[DIY119]

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Okay, today we are going try to build a computer controlled Christmas Lights in 5 minutes.
I’ve been rolling around the neighborhood this late November and some people already have
their Christmas lights decorated. Well I’ve seen many “static” Christmas lights that always
stay on. Today, I will show you how you can customize your Christmas lights by using a PLC,
a Programmable Logic Controller.

Update: Garrett’s Voice Activated Christmas Controller is now available!

Parts List

• 1 CuSB22R from cubloc.com
• 1 AC power cord (like the one for your computer or get it here: cubloc.com)
• 3 AC Connectors from Home Depot (You can get more depending on how many Christmas Lights you are trying to control,

remember you can also put Christmas lights in series per relay)

• bunch of wires

First you will need to cut off the AC power cord and you will find 3 wires,
one green, one black, and one white.
Simply splice them and hook up the green wire to the CuSB where its labeled
“FG”, which is frame ground so your house does burn down.
Screw in tightly.

Then put the other Black and White wires onto the terminal headers as shown below.
Black and White wires do not have polarity, so you can put either or onto the CUSB
labels, N and L.
Leave them unscrewed and only screw in the green wire if you haven’t done so in Step One.

Connect a wire from CuSB label COM to CuSB label, N

Connect from CUSB label, P40, to one of screws on the AC connectors.
Polarity doesn’t matter so any of the two screws will work.
Screw in tightly.

Do the rest of the AC connectors.
Connect from CUSB label, P41, to one of screws on the AC connectors.
and also connect from CUSB label, P42, to one of screws on the AC connectors.

Connect from CUSB label, L, the white wire in the picture
to the other screw on the AC connectors for each of them.

When you are done, you should have something like below.

Connect some Christmas lights to each of the AC connectors.
Then connect the serial cable to program the unit.

Copy and paste the following code into CublocStudio and download to your CUSB.

Const Device = CB280

Dim Interval As Long

Interval=300

Do

High 40
Low 41
High 42

Wait Interval

Low 40
High 41
Low 42

Wait Interval

If Interval>100 Then
Interval=Interval-50
Elseif Interval>0 Then
Interval=Interval-10
Else
Interval=300
End If
Loop

Taking It Further

Well your lights should be working pretty good now.
You can change the Interval=300 line so the lights start
blinking slower or make a completely different program
for your Christmas.
If you put it on a deer structure or something, you can probably
time it so it is animated.
But we will leave that up to you and if you have any questions,
feel free to email me: max@zedomax.com
Happy Holidays!

UPDATE:

Also check out our new stuff like:

LED Christmas Wreath

LED Christmas Tree

Voice Activated Christmas Controller

Build Golf Club Training Aid Gift for 5 bucks!