The Fields Family
Christmas Display
UPDATED: 29 NOV 2007
Welcome to our humble web page!
Note: Video of our setup at the bottom of this page and a button for the next page!
After viewing the many different Christmas light displays on Planet Christmas, my wife and I investigated the possibility of attempting to create our own unique light display using computer control. Now, I am the first one to admit something and I have to tell you, those types of setups are beyond me....for now that is. My hat is off to those who have those systems and can do their own programming. You have every right to be proud of your setup.
Back to the meat and potatoes! My wife, while on a shopping trip spotted a GE Lights and Sounds of Christmas controller and brought it home. After looking at it and, well, you know us men folk..can't leave things alone..wondered if it would be possible to add an FM transmitter to the unit. It is totally feasible to do it but first this warning: BY MODIFYING THE UNIT, YOU WILL MORE THAN LIKELY VOID THE WARRANTY!
Now to the simple mods! This is the heart of the display..The Lights and Sounds controller. If you watch the sale ads, you can find them well below 100 bucks. KMart had them for 75 bucks a few weeks back
The other piece to the puzzle: The UX555 from WWW.Hobbytron.com
About the UX555...it has it's own power supply, has great range, complete instructions and most importantly. it is PLL or Phased-Locked-Loop which means it won't wander all over the FM frequencies.
Okay, first...remove all the screws holding the case together. I suggest using a long Phillips head screw driver since some of the screw holes are right next to the lock-down tabs for one of the covers. Carefully open the case and look for the speaker. There are only two terminals for the speaker.
Solder a wire to each of the terminals. For simplicity, I used red and black wires. The black was soldered to the negative terminal ( it is marked on the terminal ) and red to the positive terminal. By the way, 12 inches of wire is sufficient.
I drilled a hole and placed a RCA type jack in the bottom of the case to protect the connection from the rain, snow, etc. I got the jack from Radio Shack, part number: 274-346. I ran the red wire to the center terminal and the black to the outer terminal. Okay...why did I use an RCA jack? The first FM transmitter I got had a RCA jack and a microphone for input. This particular transmitter was okay but had a terrible problem with wandering on the FM frequencies.
Once you are finished, check your solder connections, carefully reassemble the case and you are ready to go.
Okay, now to answer a possible question: I stated above that I had used an RCA output jack. "But gee, the UX555 uses a 1/2 stereo mini jack....what did you do?" Simple: I cut the original cable that had the RCA type connectors in half and also cut the cable that came with the UX555 (it has a 1/8 mini jack on both ends) in half. Carefully slice and peel back the black outer insulation on each (about 1 1/2 inches worth) to reveal the outer braid on both. Solder these two braids together and then strip off about 1/4 inch of insulation from the white and both red wires. Join these three wires together and solder them,. Trim off the excess and either use black electrical tape or heat shrink tubing ( much better).
Set the UX555 per the instructions enclosed, hook it up and set the volume at about 1 but no more than that or your audio will sound crappy coming in on the radios and you are ready to go!
Email us at blfields@adelphia.net if you have any questions. I'll try to help as much as I can.
Double click the button for our video. Its a Quicktime vid..about 13 meg long.