This project began the summer before I went off to college. After finishing my UV Cieling Visualizer project, I realized that I was going to want those lights with me at college. I had recently picked up a set of 25 GE G-35 christmas lights and was trying to figure out what to do with them so I decided to use them for this project. Since I wanted these lights to be able to be set up anywhere with very little effort so I decided to make them wireless using a couple xbee modules I had.
At first the system did not react well to music at all. This was entirely due to bad programming. Since I now, being a junior in college, have had plenty of experience programming and time to improve the sound reactive modes of my Freqy Lights, I improved the modes on these lights. The two modes shown in the video are RGB Pulse (top), which is copied from my Freqy Lights, and Pulse Trail (bottom).
The transmitter has two 3.5mm audio jacks so that it can plug in-line with the audio cables. It takes the audio signal coming in and breaks it down using the MSGEQ7. It then processes the audio and sends the appropiate info to the strand. Since each mode on the strand needs different info about the audio, the transmitter knows what mode the strand is in so that it can decide what info should be sent. It runs off of a 3.7v 2Ah Lipo battery so that it can be placed wherever it needs to without worrying about power.
The reciever takes the information about the song given to it by the transmitter and controls the strand of lights according to the mode that its in. If the lights are in a mode that does not react to sound, they will tell the transmitter that no info is needed so that it does not waste energy. When the lights ARE put into a sound reactive mode then, they tell the transmitter that they are ready for the data and the transmitter begins sending info again. The reciever and strand are powered by the 6v power supply that came with the lights since there was no reason to change it out, but I did extended the power cable to about 20 ft. so that it could be plugged in even without an outlet nearby.
