# Hacking a Light-O-Rama



## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

_Edit: It's a Mr. Christmas' Lights and Sounds of Christmas_

Okay, a few years back I bought this LOR after Christmas on sale. Unfortunately, it needs some serious modification to make it usable for me.

We can rebuild it, we have the technology...

I opened it up and here is what we got...

_Fig 1_









_Fig 2_









_Fig 3_









_Fig 4_









I found plans for using a computer's parallel port to control relays to basically run a light show. I think I can blend the two ideas into one by yanking the "rainbow" cord (fig 2) from the control board of my LOR and wiring each of the lines to one of the data pins from the parallel port.

I have an old box I can remove the female side of the port, insert it into the side of the LOR box and run the pins from the port to each of the "rainbow" wires. I can get software like Vixen to run on a functional computer and output the signals from the computer to the hacked LOR box.

Does it sound like I might be on track here?


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

I would say I could help but it doesn't look light any lor unit that I have seen. In general a lor would never need to be hacked. There is a lor board available for all purposes. You can even get one for servos and robotics.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

That is one of those canned light show boxes that you at the BJs and costo for around 100 dollars. The board at the bottom has the circuitry for the solid stat relays (optocouplers and the SCr's) you should easily be able to hack that easily with either VSA or Vixen with a compatible controller card.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

Yah, it's not a brand name LoR, I was just using the term to describe it's function.


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## Front Yard Fright (Dec 23, 2005)

I was going to say! Whoever has the guts to hack an actual LOR box is INSANE!
.


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## GhoulishGadgets (May 13, 2010)

Hey,
It would be a doddle to hack that and connect it to a pc parallel port, basic stamp, arduino etc.
It all depends on what you want from it?
But, yes, as a basic 'slave pack' you just want to connect to that ribbon cable from the lower board.
Driving the opto-couplers is just like (actually is) driving an LED.

There's also the option of using it as an amplifier as well - for an mp3 player or similar for prop or ambient sounds.

Si


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

I have at least 3 old PCs in my basement, so I was thinking of just using the USB connection and software on the PC. I can use the computer to run the audio as well. I would keep the PC in a seal plastic tub to keep the weather out. The craziness of this spring weather has gotten me thinking strongly about keeping rain out, even though our last few Octobers have been bone dry...


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

MacabreRob said:


> I have at least 3 old PCs in my basement, so I was thinking of just using the USB connection and software on the PC. I can use the computer to run the audio as well. I would keep the PC in a seal plastic tub to keep the weather out. The craziness of this spring weather has gotten me thinking strongly about keeping rain out, even though our last few Octobers have been bone dry...


You have to careful about heat buildup in the plastic tub and overheating the computer. You will need to have some ventilation prob with a couple of computer muffin fans. I would take the cover off the computer as well. You can just wire the fans into the computer power supply 12 volt line. The air intake and exhaust will have to shielded from rain as well


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

Years back I bought a "Mr. Christmas' Lights and Sounds of Christmas" box (LSC), which is hardwired with several Christmas songs that turns lights on and off to the music. My desire is to do this with some Halloween songs. I plan on using the software Vixen to run the show.

To this end, I found tutorials online on how to hack into this box using a parallel cable, connecting the data pins to the relay switches inside the LSC. That was a tendious process, determining which pins went where, but I think I am successful.









_What beautiful chaos..._

To my annoyance, however, my main computer does not HAVE a parallel port, once common on all computers. I checked the older computers stored in the basement. The only functional one that I had turned out to be one from 2001, and Vixen will not run on it (Windows 2000 Professional is installed, I need something more modern).

We had one laptop with a parallel port, my father-in-law's old one that we inherited. Once I found its power cable, I booted it, only to find that my beautiful wife, Mary, had, in the past, installed the operating system Ubuntu, replacing Windows XP.









_Mary, relishing her challenged_

There are, apparently, ways to run a Windows program on Ubuntu, but so far we've hit nothing but snags. Mary says she relishes the challenge, so that's her task. I'm just annoyed by the process. Oh more slowdown...


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