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September & October Projects: Building my LOR
Controllers (Finally!)
We have our
controllers! 48 channels (We know there are people with many more
but we're just starting out... and it took us awhile to even think about
animation!) and they are assembled, tested, and work like a champ!
Now we're really ready to go!
Below is the picture
from the LOR site of the
controller I'm using (the PC kit version):
Final Sequencing for
Christmas 2007:
With the arrival of our LOR Controllers
Ryan is wrapping up the sequencing of the four songs for our
first animated year. He has been working with the demo program
since late last year, and sequencing seemed to be fairly easy for him.
Ryan's had a lot of fun with it and we can't wait to see how things turn
out.
Final Purchasing
for Halloween 2007:
Time to start
loading up on Halloween stuff! Rachel loves Halloween so we're
going to add some new lights, new decorations for inside and out, and
Ryan might even try some LOR animation!
Final Large Element Purchasing
for Christmas 2007:
There are several items left for me to
purchase before the season gets rolling. I need four more sets of
Lawn Lights, and about 1000 more feet of SPT2 wire. I also need to
have my electrical upgrade completed!
UPDATE: Wire and Lawn Lights were bought
and as for
the electrical upgrade:
Many of you know how my electrical
woes began…
Last year I ran into some problems of tripping breakers. Not a lot, but
enough to concern me. I had a 150 amp service panel and about 6
spaces for more circuits.
I met Chris Vyvial and Anthony Vetrano after the May workshop in Dallas.
They came to my house, checked out my electrical panel, and suggested
either adding more breakers just for the controllers and lights, or
adding a subpanel. I figured, no big deal, that’ll be pretty easy.
Chris was kind enough to offer to help, since he’s waaaaaay smarter than
I am when it comes to electrical stuff. But he was honest and told me he
is not an electrician and that I should get an electrician’s opinion
before we did anything.
Anthony looked me dead in the eye and said ?I won’t work on someone
else’s house? which you have to respect in case things burn down. That
would be bad.
So I posted on TCL about needing electrical help for a moron (http://www.christmaslightscommunity....read.php?t=476).
John Albers, who I had met at the June Houston chapter meeting, offered
his help. He even put me in touch with a retired electrician friend of
his who could do the work. They were both very willing to help and we
all really tried to make it work, but along the way I miscommunicated
what I wanted, and we all simply parted as Christmas friends and I moved
on from there.
I then called an electrician (Dempsey Electric). You can read about that
fiasco here (http://www.christmaslightscommunity....ead.php?t=1020).
Long story short: the estimator gave me one quote and then when he
submitted his written quote he jacked it up by almost $900. Not good. I
was also told out my panel was old and dangerous, so I should replace
the whole thing. I checked on that myself online and that was accurate,
but I didn’t like their estimating practices. So I called someone else.
The second electrician was On Time Electric. They were nice on the
phone, but they missed their appointments twice… so much for On Time!
They showed for the third, but the guy quoted me $4000 to replace my
panel and run new wire from the transformer to the meter (which in the
end did not need to happen).
Four grand?! What happened to my only needing a few lousy circuits??!! I
was getting despondent pretty fast.
Then I had a brainstorm… when we bought this house almost
3 years ago, the realtor suggested having the seller buy us a home
warranty, for anything that might go wrong in the first year. We said
sure, we weren’t paying for it so it wasn’t a big deal. If something
goes wrong you just pay the $50 service fee and they take care of it,
either repair or replacement. We used it for a few things the first
year: the dryer needed repairing, the hot water heater needed replaced.
We renewed it for the second year; $40 a month. The second year the
dishwasher needed replaced. That was worth the $480 for the year alone!
So I was thinking: I have a panel that is old and dangerous. It’s going
to cost between $2200 and $4000 to get replaced. I have this home
warranty. I gave them a call, told them I had some trips last year and
some concerns over the safety of the panel. That was Friday.
Monday morning the electric contractor called and asked me what I had
(size of panel, how many circuits, etc). I sent him pictures of my old
panel (see below). He called the warranty company back and told them the
panel needed to be replaced. They approved it!
Tuesday they came out to look at what I had. While they were here I
asked them if they could add a few circuits for my controllers. Nothing
major, just 6 dedicated 20 amp circuits, each run to an independent GFCI
outlet with weatherproof cover (he he). I was joking (sort of), and was
amazed when they said "Sure". Cost to do that? $200.
So as of September 26th a brand new panel was installed at my house…
they didn’t like the 150 amp panel so instead a 200 amp service with all
my new dedicated circuits (and their dedicated outlets) was installed…
for a grand total of $250 ($50 for the service call and $200 for the
additional breakers, wire, and outlets)!!
Beat that with a stick!
Moral of the story: Don’t give up… and get a home warranty!
Here are some pics of the old panel:
And here is the NEW Panel:
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