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Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

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Re: Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

#61

Post by sowbug »

blutack wrote: post #38
sowbug wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most plug-and-play WLED-compatible controller I've found is made by athom.tech and available on AliExpress https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1101393719 >. There are two versions based on the ESP32C3. One is powered by USB-C @ 5V, and the other has a barrel jack and passes through 5-24V to the lights, which is useful if you're using a higher-voltage strip like WS2813. I used to build my own controllers from ESP dev…

The athom stuff is a bit annoying because they never bothered to upstream anything to support their fairly minor changes - they just forked instead. You can still install upstream WLED, but the remote control support is faffy. The mottramlabs or QuinLED boards don't have this problem.

Good to know. I haven't needed remote control support, so when I've flashed official WLED builds, I haven't noticed any issues.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

#62

Post by yumcimil »

entangledqubit wrote: post #27

I ended up buying a couple strings of Twinkly lights a while back - after considering a diy solution. The mobile app has been solid and (assuming they didn't muck it up) there's are libraries out there for interfacing to them as well (over WiFi). The cost is not cheap but seems fair to me and seems to be well built. (The light mapping is pretty fun. You can zigzag a bunch of lights across a wall and basically create…

+1 for twinkly lights. I've had some WS2801s that are about a decade old from Aliexpress for ages. This time lighting the tree, discovered quite a few scorch marks and melted insulation. Twinkly lights were 66% off locally, so gave 'em a go. They're still RGB, but blend into the tree a fair bit better. The LED spatial mapping stuff kinda works - it's not perfect, but gives you enough to be able to have decent fades top to bottom and side to side.

I have no intention of swapping to Twinkly for my normal accent lighting around the house - btf-lighting.com + WLED is still your friend for that.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

#63

Post by beala »

This is a tangent, but I feel like we can't talk about LED christmas lights without linking to this video by tech connections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBFPJ3_6ZWs

the tl;dw is that most color LED lights work by emitting a single frequency of light. Compared to classic christmas lights, which are incandescent filaments filtered through dyed glass, the LED lights look a bit... radioactive.

My personal pet peeve are white LED lights. If you're not careful to buy the ones labeled "warm" they look cold, and imo, not very festive and inviting.

Of course, this is all a matter of taste, but once I became privy to the difference, I could no longer ignore it. I guess I'm just a millennial nostalgic for the lights of my youth.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

#64

Post by sircastor »

averageRoyalty wrote: post #44
sircastor wrote: post #17

This is a huge space to get into. I’m on my fourth year doing an outdoor light show. My personal preference is 12v ws2811 bullet-style voltage-regulated nodes. They’re extendable, individual nodes on a strand are replaceable if you’re willing to do some cutting and crimping. I like the 12v because you can go for longer strands without losing colors from voltage drop. Regulated over a resistive voltage divider = less…

I'm sure you know but for others reading, 12v ws2811 are grouped in threes, so not individually addressable. 5v is, and when you're working at scale power injection isn't a huge deal as you'll be doing it anyway. Always standardise your connectors. I'm a fan of the Ray Wu ones. ESP/WLED driven is my preference, but the Falcon controllers are popular amongst people who are more DIY/woodworking oriented as they're much…

> I'm sure you know but for others reading, 12v ws2811 are grouped in threes, so not individually addressable. 5v is, and when you're working at scale power injection isn't a huge deal as you'll be doing it anyway.

I haven't found this to be the case. All my lights use WS2811 chips, and are individually addressable. The 12v does have to be regulated down to 5v, but that's happening on the node anyway.

> Coro props (corrugated plastic, corflute) are a cheap and effective way to stand out from the crowd.

I'll add to this that if you have a 3D-Printer, you can do some neat stuff if you're up to designing it. I am in the middle of adding 16" snowflake props to my setup this year. It took a couple of revisions, but I've got them all setup and I'm just finishing the controller to drive them now.

