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Christmas Lighting in Abundance
gral writes "My boss really gets into setting up Christmas lights. He has been interviewed by a couple TV stations, because of his displays. He usually has them setup at his house. This year he has moved to a Church Yard for more space. For 2003, his display sports over 200,000 lights, each string is controlled by computer to light to the tune of a Radio Station playing christmas music. Check out his website at Planet Christmas. Some pictures of this year's display can be seen as well. Have fun and Happy Holidays."
Sorry, forgot this in the writeup, but there are some Gentoo packages out for lighting for your Christmas trees and houses.
Check out Gentoo.org for more details.
You may need a 3D card to view demos though.
I had a friend who did something like this. He hooked 8000 (yes, eight thousand) lights up and made one continuous string across the entire yard, then set it up as a chaser. It looked REALLY good.
Here is the house about 5 minutes from mine which is by far the most decorated house in the area. It is actually some Elvis impersonator, so his display always has an Elvis theme and usually has Elvis music playing. The display requires the police for traffic control, and it's been said that the gentleman has worked out a special agreement with O&R (or maybe PSEG), the local energy company. I haven't been to the house in about 5 years. They say he adds more lights every year, so I have no idea if it still looks like the pictures.
As a source of mass employment, we have moved from agriculture, to manufacturing, and now into aesthetics. It is not that agriculture has disappeared from the US, but it is down to about 3% of the economy.
ok how about a string of lights where each was individually controllable - each socket contained a simple switch that would look on a serial data bus for its individual code and switch its light on or off accordingly. To set it up you would drape the lights around randomly and then point a camera at the tree/house/bush etc. A computer would use the camera to calibrate by switching each light one by one and noting the position on the camera until it built up a rough pattern of light positions (this would take anything from seconds to minutes depending). Then you could use the lights as a crude dot-matrix display. The light detection routine wouldn't be that hard to do, and you could even have the lights pulse at a certain frequency to make detection easier for the computer. A step further would be to place the camera more than once to build up a 3D model of light positions. I think there are already mass produced components that can respond when they detect their code on a serial interface, imagine the possibilities given enough lights and cheap production?
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You're thinking of a half-wave rectifier - just one diode in series. A full-wave rectifier will output 0=__/\/\/\.
;) I had thought a standard bridge rectifier was only half wave, but I see your point. I am not sure how the trough is inverted (my ignorance and need to google). Thanks. Assuming you are correct (a safe assumption) then now we are left with a 120Hz wave, so we address the grandparents consern of a 120hz flicker in the LEDs:
;)
Given a 60hz input, there will be 120 peaks per second at the output. In other words, the output has a DC offset, a strong 120hz wave, and some harmonics.
I am more adept at 220vac choke and high frequency plasma systems (100kHz+ neon and fluorescent), my strengths are not DC
If there is a 120Hz flicker, you won't know it, since you can't really detect anything that fast.
On another note, I did work on a successful project to continuously ignite 2400 watts of fluorescent lamps using less than 120v/15a and developing it into a commercial product. Ask me about the natural resonance of mercury (253.7nm) and its relationship to high frequency vs. high energy and I might be more in my element
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
No, the guy still didn't comply.
The Copeland mentioned above is Al Copeland. Has anyone ever eaten at a Popeye's Fried Chicken. Al Copeland started Popeye's. http://www.popeyes.com/popeyesstory.html
He then bought Church's Chicken, and wound up loosing them both. He still owns the company the supplies the spice for Popeye's.
He also owns the more upscale Copeland's Restaurant, which is actually quite good. http://www.copelands.net/
And yes, this is the same Al Copeland that had Anne Rice sending out the Vampire Lestat out to talk to him about the color of his neon light. http://www.kicon.com/law/cases_e/annrice.html and http://www.nola.com/haunted/?vampires/021297straya .html
and http://www.nola.com/haunted/?vampires/092797straya .html
So if you want to see some Real Christmas Lights, go the the end of Transcontinental drive by the lake in Metairie, La, just outside of New Orleans. He has around over a million lights. Yes, he has his own transformer. He used to hire college engineering students to help put them up. It is really something to see. http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/remodeling/article/0,1797 ,HGTV_3659_1581560,00.html
and http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3660533&p 1=0