Projects

A lot of the lights you will see on this website, and at my home, are controlled by a PC. The software is called Vixen, a great public domain application designed by K.C. Much of the hardware, controllers were either designed by me, or by friends over at DIYC.


Vixen

The software used to control my lights is called Vixen.

 

DIYC

Want to know more about automated Christmas lighting? drop over the DIYC and check out the ideas, hear what others are up to, and new projects.


GPW 204556

Christmas only comes but one time per year! What to do the rest of the year? rebuild a June 1944 Ford GPW jeep. Have a look at the project via the Tabs above.

 

VMVC

I am a member of the Victorian Military Vehicle Corps, and you can see my 'other' website.

The 2011 lights will be on from 1 December

 

Where did the last year go? It is nearly time to turn the lights back on for 2011.

 

We have already started to set up the lights for this year, many of the display items are being updated. The Mini Trees are now Red, Green and Blue. We'll be able to do a lot more this year.

 

The next couple of days look like they will be wet, hopefully I will be able to finish off the display.

 

There is some new hardware too. I used a J1sys DR4 E1.131 4 port router. This year, I have added another two to the network.

 

We also revamped the Mini-trees with all new LEDs.

 

Ray Wu's Pixels were used to make some interesting effects on the leaping arches and gutters. More needed for next year.

 

Read more about the lights here or our Blog here.

 

 

Lort Smith

Lort

 

This year, we again collected funds for a charity.

 

The Lort Smith Animal Hospital provides high quality veterinary care at a reduced cost for the pets of people in need as well as injured, stray and abandoned pets that have no-one to care for them.

 

THANKS to those who donated to the Collectors.



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.

 

treeBy 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.