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December 26, 2008 Merry Christmas everyone. I hope Santa was good to all of you.
As you can see, the snow just keeps on coming. We've now passed the all time snowfall record set in 1961. As I write this, it is still snowing out, with an additional 10 - 15cm (4 - 6 inches) forecast for today. The big melt can come at any time. The downside of all this snow, is visitors have all but stopped. Not only is half the display not visible, but the street is in very poor condition, and not easily traveled by 2WD vehicles. Not only that, there is nowhere for visitors to park their cars if they do show up. Check out the photos below...
Hopefully this will all be gone by months end so I can shoot some videos...
I'm off to shovel snow again. :-)
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December 21, 2008 The snow can stop anytime. This seems to be the norm now. Whatever happened to global warming??? The forecast is lightening up a bit, but another big one on Christmas Eve. My fence is under that pile somewhere.
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December 20, 2008 We had visitors tonight from Hungary. They came just to see the lights. At least, that's what they told me... ;-) Pictured are Gabriella, myself, and Evi.
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December 19, 2008 CBC Newsworld came out this morning for an interview. It was SO cold out.
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December 17, 2008 We finally got some snow. Not a whole lot, just enough to make the display look a bit more festive.
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December 14, 2008 Still no pics or video up, but they will be coming soon. What a windstorm we had last night. No damage, that was a nice treat. :-)
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November 30, 2008 Lightup went well. No issues except for the timing (4 second delay after the countdown...). I'll post some pics and videos soon.
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November 29, 2008 (3pm) We think we're ready.... T minus 4 hours
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November 23rd, 2008 We anticipated finishing the display today, but it just didn't happen. It'll still be a busy week to complete it on time. I haven't even finished the programming yet.... Cindy & Bailee lighting a tree, and Ross, Steph and Greg working on the mega tree.
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Greg and Steph, Steph on lights, and a very thirsty Greg.... :-)
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November 16, 2008 We had better weather today. The arches are coming along pretty slowly, as Kyle likes to pay more attention to the girls, than the lights...The life of a 13 year old. The welder sure makes the tree assembly sturdier, however, from this day forward, we'll need to find somewhere to store the 24 foot mast in one piece. Untangling the cables, and the mast finally up.
Next weekend should see the end of the setup...
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November 9, 2008 This is the latest we've ever started the setup. To be honest, we were actually considering taking a year off.... To the 2 little girls who told me on Halloween night you that you 'couldn't wait' until lightup, you were the deciding factor on proceeding with this years show. :-)
Left to Right: 9:00 am Nov 9th, Lauren taking a stab at manual labor, Kyle and Bailee on leaf detail, Steph remembering his youth, and the yard after day 1. Well on our way.
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July 31, 2008 Almost done.... The 2 photos of the right show the completed interior wiring.
Just a few more hours, and we're into the programming. :-)
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July 30, 2008 It happened... We just discovered that we do not have enough LOR channels to do everything we want, so 2 more boards are in order. This will bring the total channels to 160 for this year. Thanks for that, Brian. :-( LOL
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July 27, 2008 The panel is progressing quite quickly now. Photos in order... Sub panel on left with rear of main power boxes on right, rear of channels 1 - 32, front of channels 1 - 64, all 16 conductors pass through this panel to allow readings from my amp probe, inside of channels 1 - 64, and the inside of a completed LOR box.
I am hoping to have the panel completed within the next 2 - 3 weeks. I have tested the LOR PC boards, and have the latest LOR software working well.
The next step will be programming. We will not be using any from past years, so it'll all be from scratch this year.
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July 5, 2008 we are adding 3 LOR PC boards this year. These will be placed outside, in an attempt to reduce the number of extension cords we need to use. By changing the configuration, we can run 2 cords to the yard, rather than 16.
I elected to buy the blanks and components, and build the boards myself. This only saved about $40 a board, but I enjoy soldering. :-)
Pictured left, the blank, assembly just beginning, and the enclosure they will be in.
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July 3, 2008 The first of the boxes being installed on the panel. The wiring will very quickly fill up the cavity, so I have to keep this as neat as possible.
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June 8, 2008 You can see what the new design will look like here. The photos are pretty self explanatory.
The section on the right is hinged to allow access to the wiring. When completed, I want all wiring to be enclosed. The photo on the right shows the LOR enclosures mounted. The bottom 3 are spares, reserved for future growth.
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Feb 12, 2008 Cheque presentation to the Canadian Cancer Society Rep.
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Jan 20, 2008 Everyone thought I was kidding...The day after the 2007 show ended, the panel came down. 13 months worth of work dismantled in less than an hour.
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And to the right, just a few of the bits needed to build the 2008 panel. Here's some specs:
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