Christmas On Quiet Hills

Christmas 2011 has gone!

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:59:45 +0000

Christmas 2011 has come and gone! The lights are now off.

We have already started making plans for next year, and we hope to have at least one major new show element that has not been done (this way) before! We’ve only seen two similar things in all of the forum posts, YouTube videos, etc. so we hope it will turn out great.

I will be posting updates over the next year detailing more of our setup, display items, and planning.

Thanks for visiting the (self proclaimed) best Animated Christmas Lights in Oceanside!

Opening Night 2011

admin — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 06:14:58 +0000

Our first “official” night is November 26th we will have the lights on from 6-10pm until New Years. The roof lights may not be fully functional until a 7.5V 30 amp power supply arrives from AZ.

Please tune your radios to 87.9 and drive on by for some holiday cheer!

See the “Where Are The Lights” page for more information!

Progress for today:
* Installed my custom Renard-to-GECE controllers.
* Terminated all remaining cat 5 cables.
* Ran power for all but the tune-to sign and Frosty
* Split the inflatable Santa into two separate lines, one for the pump, and one for the light.

What we have left to do:
* Mount the reindeer
* Hook Up the lights in the Reindeer bushes
* Fix bad strings of lights (About 4 are known)
* Set up FM02 (Tested this today, but need to make a more permanent installation.

More Setup Progress

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:41:49 +0000

We made more progress last night! Getting closer.
* Terminated (most) cables – Most SSRs cat-5 cables are terminated and tested with at least 1 error. No channel 3 on one of the SSRs. Two more need to be tested, and another swapped channel was easily fixed, but needs to be investigated.
* Tested the Mini Tree SSRNeons
* Tested the Front Yard Tree Renard SS8
* Tested the Renard 64
* Updated Vixen Profile for unused channels

What we have left to do:
* Run lots of power cords
* Finish the reindeer (finishing colors, stands, etc.)
* Fix bug in Renard-to-GECE controller I designed for the roof lights
* Test the Renard SS24
* Fix any bad strings of lights (None on the Tree or Mini tree (yet))
* Set up FM02

Tonight’s plans:
* Play with the Renard-to-GECE controller a little more (I have a couple more ideas to fix my issuse)
* Test the Renard SS24
* Set up the FM02
* Run lots of power cords!

First Year Setup

admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:27:50 +0000

Feeling a little bit overwhelmed right now because of how much work there is to do. This weekend we started setup.

What we accomplished this weekend:
* Lights in the tree
* GECE lights on the roof
* Built Renard SS8 built for the tree (extension cords)
* Lights in the bushes
* Mini trees built/painted/covered
* SSRNeons built for mini trees, bushes, tune-to sign
* Renard SS24 mounted for bushes/reindeer
* Renard 64XC mounted to controller for the SSRNeons
* Brown color painted on the reindeer
* Data/SSR cables run throughout the yard and roofline

What we have left to do:
* Finish the reindeer (finishing colors, stands, etc.)
* Fix bug in Renard-to-GECE controller I designed for the roof lights
* Terminate cables
* Test each controller/SSR
* Fix any bad strings of lights
* Figure out channel counts (bypass unused Renard 64 channels)
* Set up FM02

Soldering Frenzy!

mat — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:01:48 +0000

I found some time to solder some more of the group buy purchases which came in a couple months ago. So far I soldered one Renard64XC and 8 SSRNeons. They are similar to the SSRez, but with two neon lamps so you are made aware when 120VAC is present.

I was able to complete the Renard64XC in one evening in a couple of hours. Two nights later I was able to complete 8 of the SSRNeons in a few hours. I was able to test them briefly by using the Simple Renard Tester 8 channels at a time. I moved one SSR through each group as I tested dimming across all channels. There appear to be no problems with the Renard64XC, although I have yet to try a full sequence that will stress the current drawn and could find issues.