It is now more than half way through October and the display is now in the process of being installed. Controllers were reassembled at the start of the month but the focus is now on the placement of actual decorations.
You can follow the progress by keeping an eye on this blog as well as the recently activated 2012 photo gallery, containing a growing number of setup photos. Can you work out what the new lights may be for or what they do different to past lights?
The 2011 display is all over. Farewell! Now the long task of tearing down begins followed by planning for next year’s “bigger and better” Christmas light display.
Happy New Year.
The final display items are going out now with just 50 hours left until the 2011 switch on.
With the weather looking good for this year’s switch on, you can see the lights doing what they do from Thursday, December 1, at 8:30 pm.
It is now full steam ahead with the display set up. All roof lights have been installed as of today, and there is a change here! What is the change? You’ll have to keep an eye on the 2011 photo gallery page for addition of new photos in coming days.
As in other years, the scheduled light up time will be at 8:30 pm on December 1. This will not occur if there are strong winds or wet weather present. Unlike previous years, there will be no official launch song.
As of today the 2011 Christmas display is being gradually set up. The mains-power 240V AC controllers have been installed while the new 24V DC controllers are almost completed. They should be installed by the weekend along with the DC controllers which were introduced last year.
A 2011 gallery page is now available, this year using a different page design. Let me know your comments on the new style of gallery. Former years continue to use an older design.
It is now just a few days away from switch on, and some power problems remain.
The show will still light up on December 1st subject to weather, but with some elements non-functioning. I am hoping that these last few problems can be ironed out before the weekend.
Please note that if thunderstorms and rain are present on December 1 then light up will not go ahead for safety reasons – sorry.
It is getting closer to the planned December 1 launch, but I am still having issues with certain DC channels.
The roof appears to be working fine now but the mega tree is another story. I think it is pretty much a given that the street gum tree will be dropped from this years show in order to free up some back up channels for hopefully getting the mega tree working properly.
Unfortunately problems continue with some lights connected into the new DC controllers. For the time being, I’ve ceased setting up more lights that will connect into the DC controllers.
AC lights set up is about 3/4 complete.
Worst case scenario would be that all DC channels will be non-operational, which means no roof triangles, no mega tree, and no street tree lights. I hope this does not actually happen however.
Not the most positive update, but an update nonetheless.
Over the last week, lights have been installed to the roof. The LED roof strings will run from DC boards this year, and unfortunately initial tests showed some kind of electrical leakage problem within one of the strings somewhere.
This has resulted in the loss of one of the four white triangles, and I am urgently looking into ways of getting a replacement at short notice (10 metres long).
I’m still not sure how the light set could have been pulling so much power (ten times the amount it is supposed to) without even lighting up.
Combined with the DC power supply problem earlier this month, DC is sure appearing to be stubborn.
Can you believe it is already halfway through the month of October? Time for an update!
Christmas decorations and lights have now been installed in the three front windows. The window borders will be installed during the next week.
Where the majority of time has gone is setting up the new DC controllers. The controllers themselves appear to be working perfectly out of the box but where the issues have been is with a dodgy power supply unit (DC Controllers must be connected to a PSU and not directly wired to 240v AC).
I opted to purchase a non-brand name power supply, due to hearing that other Christmas displays were using them without issue. However when I powered up my PSU, older computer monitors using VGA cables started showing strange lines and the ADSL2+ modem lost connection to the internet. Turns out this particular cheap supply from China emits high electromagnetic interference in the air (EMI). Cheap fixes such as ferrite rings and filters proved no good.
I will now be using official Meanwell power supplies even though they cost anywhere from $100 upwards as they do not let off any noticable interference and also come with a reliable warranty.
Lesson learnt.
