AClights (Archive Pre 2009)Blog

Our Blog Has Moved

2009-09-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

Our new blog can be found at http://www.aclights.com/blog

Thanks

~Aclights.com

Blog Videos are up (At least for the first 3)

2009-04-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

Check them out and see our progress! More later... ~Chad

Trigger input testing

2009-03-23T23:27:00.000-07:00

Video blog entry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC_zmLidBF0

This is part of the video blog series Austin and Chad will be producing over the year as we produce our light show.

In this clip I test one of your input buttons and trigger boards for the first time.

2008 Christmas video

2009-01-12T21:23:00.000-08:00

Here it is:

Rain is expected tonight during the show

2008-12-13T17:05:00.001-08:00

Lights shows and rain usually do not mix well, But we are going though our best efforts to make sure the show is rain proof. I (Austin) went around and taped up every single open ended plug to make sure no rain got inside, and I elevated all plug ends off the ground a few inches, to keep them out of potential puddles. Chad made sure all of our power sources are properly protected, Fuses, GFCI, surge protectors, ect. So the show will continue.

Also tonight we finished the intermission sound track, which will direct viewers to this website, and letting them know next years show will be bigger and better.

Comments are welcome at any time.

2008-12-10T21:15:00.001-08:00

We would love to hear your feedback on the show, Please don't be shy. You can post a comment to any one of these blog posts by clicking on the comment link below. Trust me your comments will not go unheard.

Thank you!

~ Chad Dunbar & Austin Allen

More information you might like to know before watching.

2008-12-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

A few more details I would like to Jot up on our blog for our viewers. To hear the music that goes to the lights tune any FM radio to 96.3, if you haven't tuned in yet your missing the whole thing, its not just blinking lights!

Display Hours: 7 days a week, 5:30-10:00pm untill December 31st.

If you would like to hear the song we sequenced our lights to (Wizards in winter) click here to here it free on Rhapsody.

Chad Dunbar has programmed and sequenced the entire Christmas 2008 show, Unlike the Halloween 2008 show where it was a joint effort between Chad and Austin. This was quite a bit of work for chad to take on in just one month of time, due to the fact a Christmas show was not planned initially unill Christmas 2009.

We are accepting donations for our show, you can simply drop any cash or check donation in the lock box next to our mail box. Donations are not required, electricity and equipment to run the show is very expensive. A donation button to the right of this post has been provided for you to make easy online secure credit card donations. You do not need a paypall account to make a payment, after clicking on the donate button simply clikc on "Continue without paypal account."

Many many more photos and videos are coming.

Christmas 2008 Light Show

2008-12-08T18:05:00.000-08:00

Thank you for taking the time to stop by our website. Our Christmas Light Show 2008 officially started on yesterday (Dec 7). With an estimated 15000 lights, and 16 light-o-rama channels. This year the show will only have one song, Wizards in Winter. As the next week progresses we plan to add much more information and photos here, be sure to stop by again if you want to learn more about how our show works. Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

The tower of lights!

2008-10-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

Well the empty boxes of the over 50 new strands of purchased lights. I started this tower as a joke on Sept. 15, At the time it was a tower of 17 boxes. Every time We purchase more lights it grows. I'm surprised it hasn't toppled over yet. Hopefully the tower will stop growing now. Every time it grows My wallet gets thinner.

More photos of the tower here

Photo taken by Chad Dunbar

Edm Sound quality comparison testing.

2008-10-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

This morning I decided to test my EDM LCD, and compare it directly to the same situation if it was not through the EDM. The sound source was a mp4 on my iPhone. The Fm receiver was my old mp3player which has a sub-par fm reciver built in. I used the line in port on my computer and recorded that with audacity, and exported that as a 256k mp3

Here is the test mp3 file:

http://masterdoublea.x10hosting.com/halloween2008/soundtest/edmldcfmradiotest.mp3

iphone mp4> edm lcd> mp3player (with fm tuner)> line in port on pc> audacity> exported mp3

Here is the same situation skipping the edm lcd:

http://masterdoublea.x10hosting.com/halloween2008/soundtest/orginal.mp3

iphone mp4> line in port on pc> audacity> exported mp3

As you can tell my line in port, (or my iPhone) is not perfect and belive some of the static in the first test was simply from other components.

The two files sound almost the same to me, but Im no sound expert.

As far as the EDM lcd goes im extremly satisfied.

Click on the image to see it full size.

Note: I did not use the setup with everything so close together, I had the iphone 8 feet away from the edm during the test, and also the other mp3 player was about 60 feet away from the edm during the test.

My Edm arrived today.

2008-10-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

Its HERE! OK so I have been waiting impatiently for it to arrive. But its now here. The box had a priority mail sticker to the wrong city and zip, I'm surprised it made it. I installed the chip and I had my dad help me solder it up. Total assembly took us about 30 mins. We turned it on, and gave it an audio source, and it was working but it sounded horrible. I only found out that the fm radio that we were using in my dads shop had horrible speakers. I was glad I brought my old mp3 player with me I tuned that in and I was quit impressed. I ran out to the car and tuned that in. wow, I couldent tell that the mp3 player itself wasnt plugged directly into the car.

