Christmas 2014 at the Hormanns

2014 was our fourteenth year for an animated Christmas display. This year there were a number of changes. The biggest was the addition of the scrolling Grid below the countdown clock. This is created using nearly 1,000 individually controlled RGB pixels and some clever programming. Also, the red/green/blue flood lights that shine up on the house were replaced with 4 hand-built RGB lamps. These do a much better job with color mixing.

Behind the scenes, a number of other changes were done. All of the old C code (some dating back to 2001) was replaced with C++ code. In addition, the old 320 Parallel Port Controller was finally retired along with the P-500MHz PC that controls the display. An old Athlon (yes, we collect old machines) was put into service as well as a new DMX controller (for the spot lights and countdown clock) and a PixLite 4 board to control the Grid below the clock. 7 LOR controllers are also in use.

For the last 9 years or so, a small (but growing) group of neighbors have braved the cold to watch the clock hit mid-night and welcome Christmas. This year, we had over 20 neighbors come and watch the clock hit zero. Our daughter stayed up and served them hot chocolate.

All source code used in the display is licensed under the GPLv3 and published on Github.