(Both in English and Spanish, en Ingles y Español.) On the fork end of this wire, attach to one of the V+ terminals on the power supply. Regardless if your strings came with JST connectors on them or not, you will need to cut off the connector on the "input" side of the string and solder in a waterproof connector instead. Or some people prefer connecting the light controller directly to their laptop, useful for demonstrating the lights away from home. The xtmas_neopixel sketch is complete with 33 animations, which you can study and modify. When you build more Arduino controllers, they become part of your growing display. The animation sketch powers four Arduino Pro Minis to create a synchronised animation effect across four pillars at the front of my house. The sketch only works with Arduino IDE version 1.6.5r2. If the upload fails, choose the next COM port under Ports, then try uploading again. JUMPER WIRES 4. The yellow wire on the connector is soldered to the single green wire on the Ethernet cable. All of the bulbs will go through a "self test", all changing at the same time to various colors. make sure that the “Baud Rate or E1.31 Univ” is set to “1” and that “Num Channels” is set to “150”. This top row is 5V only and could damage your light string! It should read roughly +12V. Create a second wire (black) as above. When I start xLights, I receive a message about some other process is using the lights. We will enter 2019 in a few weeks. In a few moments, your strings should light up. In my case, I have two Arduinos, one set to universe 1 and the other set to universe 18. Or the colors could be blue, brown, and green/yellow instead. Crimp red fork connectors onto each of these three wires. Since we are working with AC voltage, incorrect wiring could cause a serious shock or fire. This is because your router doesn’t know that the IP address for your light controller should be reserved. If you provide more than 7V, the Arduino could overheat and eventually fail. But if you receive four error messages in a row, that is a problem. You built an extension cable for the string of lights, then made an adapter that connects the extension cable to the power supply and Arduino. Be careful that you do not damage the insulation on these three wires or a dangerous "short" can occur. How many amps is your USB power source supplying? With it you can layout your display visually then assign effects to the various items throughout your animation. Hook into the "In-" hole on the buck converter. 220Ω resistor (but you don’t need it if you want to destroy your buzzer!) Makerspaces are a great way of bring great minds together, helping each other in community. The parts links in are all for overseas vendors, but you can easily find them at any Arduino supplier. Also, be sure to set the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. Solder the yellow wire on the waterproof connector to a male-to-male green jumper wire. If it does not respond: Check the Ethernet cable plugged into the light controller. Has 91 addressable RGB LEDs. The program sketch consists of 33 different animation patterns, selected in random order. Schematic of the Arduino Xmas Lights Circuit. Repeat these steps for the other end of the Ethernet wire. Easy! Attach the white (or blue) wire to the N(eutral) terminal on the power supply. Refer to the earlier steps on how to build this cable. Connect your star to the extension cord on one end then connect the other end to the light controller. When the upload is complete, you will see a message stating so in the status area. In the middle of the screen, above the large black area, is a black toolbar. Note this download is for Windows based computers. With a little bit of tweaking, not only can it play animations created from xLights, but it can allow Internet control of your light show! You may need to turn it a lot! Did you make this project? Technically, the Arduino will become a DMX to WS2811 light controller. Buy them here: https://www.amazon.com/Rextin-WS2811-Digital-Addr... You can arrange your strings or lights any way that you want (hang them, put them on a tree, etc.). For instance, Windows may assign “192.168.1.100” to your laptop while the Arduino’s IP address is locked in at 100.125.150.250. Because the first three sets of numbers are different in each IP address, the laptop will not “see” the Arduino. MKR1000 Christmas IoTree with Cayenne Project Builder, Christmas Tree with 150 Digital LED Pixels, DIY Smart Necklace Snowing by Shake with Arduino. Our idea is to make a necklace using an Arduino Pro Mini and OLED display to show an animation on it. This will protect the strings, network cable, and power cable going into your outdoor enclosure. Thanks for your reply and Merry Christmas. 12V Power Supply and Connector ( under 6 amps will be fine. ) If you bend the jumper wire pin, do not straighten the bent pin; throw away the jumper wire. You can buy strings of lights to hang on a tree, or push the lights into "coro", a white plastic resembling cardbaord) in prepade shapes such as stars, candy canes, and more. There are two sketches: Animation and Restart. Thanks to my friend Keith for the sketch that turns an Arduino into a DMX light controller! This is located near the top-right corner of the Arduino. For instance, an animation can make your lights look like candy canes with red & white lights, while another animation file can make your house sparkle with twinkling lights. Thanks for your help. Note: If you connect other wires to the power supply, especially to power your light strings, make sure that the gauge is 18 AWG or thicker! 