The vacation season is right here, and we have already obtained an superior Raspberry Pi-powered Christmas ornament to kick off the vacation spirit. The Gustavsson Household is at it once more with this unbelievable mild present that covers their whole home, spilling over into the yard with an insane plethora of LEDs that pair to music in actual time. Not solely have they programmed a handful of sunshine exhibits to numerous songs, however they’ve additionally recorded all of them and shared them on a YouTube playlist so you possibly can take a look at the work with out having to drive by the home your self.
The setup would not have a speaker system, so you possibly can’t hear the music simply by being outdoors. As a substitute, you have to tune into an FM radio station such as you’re at an old-school drive-in to listen to what’s being performed. For those who hear one thing you want, the arches within the entrance will span a message displaying the present track title.
The setup consists of a number of customized mild matrices, arches, a tree, and specifically designed characters lined in individually addressable RGB LEDs. These lighting fixtures work collectively to create a cohesive present and thrilling vacation expertise. Whereas all of that sounds enjoyable on paper, it took an excessive amount of work to assemble and program. The Gustavsson household has labored arduous on this venture for years, including extra every year. You possibly can see its progress through the years on the YouTube channel.
The sunshine present is pushed by a Raspberry Pi 4B linked to a Falcon 48V and Falcon F16V4 management board. Collectively, these boards management over 25,000 particular person lights. The setup is powered by 25 separate 350W 12V energy provides and 6 300W 5V energy provides for the matrices.
The Raspberry Pi operates the Falcon controllers utilizing FPP, an open-source software discovered on GitHub designed for the Pi. The sunshine present itself was programmed utilizing xLights, specialised mild sequencing software program that means that you can program customized mild exhibits in tandem with music.
If you wish to get a more in-depth take a look at this Raspberry Pi project in motion, go to the Gustavsson Family Christmas Lights channel and see what upgrades they’ve added this yr.
