I'm
curious.. what do people do with these things? ?I've seen videos
 of some in large racks being used to play music, etc. ?The rack ones
 seem like a a pretty substantial investment in space for something
 that doesnt (or does it?) have much practical use today. 
 Are you sure you are on
the right mailing list?
 Anyway, here is someone controling his christmas lights:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1MDYYvw0cY  
On Wed, 30 Nov 2016, Brad H wrote:
  Haha.  I don't know if I'd call using all that
iron to run Christmas lights
 'practical', though it is very cool. 
Have you ever seen a Christmas lights system that was any more "practical"
than that?
How do we define "hobby"?