Two weeks since I officially started setting up the display, 1 week of that was 15 hour days (75 Hours) and the second week was 3 hours per day (15 Hours) and two weekends (30 Hours), well I'm about at 120 hours of labor into this.........Crazy isn't it!
Why do I do it? Well I have many reasons, the three most important are:
- It's my hobby, this is what I do all year. Now it's really crazy! but think about it, for this display I'm involved with many hobbies/skills; welding, electrical, art, music, engineering, shopping, computers and wood working, it's like a all inclusive hobby.
- I get to spend a tremendous amount of time with my youngest son Chris, he loves this stuff as much as I do, he's like a sponge and wants to know and do everything; what's that tool called, can I cut that, can I go on the roof with you and he tested over 40 strings of lights without a single complaint.
- Giving something back. We all take from our communities, Little League, Soccer, Church to name a few, most people that are involved with these organizations are giving to the community, helping to make it better for all of us, so why not try to give something back to the folks, something they look forward to every year. I feel real good seeing kids dance on the sidewalk to the music, folks with tears in their eyes because of a melody that moved them, their is something really magical about this.
Yes, today was a very good day, we where very busy putting in the 4 new 20 amp circuits with no trips to the hardware store (came close once but, I found the part) this will give our display a total of 120 dedicated amps.......Think about it, most homes only have a 100 amp service. 
This is not to say I will draw 120 amps at one time but, I need to have this power available in 8 amp switched circuits (48 circuits) at any given time, I would estimate I draw around a 20 amp load at any given time. Once the circuits were installed, we ran the mains to the controllers about 100 feet away (this will change next year with a new sub panel in the garage) Once the controllers powered up we connected them to the computer and tested and tagged every channel, no one single problem. See I told you it was a good day. Once everything was tagged we started pulling in the lateral light lines to the controllers and as we did this I launched last years sequences so we could start testing live.....Yes! I see the light! We were unable to finish the laterals today but will continue tomorrow.
What's left on our list:
- Finish Lateral power lines.
- Finish the last few sequences.
- Hang the Merry Christmas sign.
- Finish the light bars.
- Test speakers and FM transmitter.
- Integrate new voice overs in to sequences.
- Test everything once done.
- Be done by Thursday!
Yes, it was a very good day!
Rick Williams
Quartz Hill Christmas
www.QuartzHillChristmas.com
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