Christmas Lights Controlled by Arduino Relay Switch

This project controls christmas lights that you can hang up on your house.

For this project you will need:

• Bread board
• Arduino Uno board
• Laptop
• Wires
• 220 ohm resistor
• 5V relay
• Diode Rectifier
• NPN Transistor
• Christmas lights
• Alligator clip wires

The first step we did to make this project was build our arduino board circuit that will make the whole thing work. After getting out your supplies, you want to follow the fritzing diagram above one wire at a time until completed. Now you are ready for step 2.

The second step you are going to want to do is get your Christmas lights ready to be attached to the circuit. To do this you will need to unravel the twisted up wire strand a little bit so you can find the wire that runs between all of the lights. You will want to find a good spot to cut the wire you have chosen about 6 inches away from the wall plug attached to the lights. Once you have made the cut you will want to use a wire stripper tool to expose the copper from the rubber.

The third step you will need to do is connecting your lights to your circuit. To do this you will use one alligator clips that will attach the black ground wire on the top right side of the circuit to one end of the wire you cut. You will need to use the other alligator clip to attach the red wire on the bottom left of the circuit to the other end of the wire you cut. If you do this properly and nothing happens, try switching the alligator clips to connect to the opposite wires they were originally clipped to.

The final step to this project is the easiest. Just plug the lights into an outlet and you are ready to go