Insult Your Neighbors This Christmas With Arduino

Last December I was kind of pissed of at my neightbors so I wired my Chistmas lights to blink an insulting phrase in Morse Code . I was sure nobody would notice but doing it made me happy nevertheless.

Yesterday I posted about it in reddit.com (link ) and so much people approved that I had to show how I did it. Electronics and Arduino people will know the circuit is very simple. As always, take care to not zap, fry or shock anything.

Step 1: Choose the Lights Type and Adequate Circuit

I live in an apartment so these LED strips were enough to decorate a window. The LED strip is 12V, so I used a TIP 120 (or 122). There's no need to describe my circuit because there's already an Instructable for that:

Instructable: Use Arduino with TIP120 transistor to control motors and high power devices

NOTE: If you use incandescent lightbulbs, know that's more Volts, more Watts, more Amperes and this circuit won't work. In this case do research on circuits that use a a relay or TRIAC or SCR. I repeat the warning: don't fry, shock or kill yourself.