[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?
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Ask HN: What are the best programmable holiday lights?
I am replacing some old outdoor lights and I want to get LED lights
that I can program? Any suggestions on the best ones? Ideally
replaceable/extendable light strings with some kind of programmable
controller that has usb/wifi. If it has an app my family can use
that's a plus.
Author : sh1mmer
Score : 110 points
Date : 2024-12-06 17:20 UTC (2 days ago)
| pwg wrote:
| 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 feature yet).
|
| Small ESP32 boards (with wifi capability) such as this example
| (no affiliation, just an example that works):
|
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Y8X1GK7
|
| WS2811 LED strings [1] (of which there are an infinite variety)
| suitable for outdoor use. One example (no affiliation):
|
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYZF1WCR
|
| Suitable power supplies, outdoor weather sealed boxes, and wiring
| (all left to you to locate).
|
| Willingness to assemble the pieces and some time to do so. Having
| a soldering iron is helpful here, although one could possibly get
| by with screw terminal blocks inside weatherproof boxes if need
| be for many of the 'connections'.
|
| [1] Or other 'programmable LED' strings for which WLED is
| compatible (it works with numerous different programmable LED
| standards, browse the WLED website for details).
| neotek wrote:
| Seconding WLED, it's fantastic. Super easy to install and
| operate, compatible with HomeAssistant, the built in effects
| are great, the web app / native mobile apps are powerful but
| straightforward, and the community offers plenty of help and
| other resources.
| Firerouge wrote:
| It also supports DMX input (sACN or Art-Net) for designing and
| controlling complex effects from external software.
| jhardy54 wrote:
| Warning: don't buy an ESP32-C6 for this. It's not compatible
| with WLED/ESPHome/etc and it isn't clear whether/when this will
| be resolved.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| I strongly suggest not buying _any_ electronic components from
| Amazon, but 5VDC LED light strings should be OK.
|
| _Do not_ roll the dice on the power supply, buy a UL listed
| one. If you buy some shitty Chinese PSU and it lights your
| house on fire, your homeowners insurance will deny the claim.
|
| This one puts out 30w @ 5VDC and is also UL listed:
| https://poliledsigns.com/shop/poli-5vdc-30w-waterproof-led-p...
|
| Even though it says 'waterproof', it needs to be installed in
| an enclosure, NEMA 3R rated enclosure if it's installed
| outdoors.
| harrall wrote:
| 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.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| 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 be UL listed since it
| wouldn't need an inspection.
|
| [0] NEC Section 110.3(c): https://up.codes/s/examination-
| identification-installation-u...
|
| > 110.3 (C) Listing Product testing, evaluation, and
| listing (product certification) shall be performed by
| recognized qualified electrical testing laboratories and
| shall be in accordance with applicable product standards
| recognized as achieving equivalent and effective safety for
| _equipment installed_ [1] to comply with this Code.
|
| [1] 'Equipment installed' means hardwired.
| thereticent wrote:
| Ah, good point. I was picturing this setup as hardwired.
| lukevp wrote:
| Do you have proof that claims are denied due to power
| supplies not rated correctly? That seems like fear mongering
| otherwise. Your insurance still covers your house even if you
| make mistakes on construction or repair yourself, I can't
| imagine them denying a claim over a purchased part that you
| have a good faith reason to believe it will function
| correctly.
|
| Also why do you specifically call out Chinese parts as being
| shitty? Where do you think the majority of electronics come
| from? This feels like xenophobia. The power supply can be
| cheap and crappy and come from anywhere. Or it can be great
| and come from anywhere. That one you linked, by the way -
| Made in China.
| thereticent wrote:
| My understanding is that insurance will not cover issues
| caused by DIY work if you did not have it permitted and
| inspected properly afterward. I sincerely doubt that an
| insurance company would be required to cover losses due to
| DIY electronics using parts that have not been properly
| safety rated. I'm surprised you think the opposite is
| obvious. Could just be my US perspective.
