DIY arduino Christmas lights spectacular turns bad taste into... art

We'll freely admit to having a love / hate relationship with Christmas lights and decorations. The sheer gaudiness of it all often turns our "bah humbug" nature inside out, revealing the awe struck "inner child" we hear so much about from people like Martha Stewart and Oprah. Regardless, an artful DIYer's taken the outdoor Christmas lighting game to the next level. Making use of an ioBridge IO-204 module, an Arduino Wave Kit, an Arduino Duemilanove board, solid state relays, and the Oracle Application Express for connectivity, he was able to get his internet controlled light and music show on the road. Check out the final results -- which feature 3,300 mini lights, 3 spotlights, an LED Rope, 4 LEDs, and one magical reindeer -- in the video after the break. Hit the source link for full instructions if you want to get in on the holiday action yourself.

[niakpliak Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:06AM]

imagine trying to sleep with all that going on!!!

[Colin S Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:08AM]

This person must hate their neighbors.

[Eraser Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:08AM]

talk about waking the neighbors...

[DogStar Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:20AM]

Meh. I'm sorry, but this lightshow is boring and uninspiring to me.

You want to see a good light show (with 50,000 lights), go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnk0KjWxgMA&annotation_id=annotation_486480&feature=iv

[grruse Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:29AM]

Holy crap.

[Ryback Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:37AM]

@DogStar
Ok, I guess that one is a DIY aswell, but the guy is doing this for a living. The guy in the engadget-post doesn't, (I hope)..

[DogStar Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:57AM]

@Ryback

I understand, but regardless, the point here to me is the finished product.

The link I posted further down is of a man who doesn't offer his lighting skills for hire, and his display is even crazier for 2009 (75,000 lights!)

[willowtwf Posted Dec 3rd 2009 10:00AM]

@DogStar this is insane

[AniMill Posted Dec 3rd 2009 10:01AM]

@DogStar
Amazing! Beautiful detail and rhythm. Perfect.

[losttime Posted Dec 3rd 2009 12:04PM]

@DogStar This in about 10 miles from my house. Went last year and can't wait to see the new songs this year.

[MJGAMER 1991 XBL Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:47PM]

@DogStar This one's better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

[DogStar Posted Dec 3rd 2009 4:50PM]

@MJGAMER

RickRoll'd!

[dkratter14 Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:24AM]

Weak. Doesn't compare to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmgf60CI_ks

[Fluidity Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:33AM]

@dkratter14

Just beat me to it, that's my all time personal favourite too!

[vVv Posted Dec 3rd 2009 9:37AM]

Personally, I'd prefer Trans-Siberian Orchestra too but with a different song in a new meme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDH-yhpoz4I&NR=1

[dkratter14 Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:27AM]

Btw my comment was for the original post.

@DogStar - that's awesome, possibly better than my link.

[DogStar Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:32AM]

Here's another one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szLmAPW39uE

His other link: http://www.friscochristmas.com/

[DogStar Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:46AM]

This video, btw, is from 2005. Of note at the www.friscochristmas.com link, he states: "Our 2009 Christmas display consists of roughly 75,000 lights..."!!!

Crazy!

Can't wait to see THAT updated video!

[nelagster Posted Dec 3rd 2009 10:30AM]

@DogStar

I came here just to post that link. I'm from the Dallas area and every year we go to that. It's amazing!

[jaggedjake Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:39AM]

I think the point is that the songs are selectable on his website ... http://www.xmas-box.com/ ... you can request a song to sync the lights.

[DrEngrish Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:39AM]

I'll save the money on my electric bill and buy myself HTC HD2...

[CraniusLupus Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:40AM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBMR3kjp2C0 thats still one of my favorites, that and the original 2005 one using the same song

[isotrex Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:56AM]

http://www.unplggd.com/uimages/unplggd/120109christimasdittohouse.jpg

[va jj Posted Dec 3rd 2009 4:00AM]

if those are LED lights they dont drain that much powah.

[mrqs Posted Dec 3rd 2009 4:10AM]

i like the magic reindeer and its turning head

other than that, you keep your godawful discolit christmas houses

[CapnShiner Posted Dec 3rd 2009 4:13AM]

I applaud the efforts and creativity of these people but I still think they pale in comparison to the games of Tetris played on office building windows.

[gblan Posted Dec 3rd 2009 4:13AM]

Wow, I could do a better job than that flipping light switches on and off. To say that's a weak effort would be a compliment.

[Tijuana Sauerkraut Posted Dec 3rd 2009 8:34AM]

I like the idea of being able to choose the song via the web, but it seems like the lights are just blinking randomly. They need to be better synced to the music.

[SeBsZ Posted Dec 3rd 2009 8:37AM]

This is a horrible light show. IT is in no way synchronized to the music. Using a VU meter to control the lights does not produce a nice lightshow. Some of the links posted above do a far far better job. This thing has, what, 8 channels? Even I can, and have, done better using my controller that can dim up to 60 lamps. This was last christmas, 60 lights hanging on the side of my house:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plrybXfJZkw
Watch the whole thing as I turn the exposure down because the lights are a little too bright for the camera.

[noelportugal Posted Dec 3rd 2009 9:51AM]

Thanks for all the nice comments! I created this and yes the whole point is that this a simple DIY solution and that is web enabled. I have looked on the other solutions (commercial and hobby-DIY) but all of them require you yo have the lights driven by a computer. This project is completely stand-alone no computer necessary. The lights do sync to the music when they are on VU meter mode, but the light mode changes randomly every 10 seconds (it gets boring in just one mode). There are similar commercial solutions (4 channel for $500) or even a cheap GE box that has 10 predefined electronic songs....Again I do acknowledge there are not many lights (channels) but that is not the point. My goal was to have a WEB enabled device.

[RichoVonBlck Posted Dec 3rd 2009 7:01PM]

@noelportugal
And it works well bro, ignore the trolls and the haters its easy to flame some one on these sites ,but you get points for taking the effort to create magic for your family and post the vid,

[FirAwesome Posted Dec 3rd 2009 10:32AM]

I started syncing my lights to music this year. I was inspired by Mr. Holdman's amazing display (linked above). It'll be a while before I grow into the complexity that he had, but I'm happy with what I was able to do. Here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDu1VveSo1E

I bought all my lights this year so this was expensive to start. I hope that I'll be able to buy a lot more lights during the after-Christmas sale and make the display 2-3 times as complex next year.

Merry Christmas everyone!

[phx Posted Dec 3rd 2009 10:49PM]

that was pretty gay, its already been done a loooong time ago to TSO