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:15:01 +0000

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 a couple of videos that show some of my testing.

This shot just looked cool to me. All 3 controllers are lined up so you can see them working in wireless mode.

2008 Videos

Ron — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:02:23 +0000

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.

The Show is On

admin — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:42:16 +0000

OK, so it is finally on. A little late, but this is somewhat harder than I imagined. I have just about everything working and hopefully after tonight I will have a few songs playing. I’ll be adding more as time allows. The show runs from 6pm to 11pm every night, weather permitting. That means if it is raining the lights won’t be on, they do not like water. Otherwise please enjoy!