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Block diagram of technologies X  Vixen & xLights

X  The computer

X  FM radio transmitter

X  DMX transmitter

X  DMX splitter

X  Lynx DMX SSR4 controllers

X  Lynx MR16 controller

X  LEDTriks electronic sign

Technical overview

The goal is to control house-voltage (as well as low-voltage) Christmas lights with a low-voltage signal that is generated by a central computer that runs the show and the music.

The show is run by a Windows XP (patooie!) personal computer, under an application called xLights, which plays the lights and music (which in turn drives the FM transmitter). A “dongle” attached to the computer’s USB port converts the output of xLights to DMX-512, a standards-based lighting control environment originally developed for the entertainment industry, specifically rock concerts.

The DMX signal is split into three main legs (and one of those legs is split again) – each drives DMX-based house-voltage light controllers and two of those legs are extended to controllers that run drive 12-volt direct current, which is good for light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Each house-voltage controller handles four channels of DMX and common household outlets are driven by each of those channels. The DMX controller has a microprocessor that turns the DMX signal into electrical pulses that drive optocouplers, which in turn drive triacs. Each triac controls one AC electrical circuit. Up to three strings of 100 incandescent Christmast mini-lights is thus controlled (LED mini-lights can have up to 10 strings of 100-count bulbs).

The 12-volt DC controllers (MR16) handle the DMX signal in much the same way as the electrical-box controller above, except that everything operates at 12-volts DC, which drives LEDs that are wired in series/parallel combination circuits on the frames on the bannisters and windows.

Much of the show is divided into specifically colored lights – red, green, blue and white are the predominate colors. The show is sequenced with an application called Vixen, which controls all the similar lights (for example, all the red lights that frame windows and bannisters or all the white lights in small trees).

The Windows computer also drives a series of circuits that control a scrolling electronic sign, called an LEDTriks.