| sokoloff wrote:
| I fully expect that if I built (or bought) a power
| supply, plugged it into the wall, and it caught fire due
| to my own negligence (unintentional), that the resulting
| losses to the structure would be covered. (I'm in the
| US.) It would seem no different than if I built a fire in
| the fireplace that caused the issue, had a 3D printer
| catch fire, or had a grease fire cause the issue.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| I clarified in a sibling comment, I was incorrect about UL
| listing being required for homeowner's insurance but UL
| listing (or testing by another nationally recognized test
| lab) is required to pass an inspection if you're hardwiring
| a piece of equipment, and fires caused by unpermitted DIY
| electrical work are not covered by insurance.
|
| Amazon does not have audited supply chains. The power
| supply I linked is sold by Sylvania, it has a warranty, and
| it's UL listed, not sold on Amazon by Xfrtteg or Psygwist.
| You can have quality goods manufactured in China, it's
| Amazon that I don't trust.
| joshstrange wrote:
| WLED is the clear answer here. I got a simple USB controller
| (usb just for power) so it can't run a a massive strand of
| lights (at least at full brightness) but it was perfect to dip
| my toes in and try out.
|
| The Home Assistant integration works great as well.
| sircastor wrote:
| The fact that you can install the WLED firmware _from the
| website_ is the cherry on top. It's a fantastic piece of
| software.
| tiagod wrote:
| Agreed. There's people on HN complaining about APIs like
| Web USB, but I never got why. You can ship a firmware
| flasher as a single .html file now! No sketchy native tools
| or messing around with the command line, and runs on pretty
| much any machine.
| sowbug wrote:
| 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 development boards,
| but it's just not worth it when an enclosed controller with
| convenient connectors is priced between $10-20.
| asteroidburger wrote:
| I'm a fan of these guys:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHHZTGJR
|
| Power is passed through from either connector, so it'll work
| on 5v or 12v strings. And it's got two output channels. It's
| only an ESP8266 inside, but that works fine for my needs.
|
| For a slightly more DIY approach, try this one:
|
| https://wiki.vdbx.io/product/flip_c3
|
| Has everything you need to give it some sort of power and get
| the requisite data signal out.
| daredoes wrote:
| The ESP8266 is no longer recommended for WLED due to its
| lack of resources
| asteroidburger wrote:
| If you need the upgraded performance, you can pay a bit
| more and get the ESP32 equivalent:
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4Z4YG4H/
|
| Personally, I've found the ESP8266 version adequate in
| the year I've owned it.
| blutack wrote:
| 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.
| notedwin wrote:
| another plug-and-play pre-flashed with wled:
| https://magwled.com/
|
| you can find the controller on amazon comes with usb-c for
| 12v and 5v and currrently using it with some BTF-LIGHTING
| WS2812B fairy lights
| leptons wrote:
| WLED is nice for 1-dimensional LED strips, or if you don't
| really care how the animations project on your LEDs, but
| anything in 2 dimension is painful, the grid mapping in 2D is
| just overly complicated and obscure. I barely got my simple LED
| matrix working and I've been doing LED grids with my own
| software for over 10 years (so I know how easy it can be). WLED
| was just an awful experience for 2D led arrays or anything more
| complex than a single LED strip.
| codetrotter wrote:
| > kno.wled.ge
|
| I want to take a moment to ackno.wled.ge how absolute awesome
| of a domain hack "kno.wled.ge" is for the website of a WLED
| project!
| tannedNerd wrote:
| I've been super impressed so far with the Govee lights I've
| gotten. The app is pretty easy to use has tons of cool effects,
| and they have a LAN API (https://app-h5.govee.com/user-
| manual/wlan-guide) for most of their lights that have WiFi. Don't
| have enough time this year to program a custom show but was going
| to start earlier next year now that I have a couple of these. The
| new scene stage thing they just released where you can map your
| lights and have them all work together is pretty slick too.
| havnagiggle wrote:
| Is Govee the down-cone style? Or are there also others doing
| that? There's been a couple of houses that have this and I
| wasn't sure what they are using, but it's the only one that I
| would consider doing whole house exterior. Many others look too
| sharp.
| jason_pomerleau wrote:
| Yes, though they have other types too. We've been thrilled
| with ours. I've never done Christmas lights because I don't
| do ladders, so having a permanent fixture is attractive. Plus
| we can use them on big holidays too.
