On Saturday, November 16, 2002 at 6:00:12 PM UTC-7, Steve W.EE wrote:

I would like some ideas on how to make an automated
flashing Christmas decoration. It has 14 small
strings of 120-volt outdoor lights which spell out
the words "Merry Christmas". What I want it to do
is turn on one string of lights for each letter at
about 1 second intervals to spell out the words then
when all the lights are on it stays on for a couple
seconds then they all turn off and it repeats the
cycle. Sort of like the old "MOTEL" signs which
were popular in the 60's.

I need to keep the cost to a minimum hopefully under
$100 and something which can be built in about a
week.

30 years ago when I was a kid I built something which
had a wooden shaft, it was driven by a 4rpm motor and
had 14 wooden cams. There were 14 microswitches all
bought from a Radio Shack to control the lights, on
a 15-second cycle. One interesting design problem was
how to synchronize all the lights to turn off at the
same time. There was no way to get the timing perfect
with cams made of plywood. What I ended up doing was
taking the switch for the first letter "M" and wiring
it so that it would turn off all the lights. I
adjusted it so this switch would open first shutting
off everything then during the 2 or so dark seconds
all the other switches could turn off.

I guess I could do something like this again but I
was hoping for something a little more high-tech.

--
Steve W. stevew-ee.nym@alias@net ( interchange . and @ )

Have you all heard of the San Device controllers????
Great for Pixels.
I also use DIYC controllers called Renard Controllers
there easy to build and Great to use.
email me or text me if you need more info on either k. bearsquires1007christmas@gmail.com

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