Computer Control

Computer Control
What makes it all happen!

The lights are sequenced to music using Light-O-Rama's S2 light design software. It breaks the song down into ~.10 second intervals according to the beat, these are the vertical lines. It lists the controller channels that the lights connect to up the left side, these make the horizontal lines. The channels and beats of the music make a grid. When I click a square of the grid, it turns the lights in that channel on for that part of the song. Not only can I just turn the lights on and off, I can make them fade up and down, and shimmer. The software also displays an audio visualization waveform along the top of the window, which lets me line up light events perfectly with the music.

The photo to the right shows what the software window looks like ---->

The Software

So the software decides how the lights will turn on and off, but what actually controls them? The answer is an electronic triac board from Light-O-Rama. I use 12 of their LOR1602W controllers, which feature 16 channels total which can handle 8 amps or 2400 lights each. The entire controller can power a total of 9000 lights, or 30 amps. They connect in a chain via Category 5 cable that runs from a computer in my basement out to the controllers in the yard. I can add up to 234 more controllers to the network, but only intend to add 6 more this year for a total of 12 controllers and a total of 192 channels.

The photo to the right shows what the controller I use looks like ---->

The Hardware

With those 25,000 lights synchronized to holiday tunes, we broadcast the music on a low-power FM transmitter. Be sure to tune your radio to 99.3 FM and listen to the music while watching thousands of lights dance to the beat of the music.

The photo to the right shows what the Transmitter I use looks like ---->

FM Stereo Transmitter