Controling Holiday Lights

I have used X-10 to turn my holiday lights on and off for years mainly
because we have so many lights. We put on a good show for Halloween and
right after I start putting up 27,000 Christmas lights. I have been
increasing the complexity of our display every year with some animations and
flashing lights but it is vary difficult and time consuming using Activehome
and the X-10 hardware. I would like to take it to the next level this year
but can not find any good X-10 software to use.
I have been looking at the software offerings and am having a hard time
finding something to help me to the next level. I have looked at allot of
the free stuff and found most can not be programmed faster than 1 sec. not
fast enough for sequencing dancing lights and still time consuming to
program. Looking at allot of the paid programs I can not determine if it
will help without buying them all.
I am looking for a X-10 control program that is easy to program sequences
down to a tenth of a second to do some dancing lights in my 45 foot
charismas tree this year. Can anybody tell me if the software they are using
mite be able to help or should I scrap the hole idea and us some thing like
Weed Techs digital I/O board and hope to find some good control software for
it to do dancing lights.
The ultimate for me would be a program that would run off an excel spread
sheet where if a box is filled to would turn on an output and stay on if
more boxes where filled and then off at the next clear box running over
time.
I have seen all the ready made charismas light hardware and software but I
do not have the time or money to go that route and was hoping to save some
of my investment in X-10 that has served me well all these years leading up
to this point.

Thanks Andy

X10 is not capable of sub 1 second control. A normal X10 command takes two
messages, such as A-1, A-ON. With the 3 cycle intermessage gap, a complete
command takes 47 cycles of 60Hz. Another 3 cycle gap is needed before
another message can be sent.

I would use a PC controlling a bunch of solid state relays. Years ago I
built custom factory automation equipment using DOS era PCs, and even that
would be capable of doing what you want.

Jeff

"ANDREW GREGORY" <4pyros@verizon.net> wrote in message
newsnBYg.1136$Dg5.1061@trndny09...
> I have used X-10 to turn my holiday lights on and off for years mainly
> because we have so many lights. We put on a good show for Halloween and
> right after I start putting up 27,000 Christmas lights. I have been
> increasing the complexity of our display every year with some animations
and
> flashing lights but it is vary difficult and time consuming using
Activehome
> and the X-10 hardware. I would like to take it to the next level this year
> but can not find any good X-10 software to use.
> I have been looking at the software offerings and am having a hard time
> finding something to help me to the next level. I have looked at allot of
> the free stuff and found most can not be programmed faster than 1 sec. not
> fast enough for sequencing dancing lights and still time consuming to
> program. Looking at allot of the paid programs I can not determine if it
> will help without buying them all.
> I am looking for a X-10 control program that is easy to program
sequences
> down to a tenth of a second to do some dancing lights in my 45 foot
> charismas tree this year. Can anybody tell me if the software they are
using
> mite be able to help or should I scrap the hole idea and us some thing
like
> Weed Techs digital I/O board and hope to find some good control software
for
> it to do dancing lights.
> The ultimate for me would be a program that would run off an excel
spread
> sheet where if a box is filled to would turn on an output and stay on if
> more boxes where filled and then off at the next clear box running over
> time.
> I have seen all the ready made charismas light hardware and software but
I
> do not have the time or money to go that route and was hoping to save some
> of my investment in X-10 that has served me well all these years leading
up
> to this point.
>
> Thanks Andy

ANDREW GREGORY wrote:
> I have used X-10 to turn my holiday lights on and off for years mainly
> because we have so many lights. We put on a good show for Halloween and
> right after I start putting up 27,000 Christmas lights. I have been
> increasing the complexity of our display every year with some animations and
> flashing lights but it is vary difficult and time consuming using Activehome
> and the X-10 hardware. I would like to take it to the next level this year
> but can not find any good X-10 software to use.
> I have been looking at the software offerings and am having a hard time
> finding something to help me to the next level. I have looked at allot of
> the free stuff and found most can not be programmed faster than 1 sec. not
> fast enough for sequencing dancing lights and still time consuming to
> program. Looking at allot of the paid programs I can not determine if it
> will help without buying them all.
> I am looking for a X-10 control program that is easy to program sequences
> down to a tenth of a second to do some dancing lights in my 45 foot
> charismas tree this year. Can anybody tell me if the software they are using
> mite be able to help or should I scrap the hole idea and us some thing like
> Weed Techs digital I/O board and hope to find some good control software for
> it to do dancing lights.
> The ultimate for me would be a program that would run off an excel spread
> sheet where if a box is filled to would turn on an output and stay on if
> more boxes where filled and then off at the next clear box running over
> time.
> I have seen all the ready made charismas light hardware and software but I
> do not have the time or money to go that route and was hoping to save some
> of my investment in X-10 that has served me well all these years leading up
> to this point.
>
> Thanks Andy
>
>
http://www.lightorama.com/products.html

just what you need.

