Newby here that is trying to get his lights going by Christmas this year. Any suggestions???

[coxm75]

Hello Matt here just beginning the whole Arduino Journey here and would really like to start getting my Christmas lights going on my Historical Victorian Colonial Home here in Oklahoma, US. I have just downloaded the xlights.org program and scheduler and are currently watching it to learn where to begin. They are telling me to start with their program because it will be less of a headache setting up the program first then applying it to your home. Is that correct and if so how do you plan it there if you don't have the lights first??? Is there resources that tell you ok how tall do you want your tree and this is how many lights you need???

 

[AAH]

Grab a copy of the ACL101 and have a read if you haven't already. There's a few "mega tree calculators" out there on the web. Arduino is a good start to get going but it has nowhere near the abilities of a Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black or a proper pixel controller. Just work out what you want to do with your display then hit up the ACL forum or chat with advice on how to do it.

 

[QLDKing(Brad)]

Welcome to ACL @coxm75 . Xlights will allow you to add a photo of your house and add some props to it, such as a mega tree, arches etc. You can use it to see how they may look in the real world. Once you have a basic setup, go to the sequencer and add some effect to the props. Allows you a bit of try before you buy. And as Alan says you can always drop into chat for further help.

Brad

 

[Jay.S]

I used to live in Oklahoma, where are you?