|
| I have big reservations about 'smart home' stuff, and it's
| only the second such device in our house. But I'm clearly
| losing that battle, and will be looking into some ways to
| mitigate the privacy concerns. But gosh, it sure is nice to
| pick from a gazillion light patterns.
| linsomniac wrote:
| That's very good to hear, because last year on Black Friday I
| got a couple of dual 36' Govee light strips and am just
| planning on putting them up today, as a permanent install. It's
| been a long-time dream of mine to have permanent holiday
| lights. These are the ones that are the strips with an LED
| every few inches, individually controllable. Looking over at
| Amazon it looks like they have the 65ft kit I got for $70 right
| now ($40 off coupon).
|
| Last year we put up this Govee LED grid "curtain" and my son
| had some fun programming it.
| netsharc wrote:
| Maybe relevant: https://youtu.be/TvlpIojusBE
| luxuryballs wrote:
| 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.
| blutack wrote:
| 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.
| ryukoposting wrote:
| Not quite what you're looking for perhaps, but I'm very happy
| with my "dumb" lights controlled with a couple smart plugs
| flashed with Tasmota.
| criddell wrote:
| We have the Twinkly lights and they are pretty neat. You put
| them on your tree and you don't have to be careful about where
| or how you lay them out because step 2 is point your phone
| camera at the tree and it turns the lights on and off to map
| where each bulb is. You move around the tree until they are all
| mapped (lights go from orange to green when mapped).
|
| The app has a bunch of canned patterns and there's an online
| site for user designs and of course you can design your own.
| It's a lot of fun and they aren't terribly expensive (there was
| a good black friday sale).
| ramones13 wrote:
| If you ever want to go all out with a musical light show, I have
| some recommendations here: https://aluhrs.com/blog/holiday-
| lights-electronics/
|
| For your specific question, Wally's Lights is great, and like
| others have mentioned, something running WLED to control them is
| a great choice.
| copperx wrote:
| Is this the best choice if I wanted to wire the outside of
| entire house?
| sircastor wrote:
| 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 heat.
|
| As has been mentioned, you can install WLED onto a
| microcontroller and have a web-page for a remote control.
| INTPenis wrote:
| I know programming but only very rudimentary hardware, how
| difficult is this to do? Are there guides?
| sircastor wrote:
| Installing WLED is about as easy as one could hope for - so
| easy, it's kind of unbelievable. Provided that your device
| has USB, you plug it in, go to the WLED installer page
| (https://install.wled.me/) and press the install button.
|
| In terms of making custom sequences for lights, my go to is
| Xlights - an Open source project that allows you to create
| layouts, and build sequences.
| averageRoyalty wrote:
| 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 simpler to set up and not _heaps_ more
| expensive. Falcon Player/xlights is the standard software for
| designing/playback of your show regardless of hardware.
|
| Coro props (corrugated plastic, corflute) are a cheap and
| effective way to stand out from the crowd. Animatronics, smoke
| etc are also an option when going more advanced.
|
| It's a lot of work. You rarely want to start after October or
| order your goods after July. You are running a live production
| and things will go wrong. Good luck to anyone entering the
| space, it's very fun and expensive!
| silverlight wrote:
| Somewhat related topic: anyone used something like the Luxedo to
| do a projection mapping? It seems like it's more complicated and
| expensive but I love the idea of doing something cool to the
| house for Halloween and Christmas without having to lug out a ton
| of lights and decorations.
| moepstar wrote:
| I'm fascinated by these projection setups ever since I learned
| they're a thing! But Jesus is the Luxedo stuff pricey?! I'd
| love to learn about something similar but in a kinda OSS/DIY
| kind of style...
| rapjr9 wrote:
| There are several open source projection mapper projects that
| run on a RaspPi, or other platforms, here are a few of them:
|
| https://github.com/arisona/mpm
|
| https://ofxpimapper.com/
|
| https://mapmapteam.github.io/
|
| There are media players and graphics generators that will run
| on a RaspPi also. Finding a bright enough projector and
| sheltering it for outdoor use might be the main challenge.
