|
Inside the "control room" where the power came from... "Central Command" where all the low voltage transformers for the outdoor sets lived, and the power was controlled from. On the left you see the digital timeswitch. Next to it is the power unit and override switch for the outside daylight sensor. The timer turned the power on in the morning, and the light sensor turned the lights on when it got dark enough. Then the timer turned the whole lot off again at about 10.30 PM. Simple!
That angular-looking device clamped to the shelf at the top is a "Laser crab", a simple disco lighting effect with a red diode laser and two motorised mirrors- it can project simple patterns. It was originally located outdoors in a waterproof enclosure, but concerns about its safety, and a poor overall effect there, led me to move it in here where it performed much better. The yellow fronted controller unit the fiber-optic tree was sat on was for a special LED light set surrounding the window. Made from a design in an electronics magazine, it consisted of a string of paralell wired multicolour LEDs (the ones with a seperate red and green part inside, that can light with any colour, red through to green) and a two-part circuit which independantly faded the red and green halves up and down at variable speeds. The result was an attractive, unique colour changing effect unlike any other xmas lights. |
