Raspberry Pi Powers A 'Frightfully' Good Halloween Light Show

While most houses will be handing out candy this year, we’re still looking for the one handing out Raspberry Pis. Until that day, we’re settling for really cool Halloween projects that use our favorite SBC, like these awesome holiday lights put together by Counter Holiday Lights. Each year, you can expect a big and better show, and this year is no exception. As visitors approach the house, they’ll be met with a sign that advises them to tune their radio to a specific station as the light show is synchronized to music playing on the station.

You might notice right off the bat that these lights look a lot like traditional Christmas lights and you would be right. Counter Holiday Lights also puts on light shows throughout the winter. However, the lights go up early each year with a spooky Halloween theme. Instead of icicles, you can spot firecicles popping up over the gutters. There are tombstones placed next to a conical Halloween tree with a star on top. A few spiders are perched above the garage while the porch is framed by two pillars of lights.

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Nestled among the lightshow decorations is a matrix panel mounted to a thick post that when opened exposes some of the hardware controlling the sign. A huge power supply is seen which keeps the lights illuminated but also the board used to operate the panel which in this case is a Raspberry Pi 4.

Alongside the Raspberry Pi is a couple of controller boxes from Pixel Controller including the F16v3 and F16v4. These are connected to 12V lights found in the other decorations. A full list of the hardware used in the setup is in the video description. It includes things like the trim used to mount the LEDs.

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You can find a detailed look at how this light show operates over at YouTube. There you’ll also find examples of setups put together in the past so you can see how its evolved over the last couple of years. The Raspberry Pi might not be the main star of this project but it’s still really cool to see it thrown into the mix of hardware that makes this light show possible.

To see this Raspberry Pi project in action, check out Counter Holiday Lights at YouTube and be sure to follow up with them in December to see the 2023 Christmas light show.