This is a really simple but really rewarding festive lights project that I’ve been meaning to put together for a while. In total, it takes about an hour to set up from components to building the board then setting up and programming the lights. Providing you follow the instructions it’s hard to get wrong.

I have /u/krlempft to thank for giving me the kick up the butt I needed to fix my initial problems with this and get it up and running. This weekend I’m going to add a bluetooth module, which if successful will let me hook it up to IFTTT for IoT-style fun.

The weekend after I’m either plugging in a TMP36 temperature sensor to tint colours based on temperature, or I might use a photoresistor in a voltage divider setup to make the lights auto-brighten when it gets darker. I’ll blog each stage along the way so you can play along.