The 2009 lights are over
The lights are off, and packed away for 2009.
We had a blast, the two weeks before Christmas were just crazy, 100-200 cars a night, and lots of donations to our charity the McGrath Foundation.
We are already planning for 2010. I'll be bringing more lights and effects to our Court, and everyone has agreed that 2010 will be our biggest year. We will go from four house (2 automated) to 6 houses (6 automated).
The elfs are already reading up on ATMEL programming, and DMX standards.
Read more about the lights here or our Blog here.
Welcome
I have been decorating with Christmas lights for over 19 years.
Living in the United States, I was always amazed at the quality of their displays and I wanted to decorate my house. in 1991, I purchased a number of strings and started decorating the outside of our home in Georgia.
I brought my lights home and started decorating our house in Melbourne. The lights were 110 VAC, and I used a step-down transformer to power them.
The lights lasted a few years, and finally faded and failed.
In 2001, we moved into our current house, and I started decorating using the strings available locally. While pleasant, it was not as good as I had hoped for.
in 2006, by chance, I came across an article describing computer control of Christmas lights. I ordered a printed circuit board from Brian at DIYC.
By Xmas 2007, I had a range of controllers, all under computer control, using the Vixen software.
On this site you will find details of the projects undertaken to bring Christmas to Melbourne.