[sircastor]

Right now my current off-hours time-consumer is audio-synch’d lights. Specifically I’m working on music sync for Halloween props. This is a lot of warm up for Christmas too. I’m blown away by what’s available in the FOSS space for this stuff.

[joemazerino]

Do you mind posting some relevant links for us family men? ;)

[sircastor]

Happily! I will share what I use - please be aware there are lots of options in the space. Also, including my wife's advice from last year: Start small - one or two props can be make a great show and can be accomplished in a reasonable time frame.

Xlights: Sequencing and Scheduling software. This is what tells your lights what to do. (https://xlights.org/)

Falcon Pi Player (FPP): This software runs on your controller - A raspberry Pi or a Beaglebone are quite popular. This is what you run your sequences on. In my case, I drive my lights directly from my Pi. (https://github.com/FalconChristmas/fpp and https://falconchristmas.com) Also worth noting: A lot of people use dedicated hardware for this, such as the Falcon line of controllers (https://www.pixelcontroller.com/)

WS2811 Strands: These are probably the most popular lights - they're individually addressable, and pretty dang cheap for what they do. Even cheaper if you plan far ahead and order from China. This link is to my preferred brand, but lots of companies make these. The trick is to choose one company and stick with it, as they'll use the same LEDs across their products and you get good color matching (https://www.amazon.com/BTF-LIGHTING-Diffused-Individually-Ad...)

AusChristmasLighting: I live in the States, but for me this is the best of the online forums for lighting. If for no other reason, the UI is substantially nicer thna others I've come across. (https://auschristmaslighting.com/)

My own blog post about getting started and setting stuff up: (https://aaroneiche.com/2020/12/27/holiday-lights-display/)

Good luck, and if you have questions, feel to ping me.