On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:37:24 GMT, ANDREW GREGORY <4pyros@verizon.net> wrote:
> I am looking for a X-10 control program that is easy to program sequences
> down to a tenth of a second to do some dancing lights in my 45 foot

Not going to happen. X10 is too slow.

> I have seen all the ready made charismas light hardware and software but I
> do not have the time or money to go that route and was hoping to save some

You can save time by spending money. Or save money by spending time.
You will need to determine where on that scale you need to be.

> of my investment in X-10 that has served me well all these years leading up

You can use X10 for the slow stuff (1sec or slower) and start adding
faster stuff for the faster effects.

As for software... I do my own. Sorry.

You can find more software and hardware info at sites such as
http://computerchristmas.com/ (highly recommended) See their "how-to"
and forum sections.

If you aren't comfortable doing 120vAC component wiring, controllers can
be purchased, but they aren't what I would call cheap.

Long and boring hardware details follow...

-----------

If you are up to doing 120vAC component wiring, you can save money by
spending time. You can build controllers using a solid-state relay
(SSR) controlled from a parallel port and switching a 120v circuit. Or
for cheaper you can build your own SSR using an opto-coupler (to protect
the parallel port) and a triac. I have been able to buy SSRs cheap
enough on the surplus market that I haven't bothered with triac
circuits. For example, this looks like it would work well:

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi..._CONTROL_.html

(http://www.allelectronics.com/ then Relays then Solid-State)

home page at:
http://www.crydom.com/products/productFamily.aspx?id=22
detail spec:
http://www.crydom.com/userResources/.../crydom_ez.pdf

The 3-15vdc control input means most PC parallel ports should be able to
control the relay. The 240vac at up to 18amps means you can switch
about as many lights as you would ever put on one circuit. (Probably
you want to keep the number under 50%, or less than 9 amps because these
relays will need a heat sink to keep them cool when running large loads
or high ambient temperatures.) That particular relay is "zero crossing"
which minimizes the interferance to TV and radio reception, but also
means you cannot make a light dimmer or ramp brightness up or down as
well as a "random" switching relay. At under $10/ea buying a dozen is
maybe half of retail price. (A typical PC parallel port can typically
control 12 such relays.) Sometimes you can find even better deals.

AllElectronics also lists a 1amp SSR for $1.50. that might be enough for
each channel. Can't find good specs on it though. However at that
price I'm tempted to buy a dozen just to play with. Small enough to
mount right on the outlet and probably easy to fit four of them into a
four-gang metal box with two duplex outlets...

I build my controllers in sets of four (four independently switched
outlets in a metal box) with a short 120vAC plug for power and an RJ45
(8 conductor "network" jack) for control input. (of the 8 control
wires, four (two pair) control the circuits, two (one pair) provide
ground, and the last two (one pair) provide power (which these simple
relay boxes do not need or use). I use the standard power-over-ethernet
wiring for the power distribution and use what would normally be
"ethernet" wires for the control signals. Then I can use up to three
such boxes per parallel port. Because I use standard jacks I can use
whatever off-the-shelf patch cord I want between my parallel port
adapter and the box. I've used up to 100ft patch with no problems.

I've toyed with the idea of building an expansion for the parallel port
to control more boxes, but it seems too tedious so I haven't.

-----------

Anybody have a source for cheap PCI parallel port cards (e.g. four
parallel ports on one card)?

sdb

--
Wanted: Omnibook 800 & accessories, cheap, working or not
sdbuse1 on mailhost bigfoot.com

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:24:48 -0600, sylvan butler
<ZsdbUse1+noZs_0610@Zbigfoot.Zcom.invalid> wrote in message
<slrnejam1g.thm.ZsdbUse1+noZs_0610@sdba64.internal >:

>Anybody have a source for cheap PCI parallel port cards (e.g. four
>parallel ports on one card)?

Never seen such a beast.

