Computerized Christmas Light Display

Step 2 Design your lights!

For this example we will keep it simple. We only have 16 channels to work with, so the design can't be too elaborate. If you decide to expand and add more controllers in the future (which is as easy as buying another one and plugging it in), you will need to think more about aesthetics and choice of color when designing your lights. The worst thing you can do with lots of channels is just have lights and figures scattered all over your yard in no particular order. When designing the lights, you want them to be complex enough to intrigue your audience, but not so complex as to confuse them. You need to have a pattern that they can follow.

For my light display this year, we have four fake trees, seven reindeer, a manger scene, two lighted real trees, a Santa face, lights around the perimeter of the roof, and a Santa and reindeer on top of the roof. If you count, you'll notice that I have seventeen items and only sixteen channels. In order to make everything work, I combined the Santa face with the roof lights (more on that later). Draw your design on paper or in the computer and number each item with what lighting channel it will be on.