8 months ago, where do you find "setting up xLights on this website", Reply ARDUINO MEGA 2. Your Arduino, once programmed, will also know this protocol. This means that the light controller is not receiving any commands from laptop/computer. You can download the sketch here. Either way, the drivers must be installed successfully before proceeding to the next step. Connect the male end of the green jumper wire to pin 29 on the Arduino. While the convenience of having a single computer for creating animations and animating your lights is nice, leaving your computer powered on all day during the Christmas season is not that efficient. We need to replace that simple program with a different program. These are in the lower-right corner of the Arduino. Update the properties for each model to: First line: Nodes/String: 50, Start Channel: 1, Second line: Nodes/String: 50, Start Channel: 151, Third line: Nodes/String: 50, Start Channel: 301, Fourth line: Nodes/String: 50, Start Channel: 451, Click [Save] button to save your Layout changes. You can also visit my website www.itwinkle.org for much more information on building computerized Christmas lights. A simple, original and cheap Christmas tree made with LED-illuminated plastic straws that can be controlled over WiFi. For instance, if you placed your lights along the roof of your house, you can draw a line along the roofline to tell xLights that's where they are. Have you driving by houses with fancy Christmas lights, often synchronized to music? This enables the Arduno microcontroller to communicate on your home computer's network. On the "Sequence Settings" screen, choose the green [Animation] button. ), Description: Type "Arduino light controller" or whatever you want. That's because the data wire can pickup interference from the power and ground in the same cable. This is my first year of lighting and am in direct competition with my father in law. Before you design light animations, xLights needs to know about your Arduino light controller. A cool star decoration for Chritmas Trees powered by Arduino MKR1000. You'll notice that there are four solid-color wires and four white wires (actually, mostly white with some color on them). It is a low-cost microcomputer (basic computer) that can be programmed to do almost anything. This can happen when you click the “xLights Scheduler” icon on the desktop instead of the regular “xLights” or “xLights 64” icon. Any suggestions?Great instructable by the way.Thank you, Reply Click the [OK] button, then the red [Save Setup] button. The voltmeter should read approximately 12V. Note: The light controller sketch does not work with the latest version of the Arduino IDE. When you connect your computer/laptop to your wireless network or plug an Ethernet cable in your router, the router provides an IP address. You'll see a bunch of information, but the line you want to look for is "IPv4 Address." This is important to reduce interference in the data line. 6.) Last year I did an awesome Christmas light show at my school using only a few Arduinos and a program called Vixen Lights. Why limit yourself to an angel on top of the tree when you can have an over sized Christmas ornament with 192 RGB LEDs blinking! Solder the middle wire (usually green) on the JST connector to a male-to-male green jumper wire. If your Arduino and lights will be outdoors, use the 3-pin round outdoor connectors instead of the JST indoor connectors. In other words, enter the number of data pins you are using on the Arduino), Last channel: Enter the number of total lights you are using, times 3 (for one string of 50 lights, enter "150". There is nothing interesting in the circuit diagram part of the Arduino Christmas Tree Lights Project as all you need to do connect a bunch of LEDs to Arduino. Reply Compare your computer/laptop’s IP address with the IP address assigned to the light controller. You can use an existing computer/monitor power cable for this. next time i should read full documentation.. Now i have problem, i dont know if there is a problem with my ethernet module or with the code. You create animations with the xLights software, then it sends commands to your light controllers and strings to animate the them. I'm doing a Christmas light show to music this year and I thought I'd share various resources that I slowly pulled together about creating fancy light shows My DIY Enclosure I wanted an enclosure that could switch A/C lights and also run a decent amount of pixels. Any device on your home network, a computer, laptop, smart phone, smart TV, etc. In the colorful toolbar, point to the fourth icon called "Butterly" when you touch it. You can drag animations (xLights calls them "effects") from the colorful toolbar at the top. If you still have problems, connect your computer to an Ethernet hub or switch, then connect your Arduino network board to the same switch, using two regular Ethernet cables. Close the command line by typing "exit" and press enter. With extra work and a more complex configuration, it can support up to 400 bulbs. The black wire on the connector is soldered to GND wire on the string. Be sure to connect a wire between both power supply ground terminals if you do this. If you have an Ethernet cable connecting directly from your computer/laptop to the light controller, try connecting each to a network switch/hub in the middle with two Ethernet cables. But I cannot get xLights to display anything on the lights. Some boards use 3.3V, other boards use 5V. These are the important lines that need changed: A "Universe" is a number that represents all of the strings connected to your Arduino. Twist all four mostly white wires together. Also, do not accidentally set the IP address for your wireless network port. Since we are using a 12V power supply to power the lights, the buck converter will lower the voltage going to the Arduino. Keep track of the number of days till Christmas in a fun new way. Use Windows’ “Network and Sharing Center” to do this. Disconnect the USB cable from the Arduino. Now you have provided power to the Arduino. I couldn't ask for a better friend! Automate your Christmas tree and get notified when motion is detected around the tree! You are not using custom wired Ethernet cable for your extension cable. Do NOT plug the power cord into a wall outlet while performing the steps below. Or you could check out my blog where I post some of my best projects!This project is can be used for a Christmas lights … A light on your Arduino will rapidly flash during the upload process. Here are instructions for how to do this. 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