|
| Another approach might be a galvo scanned laser with DMX
| software to control it, though there may be safety/liability
| issues with that.
| Tepix wrote:
| Maybe i can piggyback onto this question: Are there timer
| switches that can change the times depending on the calendar? I
| want to turn on some lights shortly after sunset but they don't
| have a brightness sensor. So i'd like to do it by time of day.
| sowbug wrote:
| 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.
| Tepix wrote:
| 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.
| riedel wrote:
| For Twinkly: https://github.com/scrool/xled
| entangledqubit wrote:
| 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 a low res display.)
| TheJoeMan wrote:
| Second Twinkly for the question of "will this company still be
| around in a few years". They seem to have branched out into
| non-holiday lights too which improves their business stability.
| tedchs wrote:
| I've used strings of Twinkly lights for a couple seasons now.
| They can sometimes be found on eBay for cheap. They're easy to
| set up, whether standalone or by clustering multiple units into
| one larger virtual canvas. The app has a lot of good looking
| animated patterns included.
| anfractuosity wrote:
| Has anyone come across many distributors for HD108 LED strips per
| chance? I've found only the bare LEDs on Aliexpress currently.
| charleslmunger wrote:
| If you're interested in DIY:
|
| LED lights as a string or strip - sk8612 are RGBW, which you need
| if you want a nice looking white. Lots of strips of varying
| density and waterproofing are available everywhere; strings
| ("pixels") can be harder to find but are available on AliExpress.
|
| Controller is https://quinled.info/
|
| Runs wled which has a simple web interface, mobile apps, and
| works with home assistant.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| White, non-blinking lights are the only acceptable holiday
| lights. All others are exceedingly tacky and should be banned.
| riiii wrote:
| I didn't know you had Internet access up in the mountain, Mr
| Grinch.
| daredoes wrote:
| Check out Twinkly. Little pricey, but if you can grab them on
| sale they're super cool.
| hgomersall wrote:
| I had fun with this little board:
| https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/plasma-2350?variant=42092...
|
| There're a couple of other variants of that board too, one with
| wifi. Basically you can animate Neopixels with about 6 lines of
| pretty simple python.
| chris_overseas wrote:
| A lot of people here are recommending WLED for the controller,
| but I would suggest you look at the Pixelblaze [1] instead. I've
| used both in a bunch of different projects and strongly prefer
| Pixelblaze over WLED.
|
| Some reasons why: - It has a much more intuitive user interface -
| It's far easier to program new patterns. Programming is done in-
| browser with a language that's a subset of Javascript, with code
| changes being applied in realtime. - Due to the way its rendering
| engine works, the patterns it produces are generally far more
| 'organic' looking and smoother than most of the WLED ones. - It's
| possible to map LEDs in arbitrary 2D or 3D configurations (think
| lights strewn all over a Christmas tree), which WLED can't really
| do at all. - If you have multiple Pixelblazes you can get them to
| sync with each other over Wifi. - A really helpful community
| forum.
|
| Downside: - The firmware isn't open source, though some of its
| tooling is, and the firmware is stable and gets fairly regular
| updates, so it's not a huge issue to me. YMMV.
|
| For the LEDs, you probably want wired bullet-style strings of
| LEDs rather than the thin copper LED strips since they're
| generally more suited to outside use. By far the most common (and
| generally cheapest) type of LEDs are WS-2812B or similar. They're
| OK, though you might notice they don't have good definition at
| low brightness levels. APA-102 or equivalent are a bit more
| expensive, but have MUCH better dynamic range, so I'd suggest
| going for these if you can. There are other better (and more
| expensive) LEDs still, but it starts to become diminishing
| returns, plus they can be hard to come by or find suitable
| controllers for. If you're running lengths of more than a 150 or
| so LEDs then power starts to matter, and you'll either need to
| inject power regularly into the strips, and/or use LEDs designed
| to take 12V or 24V. These can come with caveats such as worse
| power consumption and/or fewer addressable LEDs per meter, so
| research what you're buying carefully.
|
| [1] https://electromage.com/pixelblaze
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