Toby Segaran

A couple of years ago, I found some posts online about hacking the protocol that controlled GE Christmas lights. Combined with an Arduino and an MSGEQ7 (along with some posterboard and a bladed tool that cuts circular holes) I made this:

That was fun and people thought it was neat, but there are always more interesting things to do than just a grid. I experimented with different structures, eventually building a fairly large acrylic tetrahedron:

I brought this to a dance party, which people really enjoyed, and where I was referred to as an “artist” for the first time. I experimented with other shapes, which I don’t have videos of. The Christmas lights and the MSGEQ7 ended up being pretty cool tools that I was able to use in a lot of later projects.