How to make a CheerLights controller with Arduino and ioBridge

As the holiday approaches, it seems like making some kind of blinkenlights project would allow some fun hacking, but also be within the spirit of the holiday. I encountered the idea of “CheerLights” during my morning surfing. The basic idea is to create a global network of colored Christmas lights, all of which change color simultaneously as they receive update notices via the Internet/twitter.

How to make a CheerLights controller with Arduino and ioBridge

The project makes use of GE Color Effects lights, which are cool because they are individually addressable RGB leds on a single control bus. I don’t think this project really makes adequate use of that feature, but it’s still pretty cool. The author uses an ioBridge (which he is the creator of) which seems like a very cool gadget, but which is pretty expensive ($120). I could probably write a little gateway between my home server and the Arduino via Xbee, which would be quite a bit cheaper.

Pretty neat idea though, and getting me thinking of a Christmas project…