Some towns do a big Christmas lighting ceremony where they countdown, then a pretty lady or little kid would press an over-sized button that caused all the lights and music to start up. This is something I always thought would be alot of fun on my display when we invite the neighbors over to enjoy the lights. Having a show-starter button is actually a very easy thing to do using Light-O-Rama.
Steps:
- First I assembled the button. I took the cream colored micro switch and put it inside the base of the black LED module. It was a tight fit to get the two plastic pins to line up with the holes on the micro switch.
- Next I soldered two wires to the micro switch leads.
- Then I cut off the end to the 12V power supply, stripped the ends and connected them to the leads for the LED module making sure I had positive to positive and negative to negative, which I figured out via trial and error.
- Then I popped the LED/Switch assembly into the dome with a slight twist and the Big Red Button was assembled.
- I plugged the 12V power supply into a channel on my LOR controller and wrote a simple sequence to pulse that channel.
- Next I take the wires from the switch and connect these to the Input Pup. One to ground, the other to an input (input 8).
- This sequence is then used as a background sequence in the show I want to kick off. (Now I may need to tweak this part a little bit so I can eventually turn off the red light).
- Also in the show editor I click on the [Options] button and specify to start the background sequence immediately, but wait for the trigger to start the musical part of the show.
- Then I start the show and the red light starts pulsing.
- I press it and the show begins.
Hurray!
Materials:
Big Red Button - 100mm Red LED button purchased from AdaFruit [Data Sheet]
- Same think at OceanControls [Link] SKU: SFJ-011
- LED indicator light runs at 12 VDC
- 3 Terminals Button Actuator microswitch
- 100 mm Diameter Ă— 72 mm Height
- Net weight: 100 grams
- Mounting hole diameter: 24 m
Light-O-Rama Input Device (There are several variations)
Light-O-Rama CTB16PCG3 Light Controller
Light-O-Rama RS485-USB with Booster
AC/DC Adapter Input: 120VAC, Output: 12VAC 200mA
Light-O-Rama Software Advanced license (ver 4.0.4)