Blog ≫ 2014 ≫ Lightwaverf + google calendar powered christmas lights
It's the time of year again! Got my christmas lights on timers, so they come on when it's dark enough and when someone might be looking, but they go off again permanently in the new year. You will need:
- lightwaverf wifi link1 and a remote socket2.
- raspberry pi, mac, linux pc, or other 'nix based computer
- some christmas lights
Lightwaverf sockets are useful all the year round of course, they're not just for christmas, but christmas lights tend do be something you want going on and off at preset intervals.
Here's how!
- Christmas tree, outside lights, and strange lighting twig thing all plugged into lightwaverf sockets2
- Raspberry pi has the lightwaverf gem3 installed.
gem install [lightwaverf](/wiki/#lightwaverf)or see the instructions on the repo4 - Tell it about your lightwaverf setup, either
[lightwaverf](/wiki/#lightwaverf) update email@email.com 1234with your email and pin, or again other instructions on the repo4 - Pop some events in your google calendar with content like "lounge tree 5pm - 10pm every day"
- Put the private xml address of your google calendar in your lightwaverf config with
[lightwaverf](/wiki/#lightwaverf) configureand follow the prompts - Set up crontab to check the google calendar for updates, instructions on the repo4
- Sit back and enjoy your festive lights!
Don't want your lights to be quite so regimented? You can change the calendar event description to be like "lounge tree (randomise 10)" and the lights will come on and go off within 10 minutes of the time of the calendar event.
Want to see how this is affecting your electricity bill? If you get the energy monitor5 then the code you just installed will also log your energy usage and will plot it on a graph for you6...
Did it work for you? Any feedback appreciated, either here or to @pauly... seasons greetings!
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| From [November 2014](https://picasaweb.google.com/112554041628292689150/November2014?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite) |
- Removed old amzn.to/V7yPPK link here.
- Removed old amzn.to/RkukDo link here.
- Removed old rubygems.org/gems/lightwaverf link here.
- Removed old github.com/pauly/lightwaverf link here.
- As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Removed old pauly.github.io/lightwaverf/ link here.
raspberry pi: Credit card sized super cheap computer, awesome.