Fellow Oklahoman - introduction

B

burcjo

New member
Hey everyone,

I've been an electronics/computer guy my whole life. I've always loved the lights and Christmas. Got into programming because of Christmas. These things all go together perfectly for me... Electronics, computers, programming, Christmas... Sweet that I found this place.

I've been looking at creating everything from scratch for about a year and a half now. I'd come quite a long way - so I thought - till I discovered this place. Now, although I'm quite proud of the work I've done, I'm not attached to it to rely on countless lifetimes of experience here. This place is the bomb!

I've got some real plans to get something going for next year. Basically going to add effects and improve a little on my existing display. I discovered two other houses in my neighorbood in Midwest City that are controlling their lights to Music, I plan on introducing myself to them soon!

Hi everyone and I'm thankful for everything everyone has done here! !!
 
As Budude and N7XG have done, I also offer a hearty Welcome! The sky's the limit... well, more practically, the WALLET's the limit :lol: (or for some of us, when the wife gives you that *look* you know you've hit the limit...)

So you've been working on some things from scratch? You should share them! Pictures, schematics, drawings, whatever -- you never know what can come from sharing your information. Sometimes someone may ask a question that opens a new door and then everybody benefits. That's why DIYC is such a great place. Well, one reason anyway...

Have fun!
 
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I look forward to being able to contributing anything that anyone can use. I've basically been "boning-up" on all that electronic's stuff from my past life. I have an electronics degree, and while in school, I used the lab for a lot of outside projects. I basically brought in TV's and VCR's and anything electronic I could fix for anyone who would let me at it. I paid a large part of my tuition this way. Then I worked on a bench repairing aircraft electrical components for a couple of years with a scope and meter and generators and the likes. After that, I got into computers big time. My first program was written in BASIC on an 8088 processor. I translated Jingle Bells, Silent Night, Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Oh Holy Night from sheet music into BASIC data arrays, then programmed various graphics scenes to be animated to the beat of the music.

Because so much of the computer field doesn't need component level work, I really got into programming and managing scores of machines, and I've forgotten so much of the electronics that helped me get started on this path.

A couple of years ago, I discovered the Arduino in my searching for something I can't even remember. The thought crossed my mind that I could use this micro controller to program light sequences for Christmas. Finally a project that would be fun for me and other people too!

Talk in another forum post about monitoring really has my attention, as this is something right up my alley. Managing complex networks requires a fair amount of monitoring and most of the displays I see from this site definitely fall into this category.

It would be wonderful to incorporate a voltage sensing circuit to send high/low signals out to a separate micro controller to monitor these signals. By using something like the Arduino, you could do some fairly complex things with the results -- make them available to a web page, email them, reset a relay... as you say, sky's the limit.

But this is all just a bit beyond my current knowledge level. I could eventually get there with it all on my own, but I have my sights set on getting my lights going for next year before I get too side-tracked ;) But this is a project I could definitely help with...

Thanks for the warm welcome and I appreciate everyone's efforts and contributions !

John
 
Welcome, I live in Edmond and this was my first year. This place was amazing and helped me get 144 channels running right away.
 
Welcome aboard! You have choosen a great hobby... and as Dirk said... "Wallets the limit".

I started small ... ~ 20 channels and grew to 88 this year. Plan on increasing to 128 next year... so as you can see this hobby is "adaptable" to your level of interest.

May your show be flicker free and full of intensity!

Regards,
Lightman
 
Hi John,

Welcome to DIYC. I co-host a mini-PLUS every spring for the OKC area. It would be great if you can attend. We haven't set a date yet but we usually hold it in the April time frame. Watch this forum for an announcement.
 
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