My Christmas Lights Video

OK, before you watch the video here's the story why my Christmas lights are computer controlled.

I built this great Flying Crank Ghost (see Phantasmechanics.com) to hang outside for Halloween. Pay attention, this has a point. It came out better than I'd hoped and was very proud and excited to be putting it outside. I will post pictures and videos of it soon. Anyway, on Halloween (late afternoon) I was standing outside watching the FCG waiting for it to get dark so I could turn on the black light when the crank caught something in the tree it was hanging from. It wrapped around the crank, motor shaft and lines to the arms and broke the pully. A flying crank ghost is basically a marionette connected to a motor. If you break the wires that hold up a marionette, it becomes a twisted, hanging mess. It basically ate itself. Wires, string and metal were all broken.

That night while I was pissed off and brooding, my wife said I needed to get over it and move on. I could move on..if I made something bigger. Christmas lights...bigger...better. I have it! So I started researching computer controlled Christmas lights that night. I wasn't looking to do wild, flashing crazy lights I was looking to emulate those little fiber optic villages and decorations that constantly change colors. I had some ideas for interesting patterns and sequences which is what has run most of this season. But, 16 to 20 minutes of Christmas lights even in interesting patterns would not make very good video. So I decided to sync my display to 1 song to record for display. I should probably start working on next year now.