When I got home I got it all set up again and I used my Sony home theater sound system (with built in fm tuner) Again I was very impressed.

Later today I went to my friends house to test the edm on his very nice sound system he has in his car. To my supprise We still coulden't tell the diffrence if it was comming directly from a mp3 player or it was being sent from the EDM.

The box It came in:

Halloween 2008 Offical Site

2008-09-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

My friend, Put together a awesome website for our 2008 display, I had wanted to use this blog, but this site is much much better. I was actually quite surprised how cool the site looked. I cant wait until this Halloween.

http://halloween.deejaychad.com/

All done in flash (sorry iPhone users, you actually have to use your full sized computer for this one.)

Halloween 2008 Offical flyer

2008-09-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

Today my friend made a flyer for us to distribute to friends family and neighbors. I think it looks pretty well done. If you want a pdf copy to save or print its available here.

We finished the first sequence

2008-09-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

Today we finished the first sequence. It needs more work, but the majority of it is done. Its pretty nice to kick back and watch an entire sequence you have just completed. It is 2:47 long, and it has a fade-in to our next song. With the fade in included it is 3 mins long. The song completed is Night on bald Mountain. See the link to the song here. (That link is just the song not my sequence.)

Test of some new mini lights.

2008-09-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

After shipping several times at more than 6 different stores, I have gatherd a small collection of mini lights. I couldn't wait until Halloween to see them all. I plugged them all into my LOR controller box so I could see the parts of the sequencing done. I also picked up a mini strobe light unit at OSh for 6.99. Picured below is a small taste of what we have.

Most of the orange lights are from target ($2.99) and the white lights are from Lowes ($2.48)

The total count thus far of new lights we have purchased is now about 50 boxes of 100 mini strands, not all of them are pictured.

I orderd my Edm fm transmitter today

2008-09-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know what that is, its a fm transmitter for my show. I used my Belikn tunecast II in years past, but I want Higher Quality sound. So this year I took advantage of the Planet Christmas Group Buy deal. I particularly like this FM transmitter because the power output is adjustable to what you need, Which allows you the best ability to not interfere with anyone else, and to keep people happy. Because the Transmitter has such high quality efficient transmitting, a much lower transmitting power can be used than otherwise needed.

Video and Photos of my halloweeen Display...

2008-09-06T17:58:00.000-07:00

When 2008 came around the corner, I said it was the year for new standards, so I refuse to post any online video or photo content that does not look perfect. Thus all my videos in the future should be HD videos on vimeo. And Ill be taking photos with my new camera. Sure Ill still be posting a normal quality version on you tube, but ill make an extremely strong argument that you should be watching my hd video and no the youtube one :P. This is totally unrelated to my show, but I figured it was time to bring up the standards in 2008.

Halloween Show in the plannings now (2008)

2008-09-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

I plan to do a rather large (large to me) Halloween show this year. The interesting part is, no one trick or treats at my house, so im actually going to barrow my friends house this Halloween, and he is going to use some of his DJ equipment to add more effects. Its still in planning, but it looks like this will be cool. Still its a small show, but its bigger than my last one. Also we should have some fog machines going the whole night too. So far we have about 2700 lights planned (still extremely small scaled) 16 channels. I plan to blog along the way the progression of the show.

So far I plan on using these songs in the show:

Night On Bald Mountain (Track #8)
Hall of the Mountain King (Track #2)

(listen to the songs here free)
Halloween by Mannheim Steamroller

Took the 2006 Christmas display down

2008-01-11T18:42:00.000-08:00

Well we finally took the entire display down today, even if its a semi small display, its still alot of work finding places to store all the new lights. Also my lor unit is on the floor in my entry way right now, I'm looking for a good storage place for that. For those of you that missed the show or want to see it again, come by in about a month.

Show shut down for the year

2008-01-07T23:51:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the last night im running it this year, Its time, christmass is over. I will miss it.

Show hours for christmas day, eve, and new years.

2007-12-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

My Holiday light show will run all day Christmas eve, day, and new years.

Gfci Continues to trip in wet weather.

2007-12-11T22:45:00.000-08:00

The previous day, I went around making sure all my plugs are taped, and off the ground at least a half inch. What a nightmare. So when my gfi blew, I decided to test each channel, nothing blew, channels 1-16 on, no problems, then I can turn on all the channels fine, by fading them on, if I try to go form off to on, then it trips. So I figured my gfc was being oversensitive, so I unplugged the gfc and plugged it in right to the wall (I have a removable gfc) I was stumped as to why it would not trip with only one channel on at a time.The next dry day I put my gfi back and no problems, so its the rain for sure causing the problem. My show only takes 10 amps max, 2200 mini lights and 25 c9's - so I cant possibly be overloading it.

Welcome...

2007-11-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks for coming to my blog, this light show has been a year long project. I Originally I had a simple light show, that was not to music, I was using a Pre programed light show device those years. (2005, 2006) Last October I found LOR, I wanted to Create and program a LOR show for my house last year, but it was too late. So I have been planning on programming one for this year. (2007) LOR is a Program and Hardware, which run together using a normal computer to enable you to create a light show to music. Programming takes tons of time, you have to go over each light strand for every beat of every song. My show is small compared to what others have done with LOR. My Show will start out with only 2 Songs this year. I hope to add a few more mid December.

