Hello from Brisbane

BradsXmasLights

WiFi Interactive
Joined
Dec 23, 2010
Messages
601
Location
Brisbane, Australia
Hi!
I'm from north side of Brisbane. I have a relatively small display on the scale of things; with only about 4500 lights this year. (Then again my front yard is only 15m wide. :p) My display isn’t in the 4KQ competition or advertised anywhere; but just private message me if you want a demo/address.

I first computerised my Christmas lights back in 2002, when very slowly built the first 64 channels of the Hill320 controller from ComputerChristmas.com. Way back then, I think I demo’d Vixenlights, but was rather unimpressed with it – I don’t think there was any audio features back then, and I didn’t want to click out every note/pattern. So I ended up programming my own pattern editor & sequencer in Visual Basic 6, and the actual “control” program was written in QBasic (DOS based). But Qbasic’s ability at precision timing was pretty unstable, so the control software ended up being ported to Windows/VB6 too.

This setup then served well for quite a few years. But there was one thing I couldn’t do: Music Sync. I had thought about adding this to my own program, but it was too complex for my programming knowledge.

Then about 2.5years ago, I rediscovered Vixen, and it was light-years ahead of what I’d seen many years ago. So last year I did a basic (rush-job) Vixen-music sync. Now this year I’ve discovered how truly time-consuming the music sync game is, and now have a 2:30 loop of Santa Claus is coming to town.

Video: Computer Controlled Christmas Lights 2010


And some pictures from last week: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=336456&id=751763905&l=f2ed62ce72 although I’ve made some changes/additions since these were taken. (

I also have an old Christmas Light website; which I’ve not touched in 4 years @ http://christmaslights.netbootdisk.com/ (featuring my previous home)
 

fasteddy

I have C.L.A.P
Global moderator
Joined
Apr 26, 2010
Messages
6,648
Location
Albion Park NSW
Welcome to ACL, It appears that you are a bit of a vetran when it comes to sequencing and animating lights. What you will find at ACL is a bunch of very smart progresive guys from around the world that are always happy to help. This year the Aussies have lead the charge when it comes to RGB and pixel based lighting and I consider these forums the home of RGB and Pixel based lighting. Feel free to post away and join in the chat room im sure your experience will be appreciated within these forums.
 

aussiexmas

Sinnamon Lights
Joined
May 10, 2010
Messages
218
Location
Brisbane - Australia
Hi and Welcome from another Brisbane westsider - although previously north of the river at The Gap

When I first started looking into computer control of Christmas lights, I came across your earlier website which inspired me to go further. I have become a dedicated LOR user; although I do a lot of light string modification to suit the DC boards.

Glad to see you are continuing with this hobby after moving.
 

BradsXmasLights

WiFi Interactive
Joined
Dec 23, 2010
Messages
601
Location
Brisbane, Australia
I'll be looking in to this RGB/Pixel business after seeing your amazing video fasteddy. I also want to add some dimming support - which is something my Hill320 can't do. So I'll be around more :)
 
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