A venerable and still current solution to the need for multiple digital (TTL)
input-output (I/O) are ISA- and PCI-bus cards based on the 8255 Programmable
Input Output (PIO) IC from the 8080 chip family which predated the original
8088 IBM PC.

Google 8255 PIO for hardware, drivers and software ideas.

There are typically many for sale at eBay for nickels on the dollar.

Business & Industrial > Industrial Electrical & Test > Test Equipment > Card
Based (VXI/PXI/PCI)

The current National Instruments DIO cards are the PCI-6503 (24 TTL I/O),
PCI-DIO-96 (96 TTL I/O) and PCI- 6257 (48 I/O, optically isolated with 120ma
drive).

(I'll be having an internet porch sale in a couple of weeks and will have a
pile of these and related instrumentation and HA items for sale/swap.)

HTH ... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 12:24:03 -0400, Marc_F_Hult
<MFHult@nothydrologistnot.com> wrote in message
<a7kcj2d5csnnucnn97c1amofkhkftb39mk@4ax.com>:

>The current National Instruments DIO cards are the PCI-6503 (24 TTL I/O),
>PCI-DIO-96 (96 TTL I/O) and PCI- 6257 (48 I/O, optically isolated with 120ma
>drive).

oops. Its PCI-6527, not 6257

.... Marc

In article <slrnejam1g.thm.ZsdbUse1+noZs_0610@sdba64.internal >,
sylvan butler <ZsdbUse1+noZs_0610@Zbigfoot.Zcom.invalid> wrote:
>
>Anybody have a source for cheap PCI parallel port cards (e.g. four
>parallel ports on one card)?

Why not use MIDI? There's a very inexpensive controller that you could
build (midibox.org) that will give 128 inputs and outputs. More can
be added by just daisy chaining more controllers on the MIDI cable.
You can program with free MIDI sequencing software. You'd also have
the capability of syncing easily to a sound track!

---john.

> Why not use MIDI? There's a very inexpensive controller that you could
> build (midibox.org) that will give 128 inputs and outputs. More can
> be added by just daisy chaining more controllers on the MIDI cable.
> You can program with free MIDI sequencing software. You'd also have
> the capability of syncing easily to a sound track!

Good point, John. One of my favorite Christmas displays is about three miles down Proctor Rd from my home in Sarasota. There are
something like 400,000 (really) lights on all kinds of moving displays. Everything is sequenced to a MIDI soundtrack playing
traditional Christmas hymns through speakers hidden in the trees. The entire theme is really about Christmas -- no Santa and no
reindeer. Every year they add to the display. It's a pretty famous light show, attracting visitors from all over the world every
year. This is a private home, by the way.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

=============================>
Bass Home Electronics
4883 Fallcrest Circle
Sarasota · Florida · 34233
http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
=============================>

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:24:48 -0600, sylvan butler
<ZsdbUse1+noZs_0610@Zbigfoot.Zcom.invalid> wrote:

>Anybody have a source for cheap PCI parallel port cards (e.g. four
>parallel ports on one card)?

The below board might be better than parallel ports.

http://www.futurlec.com/RS232DevBoard.shtml

On Thu, 19 Oct 2006 01:56:52 GMT, Si Ballenger <shb*NO*SPAM*@comporium.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:24:48 -0600, sylvan butler
><ZsdbUse1+noZs_0610@Zbigfoot.Zcom.invalid> wrote:
>
>>Anybody have a source for cheap PCI parallel port cards (e.g. four
>>parallel ports on one card)?
>
> The below board might be better than parallel ports.
>
> http://www.futurlec.com/RS232DevBoard.shtml

That looks like a nice I/O board. But I'm skeptical of the speed at
which one could arbitrarily change the bits. For example, walking-1 or
walking-0 thru the entire set, or invert all or some arbitrary subset
(xor), and other common effect operations.

Something like these (similar to what Marc pointed out) is more likely
to be fast enough: http://www.futurlec.com/PCI16IO.shtml or
http://www.futurlec.com/PCI8255.shtml That actually looks like a nice
card. Each 8255 is roughly two XT/AT style parallel ports so if it is
designed well, that card might do what I need, and the price isn't too
far out either. Too bad Futurelec doesn't put detailed tech info
online. There's no way I'd be using Windows! Of course, for that price
I could build a PIC based solution and not need a PC at all...

sdb
--
Wanted: Omnibook 800 & accessories, cheap, working or not
sdbuse1 on mailhost bigfoot.com