- Information about the show

-Tune to 96.3 Fm this is the only way that you will be able to hear the music that goes with the lights. I use a Fm transmitter to respect my neighbors, they would get tired of hearing the same song over and over. So please keep your radios to a low volume, thanks.

-Show hours

5:30 pm- 10:30 pm

-If you have any questions comments or concerns, please contact me at allenaa2000-lights@yahoo.com or add a comment to my blog.

About my Show
- 16 LOR channels. CTB16PC
Channel Break down-
1) Door Clear 100 mini
2) Door Color 100 mini
3) Spiral tree 150 clear mini, 50 green mini below bush
4) Bush Clear 150 net, 50 mini
5) Bush Color 150 net, 50 mini
6) Candy Cane chase 1 X2 70 mini
7) Candy cane chase 2 X2 70 mini
8) Candy cane chase 3 X2 70 mini
9) Mega tree 1 100 mini color
10) Mega tree 2 100 mini color
11) Mega tree 3 100 mini color
12) Mega tree 4 100 mini color
13) Garage clear 100 mini, Rose bush 100 mini
14) Garage color 100 mini, Ground 100 mini
15) Gutter clear 100 mini, Tree 100 mini
16) Gutter color 25 c9, Bush 200 mini
~2200 lights total

- 2 songs (more to come)

- Computer Running the show, Windows Xp home 1 gb ram, nvidia 5500 oc, 80 gb hard drive, Running LOR 2.0.4

This is a school project too? yes it is....

This is in fact also my Senior Project for school. At Casa Grande High School, each senior is required to pick a subject of interest and write a research paper about that subject. Along with the research project each senior must complete a Physical Project. This can range from Restoring an old car, to Learning how to belly dance. Other past projects include Plays and School beautification projects. One student learned how to weld, and created a new bench for the school. The Physical part of my project is the actual show. My Research paper was about the effects of wireless and Computer over usage. At Casa we are divided into English classes by clusters, I am in the Technical and Industrial Cluster (TIA), therefore my project needed to be related to something industrial or technical, I feel that A light show was the perfect match.

3 days left!

2007-11-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

I have finished programming one song. I purchased parts for my mini mega tree. I switched to my XP computer for running the show, my Windows 98se did not cut it, I had some problems with LOR 2.0.4.

Less than one week left....

2007-11-26T23:15:00.000-08:00

Well, I have less than 5 days before I plan to have it all up and running. I plan on starting with 2 songs, and I will add some as christmass nears.

I will be bradcasing on 96.5 Fm

Lots more information to come.

Halloween party, with LOR

2007-11-02T16:34:00.000-07:00

My friend had asked me to help her decorate for her Halloween party, little did she know what I had planned, Just getting my LOR a month ago, I hadn't really done much with it yet in my busy life, anyways. The show was a simple 1 min long animation sequence that looped, dimming fading, flashing. It really added to the spooky Halloween environment, everyone at the party loved it. I forgot to bring my digital camera that day, so I will have to ask my friend to see if she took any. Just a quick update, and the first real lor "show" I made.

It was rather exciting.

My Christmas Display as part of my school project.

2007-09-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

This school year, I am a senior at Casa Grande high school, one fo the projects of the year is the senior project. I have decided that my actual senior project will be my christmas light show display. This school project must be something we are intrested in, something we must spend at least 20 hours working on. Also our project must relate to the english class and our senior report paper. My school this year orginised all of its 2000 students into smaller learning communities, each community puts a twist on the regular classes and geard them to something we may be more intrested in. Me always being intrested in technical things, chose the Industrial and Technical Small Learning Cluster. A lor christmas display works perfectly into all of this. I will be writing more throughout the year, with updates to my show, and school project.

ITS HERE....

2007-09-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited, my LOR made it here today, along with the software, and usb connector. All the parts seem to be here.

I will probably assemble it tomorrow, I have some other things I need to do today.

I orderd my LOR!

2007-09-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

Its kinda late in the year, but I just orderd it. I cant wait it gets here on the 12 of SEP 2007.

Also, I have the first 30 seconds of one of my musical sequences programed.

Going to order LOR kit and Software

2007-08-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

Its that time of year to think about christmas in august... Well for me atleast, its time to get started.

I plan on buying the PC-CTB16PC-COMPLETE, and The starter package with the USB adapter.

Test of lights

2007-03-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

I decided to test the lights I have, 1000 pictured, total I currently own 2225. I plugged my old light show box just for fun. A few strings were burned out so It looks like I will have to add more to my alredy long list

Welcome

2007-03-20T20:00:00.001-07:00

This is my first post. I will be using blogger to list my ongoing progress on this project over the year. I Hope this ends up being fun, and thanks for stopping by.

Fm transmitter

2007-02-12T20:29:00.000-08:00

My fm Belkin transmitter is now working.... The first part of the show is done.