It is a super fun hobby, and as averageRoyalty mentioned - it can be spendy.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

#65

Post by binary_slinger »

beala wrote: post #63

This is a tangent, but I feel like we can't talk about LED christmas lights without linking to this video by tech connections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBFPJ3_6ZWs the tl;dw is that most color LED lights work by emitting a single frequency of light. Compared to classic christmas lights, which are incandescent filaments filtered through dyed glass, the LED lights look a bit... radioactive. My personal pet peeve…

> My personal pet peeve are white LED lights. If you're not careful to buy the ones labeled "warm" they look cold, and imo, not very festive and inviting.

I completely agree. This is true also for all household LED lighting. I prefer cold for kitchen food prep areas and bathrooms, but warm everywhere else.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

#66

Post by luxuryballs »

blutack wrote: post #39
luxuryballs wrote: post #12

I want a mesh grid of LEDs that I can lay across the house maybe with 6” between each one so I get a low res screen of dots and then play Die Hard on it to see if people figure it out. It would kind of be like a TV but with 9 out of 10 pixels missing, more or less.

You could use ws28xx/skxx based addressible strips laid out in rows. Usually WLED would be recommended to drive it, but for playing a video, the teensy fastled library comes with a demo specifically doing what you discuss with a film. https://quinled.info/2019/06/03/what-digital-5v-12v-rgbw-led... good intro to the subject.

interesting thanks I’ll check it out

Re: Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

#67

Post by beala »

Tepix wrote: post #52
sowbug wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're already using Home Assistant and WLED, this is a cinch. You could even write an automation that plays your home team's colors each night they win a game.

no, i want as little tech as possible, i imagine entering the date and the latitude and perhaps the number of minutes before/after sunset/sunrise.

Just about any wifi smart plug will do this. If you don't want your plug to rely on other people's servers, a quick google found this one: https://mytouchsmart.com/mytouchsmart-outdoor-indoor-sunsmar.... I'm sure there are others.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

#68

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

I keep wondering why lights aren't getting built into new-build homes. They're no longer bulbs, but LEDs, they're programmably colored (you can do orange/purple for Halloween, etc), and they'd be practically invisible when off.

Have them around eaves/gutters, windows, whatever. Is there some aspect of this I'm not getting that makes it impractical (or ugly in the off seasons)?

Re: Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

#69

Post by stavros »

sowbug wrote: post #26
pwg wrote: post #2

https://kno.wled.ge/ Many 'effects' already prepackaged. Plus the ability to schedule time based changes (on/off/change pattern/etc.). Includes a web server to provide "app like" control over a phone or PC. Also includes integrations for several "home control" systems and a http API for programmatic control from another system. Can even synchronize plural controllers into a whole 'net' (note, I've not used this featu…

The most plug-and-play WLED-compatible controller I've found is made by athom.tech and available on AliExpress https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1101393719 >. There are two versions based on the ESP32C3. One is powered by USB-C @ 5V, and the other has a barrel jack and passes through 5-24V to the lights, which is useful if you're using a higher-voltage strip like WS2813. I used to build my own controllers from ESP dev…

As other siblings said, they didn't upstream anything (having to install firmware from a random unmarked zip on a site is annoying), and also their controllers are badly made.

I used one for a panel I made, and it would bootloop constantly, until I added a big capacitor to the 5V rail. Pretty shoddy.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?

#70

Post by moregrist »

quickthrowman wrote: post #24
harrall wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is some major myth. Crack open your insurance policy — it’s not going to say “UL listed appliances only” or anything like that. Insurance also covers mistakes. But you should get a good power supply anyway because the hassle is not worth it.

My bad on perpetuating the myth regarding homeowner’s insurance and UL listing, I appreciate the correction. You’d need to read what the policy has to say about uninspected electrical work performed by or at the direction of the homeowner. If you use a hardwired power supply, non-UL/cUL equipment won’t pass an inspection [0]. You can bypass the inspection by using a cord and plug 120V rectifier which wouldn’t need to…

You might need permits, inspections, and to worry about code if you’re permanently wiring this into your house electrical system. If you’re doing that, you’re probably well beyond asking about Christmas lights on HN.
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