John's Journal

[ThaiWay]

I am inspired by Bill's Journey to do this.  Thank goodness for this awesome Forum, and the opportunity offered by the people here who are so willing to share their knowledge and expertise.  I could never do Blinky Flashy to this level or so affordably on my own.

For a start, I have my workshop in the third floor bedroom set up.  It's a nice view out to the huge gardens of the rich Thai Chinese across the soi (small Thai street.)

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John

[ThaiWay]

Getting personal.  I'm passionate about Christmas Lights... another of my passions is beaches.  Because I am a latecomer to DLA I had time earlier this month to drive down to Phuket for a holiday before I really had to get serious about building stuff.

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John

[ThaiWay]

Off the Blinky Flashy for just another moment.  I have to share another passion... my Champion Papillon show dogs.  "King" is a new addition to the family, born Oct 20.  Mom is "Lele" (THCh Westway Paniola Pulelehua) and Dad is "Rob" (Bis.Biss.Swe.Am. Jkc.Th.Ch. Queen Bless JP Mad Max)

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John

[ThaiWay]

Now to the really important stuff <cough cough>.  There are no Snowflakes in Thailand... go figure!  I stole the design from a picture at noveltylights.com ala Holdman and drew it up in SketchUp.  The Neo Neon 220VDC LED Rope Light can be cut only every 2 meters, so I had to be specific about the dimensions.

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I finally found someone to weld the frames out of 16x2mm steel stock and sprayed them white.

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Each Snowflake uses 6 meters of the rope and 108 zipties (ouch!)  I have 14 of 15 built as of last night.

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John

[wbuehler]

Very nice John they look awesome

Bill

[ThaiWay]

It's already Thursday night, and in spite of taking a long time-out early Wednesday morning to watch Election returns, this week has been productive.

Ever since I completed my Splitter I've resisted the urge to plug it in and see what happens.  There's no grounded outlets in the Townhouse except for the kitchen and the new 3-wire circuit I paid to have installed for everything Christmas at the front door.  I never trust any electrical work in TH, so I decided to test the new Duplex Receptacle there.  Sure enough, the Hot and Neutral were reversed!  So today's project was to install the Residual Current Device (GFCI equivalent) before the receptacle and correct the mis-wiring.  The "electrician" had the colors right, but at the Breaker Box they were wrong.  I mounted the boxes in the location I wanted, and labeled the wires with my handy wire numbers:

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Then the RCD above the receptacles, carrying the ground through:

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Complete with covers after testing; soon I'll plug in the Splitter:

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In early September I designed John's Super Deluxe Very Smart Mini Tree.  Does that count as DIY?  No tomato cages in TH.  But I did find some very cheap 3mm steel wire 80 cm long.  I used the 1.6/1 height to base ratio, giving me a 50 cm (20") base. 

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It took me until last week to find someone to weld the pieces together... maybe I should invest in a small arc welder next year.  Nine JSDVSMT's were delivered Monday.  I have to repaint them because the acrylic spray is already chipping off.

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Tuesday afternoon I visited my new favorite plumbing/hardware shop. 

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See that grey angle iron with the holes for building shelves sticking out on the right?  They had the best price for the 3m lengths.  I had looked around for two days.  Since I don't have a yard, I have to build UP for display elements... you'll see.  I ordered 22 pieces, 12 of them to be cut to various lengths.  Thankfully another customer came along who spoke very good English.  He verified what I hoped I had communicated with my limited Thai and hand signals.  Do you HD/Lowe's shoppers know how lucky you are?

And finally, King was 16 days old Wednesday.  Now, back to work...

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[Ron]

John, you write a great story.  I love reading about your adventures (or is that misadventures) trying to get your Christmas show up and running.  Nice job on the trees and I love the snowflakes.

Ron

[dmaccole]

Do you HD/Lowe's shoppers know how lucky you are?

Hell, I bet that an iron-monger in Thailand has a better grasp on hardware items than a typical HD/Lowe's employee. I was at a Lowe's 10 days ago and asked for a door threshold and the woman walked me over to where they have carpet transitions. It took a half-hour of wandering around the store to find that they're kept with the cleaning supplies (of course).

