Controlling Christmas Lights using Midi
Some time ago I’ve posted how to control a relay using Midi. This was a preparation to the christmas lights midi-control. Now let’s see, how it works.
Update: You can control and watch christmas lights yourself using Midi at http://heckenlights.org. Heckenlights are my publicly controllable christmas lights.
My basic idea was: Let start with something simple but expecting a great result. So I got and connected an ethernet-based relay (Did not have such a long USB cable) to a bunch of christmas lights and my Raspberry Pi. In the next step I created a controller programm and some midi files for having content. This together enabled me to control christmas lights synced to some christmas music. The control program maps the note on/off events to relay on/off events using the relay’s output channels. Below you can see how it’s connected.
See how it looks when all the components are connected and working
Carol of the Bells
+ +
Jingle Bells
Find the resources:
Code on Github:https://github.com/mp911de/midi-relay
Initial Midi-file for switching on the Lights: http://raw.github.com/mp911de/midi-relay/master/midi-files/1Initial.mid