Published August 11, 2022 © GPL3+

Use remote control to turn on and off Christmas lights

I will show you how to set up an infrared transmiter and reciever on Arduino UNO and use it to control the way your Christmas lights blink.

BeginnerFull instructions provided943

Use remote control to turn on and off Christmas lights

Things used in this project

Hardware components

5 mm LED: Red

5 mm LED: Yellow

5 mm LED: Green

Jumper wires (generic)

Infrared receptor

Infrared remote control

Breadboard (generic)

Arduino UNO

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Scissor, Electrician

Soldering iron (generic)

Solder Wire, Lead Free

Tape, Electrical

Story

Today I'm going to share with you how to use an IR (infrared) transmitter and receptor to control how your Christmas lights blink. It is a simple lesson that will teach you how to send commands remotely to your Arduino.

Christmas lights are beautiful. I don't know about you, but I love seeing them blinking at night. The combination of colorful LEDs makes Christmas more special. That's why I decided to build a project around it recently. But before going into the step-by-step guide, you can see the final result in the video below:

This is the final result. I hope you enjoy it.

Got interested? So it's time to get our hands dirty.

Step 1

We are going to make our own Christmas lights. To accomplish it, we need to join the LEDs in parallel. A parallel connection means the positive pole connects to the other positive rods along the chain. The same is true for the negative poles.

1 / 4 • I had few LEDs, so my wires are short. But you can add up to 6 LEDs in each wire and get a good result.

I didn't have many LEDs, so I only built three wires (red, blue, and yellow), but you can make more wires if you wish or add more LEDs in each one.

If you have copper wire, that's great. However, I didn't have it when I built the project. Then I picked some jumpers and soldered them on the LEDs.

If you don't have copper, use jumpers. They will give you the same result.

Step 2

The next step is to attach the IR receiver and the Christmas lights to Arduino UNO. Plug a wire from Arduino GND to your breadboard, and connect the negative wires of the LEDs to the board.

1 / 4 • I found this IR receptor and remote control on Lafvin (an Aliexpress store).

Also, connect the positive wires to the breadboard. They will be powered from ports 5, 6, and 7. Don't forget to add a 330-ohm resistor between each positive wire and its supply.

After all, add the IR receiver. Attach the right leg to port 4, the middle stick to 5V, and the left rod to GND. If you did it right, every time the receiver gets a signal from the remote control, it blinks its built-in red LED. So press some buttons on the remote and see whether everything is working.

1 / 3 • I used a 9V battery to supply Arduino because of the LEDs.

We finished the electric connections. Now upload the code to your Arduino UNO and have fun.

Code

Code

#include <IRremote.hpp>

int IRreceptor = 4;
int blueLeds = 5;
int yellowLeds = 6;
int redLeds = 7;

int counter = 1;
int delayTime = 300;
int delayShortTime = 50; 
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  IrReceiver.begin(IRreceptor);
  pinMode(redLeds, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(blueLeds, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(yellowLeds, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(IRreceptor, INPUT);
}

void loop() {  
  turnOffLeds();
  if (counter == 1) {
    turnOffLeds();
    while (counter == 1) {
      IrReader();
      digitalWrite(redLeds, HIGH);
      delay(delayTime);
      digitalWrite(redLeds, LOW);
      digitalWrite(blueLeds, HIGH);
      delay(delayTime);
      digitalWrite(blueLeds, LOW);
      digitalWrite(yellowLeds, HIGH);
      delay(delayTime);
      digitalWrite(yellowLeds, LOW);  
    }
  } else if (counter == 2) {
    turnOffLeds();
    while (counter == 2) {
      IrReader();
      for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
        digitalWrite(redLeds, HIGH);
        delay(delayShortTime);
        digitalWrite(redLeds, LOW);
        delay(delayShortTime);  
      }

      IrReader();
      for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
        digitalWrite(blueLeds, HIGH);
        delay(delayShortTime);
        digitalWrite(blueLeds, LOW);
        delay(delayShortTime);  
      }

      IrReader();
      for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
        digitalWrite(yellowLeds, HIGH);
        delay(delayShortTime);
        digitalWrite(yellowLeds, LOW);
        delay(delayShortTime);  
      }
    }
  } else if (counter == 3) {
    turnOffLeds();
    while (counter == 3) {
      digitalWrite(redLeds, HIGH);
      digitalWrite(blueLeds, HIGH);
      digitalWrite(yellowLeds, HIGH);
      IrReader();  
    }  
  } else if (counter == 4) {
    turnOffLeds();
    while (counter == 4) {
      IrReader();
      for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
        digitalWrite(redLeds, HIGH);
        digitalWrite(blueLeds, HIGH);
        delay(delayTime);
        digitalWrite(redLeds, LOW);
        digitalWrite(blueLeds, LOW);
        digitalWrite(yellowLeds, HIGH);
        delay(delayTime);
        digitalWrite(yellowLeds, LOW);
        IrReader();
      }

      IrReader();
      for (int i = 0; i < 9; i++) {
        digitalWrite(redLeds, HIGH);
        delay(delayShortTime);
        digitalWrite(redLeds, LOW);
        digitalWrite(blueLeds, HIGH);
        delay(delayShortTime);
        digitalWrite(blueLeds, LOW);
        digitalWrite(yellowLeds, HIGH);
        delay(delayShortTime);
        digitalWrite(yellowLeds, LOW);
        delay(delayShortTime);
        IrReader();
      }
    }  
  }
}

void turnOffLeds() {
  digitalWrite(redLeds, LOW);
  digitalWrite(blueLeds, LOW);
  digitalWrite(yellowLeds, LOW);  
}

void IrReader() {
  if (IrReceiver.decode()) {
    Serial.print("Button: ");
    Serial.println(IrReceiver.decodedIRData.command);
    if (IrReceiver.decodedIRData.command == 22) {
      counter = 1;  
    } else if (IrReceiver.decodedIRData.command == 25) {
      counter = 2;
    } else if (IrReceiver.decodedIRData.command == 13) {
      counter = 3;     
    } else if (IrReceiver.decodedIRData.command == 12) {
      counter = 4;  
    }
  }
  IrReceiver.resume();
}

Credits

lucas_fernando_maker

3 projects • 3 followers

Use remote control to turn on and off Christmas lights

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Step 1

Step 2

Schematics

Schematics of Natal tree with remote control

Code

Code

Credits

lucas_fernando_maker

Comments

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Use remote control to turn on and off Christmas lights

Use remote control to turn on and off Christmas lights

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Step 1

Step 2

Schematics

Schematics of Natal tree with remote control

Code

Code

Credits

lucas_fernando_maker

Comments

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