Our last show of the season was New Year’s Eve. Overall we were very pleased with the show and the reception by all who stopped by to see it. It was a very challenging season with a bunch of lights dying that needed to be replaced to keep things going, and a couple of nights when the rain knocked out circuits. I think there is a solution to both problems that will be incorporated into this year’s show. Read the rest of the article »
We’ve reset all of the circuits, run a test, and all of the lights are back on for tonight, and hopefully until New Year’s Eve.
Again, we’re sorry for any incovenience if you drove by last night and found a dark front yard. We’ve got to find out a way to minimize this problem, but not sure what the solution is at this point.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
We’ve had a lot of cars stop and see our Christmas lights display this year, and particularly over the past weekend. At one time we had eight cars out front, jockeying for the best position to see the entire show. Had a limo on Friday, and on Saturday, had a person from Ecuador stop to see the show. She said she’d never seen anything like it. She’s coming back with her kids tonight.
We also have been written up on another webpage, http://www.kansastravel.org/kansascitychristmasdisplays.htm, which lists known displays of significance in the Johnson County Kansas area. Check it out and stop by the other displays with family and friends.
If you’re wondering about the heading, this year has been a real challenge to keep the lights on. The LEDs that I purchased for the mega tree and the two front oak trees were meant for a static display and not one that produces an animated show where the lights are on/off, and fade in and out. I bought them from the same source as the ones from last year, which worked very well, but the source used a new vendor in China. Evidently the QC wasn’t the best. The result is that I’ve replaced around 40 strings of lights, and that task is very difficult when working on the mega tree. On top of that, its been very cold, and I find that I need the dexterity of bare hands to do the switch out. The good news is that I can turn all of the lights in for replacements with 2009 lights that, I’m assured, will have been thoroughly tested while being driven by animated light controllers.
So every night I cross my fingers that everything will be working properly. Especially the week of Christmas as it is anticipated that we will have a lot of people stopping to enjoy the show. I would be very disappointed to have people stop and they weren’t able to see the show as planned.
I’m also working on video of the show. I did some shooting last week, but cars kept getting in the way. So Friday morning, I was out front at 7:15am to shoot video. Unfortunately I didn’t time the sunrise properly because it got light early than anticipated. I’ve decided I need to be shooting at 6:30am instead. However, the temperature has been just above 0ºF the last couple of morning, so I’ve passed. Don’t want to turn into a popsicle three days before Christmas. I’ll get it accomplished and uploaded as soon as everything comes together.
After two hours outside tracking down circuits that had blown, all are now working. But remember that if we have wet weather, check the website to see if I’ve detected a problem. I try to test the lights each day, but something might happen in the interim that makes the system crash. Snow doesn’t seem to be the problem, just rain.
Sorry again for any inconvenience, but sometime it’s hard to fight mother nature.
If you came by the house Saturday night to see the Christmas Lights Display and you either saw the lights acting erratically, or off completely, we’re sorry that you weren’t able to see the show. When it rains, some of the connections get wet which trip the GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) that powers all of the controllers and thus the lights. The whole purpose is to shut off power to an outlet when a wet condition is detected by the circuit, thus eliminating the possibility of someone getting a severe shock, or worse, electrocution.
This has happened the past two years and I’ve taken steps to reduce the possibility of a tripped GFCI, but somewhere in a couple of circuits, those steps weren’t enough. Thus the show shut down. I’ll work on it tomorrow and hopefully find the problem, fix it, and the show will be up and running again. But before you stop by, please check the website for updated information.
Again, I apologize for this happening, but it is better to have the GFCI trip than to have someone killed.