Microcontroller

(v0.9) Networked RGB Christmas lights performing “Feliz Navidad”

July 1st, 2010 |

Author: lionmom

Note: this is v0.9 of the video. v1.0, with re-dubbed (and much better-sounding) audio is now available — www.youtube.com Ever want a string of Christmas lights made with RGB LEDs, so all the lights can change colors? Or with their own microcontrollers, so each can act autonomously? Hell, why not go all the way, and network them while you’re at it? I did. The full gory details are at TreeGee.com (or will be in a day or two… I just registered the domain name yesterday, so it might not work for another day or two) but here’s the short version: for the past 4 years, I’ve burned most of my Decembers, Novembers, and increasing chunks of October working on this project. This year, for the first time, they look like “normal” LED Christmas lights (I bought a few sets of clear LED lights on sale at Lowe’s & removed the plastic diffusers from them to use on my own lights), and the controller I built last year finally works properly & reliably communicates with the lights. The result? My favorite version of “Feliz Navidad” (originally performed by Home Grown), accompanied by what’s arguably one of the most sophisticated (and expensive) strings of Christmas lights in the world. How expensive? I don’t know. I’ve lost count. If you assume my time is valueless, and you ignore the cost of the tools I’ve bought, the parts I’ve destroyed, and the crate of non-working light modules (roughly 3 or 4 for every working one that you see on the tree here), each light module has about worth …