\dmc

[ThaiWay]

Saturday a 2.75m section of fence fell off it's rotted supports.  Since some bracing to hold up the mini trees will be attached to the fence I had to go shopping Sunday for angle brackets, nuts & bolts, and some screws.

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Monday was wasted fixing it.  Why didn't I take any pictures of that project?  Perhaps because of all the cursing I was doing having to take time from Blinky Flashy.

This morning I visited a machine shop to have holes drilled in the hobby kit boxes for the Splitter and Dongle.  I figured it would be cheaper than buying large drill bits I'll never use again.  Wrong!  Two Boxes, $2... eight holes, $9... discovering new places in the hood... priceless!

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The 21" TV went on the fritz.  The service boys arrived at 1pm for a look-see.  $150 for a new toob, or they'd pay me $15 to take it away.  I said no thanks to either option and paid $10 for the pleasure of their company.  Plasma or LCD for Christmas???

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At least I finished off the fence and then got my Dongle built tonight... and 3-week-old King got some quality time.

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[ThaiWay]

Wow... two weeks since I posted here... I've been busy prepping (pics to come) for the arrival of a big shipment.  But it still seems that it'll be a miracle if I have any blinky flashy by December 1st, let alone by Thanksgiving.  So much to do!

Sunday the postman came with a notice to pay customs duty on my precious cargo... 2 big boxes with lots of goodies.  A quick trip to the ATM and then to the Thailand Post office (can you believe the package section was open?) and my precious cargo was home.  I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Bill for collecting and packing multiple shipments and forwarding to me... above and beyond!

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It's 2am Wednesday morning now, and my first Lynx is sitting on the bench, Blue Ice LED's alight and the fan whirring... voltage where there's sposta be, and no Magic Smoke!  Woo Hoo!

And new orchid blooms in the carpark. 

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Nitey nite.

(edit to fix photo links)

[wbuehler]

Very Cool John

Bill

[ThaiWay]

Just a quickie to show you guys and gals I haven't been totally just twiddling my thumbs.

I got my two Lynx built finally with the Appendix B & C mods for a rather special application to control the 220VDC 4-color LED rope.  After some delays with comm errors they are both working spectacularly.

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I was out on the second floor balcony running the rope on the railing (top and bottom in pic) with their "custom" extension cords.

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The EGAT (Electric Generating Authority of Thailand) guys were on our street to move the main lines to new brackets.  I grabbed the camera just in time to catch the lead worker's bamboo ladder going by.

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They are very professional... they even turned off the juice for six hours(!) and wore hardhats and steel toed boots!  Flipflops and a t-shirt wrapped around one's head are more the norm for Thai OSHA safety equipment.

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[ThaiWay]

Most of you are probably sitting back outside in your lawn chairs enjoying your shows.  I got such a late start this year, and still have a long way to go with construction and building. 

Most of the day yesterday was spent on a Lynx Express "assembly line."

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But late last night I did manage to get 14 of 15 snowflakes hung and lit with a very stupid little mini-controller.  I had crafted steel wire with rope clamps for each the night before.  Can you pick out the one that's facing backwards?  And one little Champion Papillon wondering what I'm doing out in the street so late at night?

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Just a quick brag on the run.  Man I love that blue.

John

[Ron]

John, that is very cool looking!

Nice job.

Ron

[jwells]

John I am still working on my yard. I got the Lynx units on the first co-op early this year all of them are built and working. I mainly wanted the consolidation of channels for Arches and a possible Megatree.  I also do a big Halloween Haunted house each year so that takes a lot of my time. This year we changed how we did our tiny yard and my wife is now traveling for work so getting her input and to agree to a plan has not been easy. We both change our minds after we see it up which is really bad we don't stick to plan which again is bad but it is what it is. I like making things just as much and I have added something each week to my setup. I have no idea when I will be "done" but I don't really look at it the same as others do.

Now your setup is looking great I bet the others living around you have never seen all this assuming that its similar to our friends down under and decorating homes is not like it is in the USA

Thanks for sharing

Jim