On Sun 27 Apr 2008 02:31:41p, Mark Lloyd told us...

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:49:22 GMT, Wayne Boatwright
wrote:

[snip]

I use a series of solid-state relays so all the holiday lights are
controlled by ONE timer, and so go on and off at the same time. This
is a temporary setup That I put out in the middle of October (a few
Halloween lights). The individual outlets still have GFCIs.

Great idea... Are these anything like the X-10 devices? I used these
in a previous home for all interior lighting, either in wall switches or
plug-in modules.


[snip]

There are not powerline-carrier devices, but hardwired (temporarily).
I have my holiday lights flashing at about 1Hz. X10 devices are too
slow for this. I have the relays linked using 6-wire telephone-type
cable. The relays themselves are installed in plastic electrical boxes
along with the controlled receptacles. They are located inside and
plugged into a GFCI, with cords going out windows. The control signal
comes from an old computer (Pentium 166) through a simple RS232-level
buffer I built with a MAX233 IC.

BTW, The wires are assigned like this:

1 (white) exclusion line. This is on when the lights are and can be
connected to NC relays to disable things that shouldn't be used at the
same time as the holiday lights.

2 (black) lights on (+12V from wall-wart will be present from sunset
to 10PM).

3 (red) flash 1. Output from computer serial port to flash lights. The
computer switches the DTR line (connected to this) to say "Happy
Holidays" in Morse code.

4 (green) flash 2. Logical NOT of above. However, both these lines can
be made active to turn all lights on to take still pictures.

5 (yellow) ground. As you might have guessed, I originally planned
this for 4 wires.

6 (blue) [reserved for future use]

These wires carry no voltages outside the range of -10V to +12V. The
normal current is no higher than the few mA needed to operate the
SSRs.

Very interesting installation! I'm sure it's really very nice, but I doubt
I personally would have the patience to put it together. I think they call
that "lazy". :-)

--
Wayne Boatwright
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Sunday, 04(IV)/27(XXVII)/08(MMVIII)
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Today is: Rogation Sunday
Countdown till Memorial Day
4wks 8hrs 20mins
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'Bother,' said Pooh as he switched
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