GSM Controlled Lighting Star

An ornamental lighting hack that one can use for home décor during festivals has got to be one of the most popular ideas for DIYs. This one is another addition to the list – an uncomplicated hack that gives good hands on experience of working with Intel Galileo and GSM shield.

As you can see in the video below, a decorative star plumed with bright light bulbs shines on command from a cellphone. To make it, you will require an arduino GSM shield since it is one of the best way to connect your project with a mobile network or for sending/receiving texts or phone calls or for accessing the internet – any such means for communication. It must be noted that there is no official library support for GSM shield on the Intel Galileo Gen 2. However, there is a way to work around it – a GSM library that can find space on Intel’s modified Arduino IDE library folder; the maker explains well how to do that. Learning this is perhaps the biggest incentive to create this project.

Here, an LED strip is used that has all the LEDs switching on or off simultaneously. If you like, you can combine two or more LEDs or command them separately. This would add to the aesthetics of the lighting star… and maybe make it sellable in the market during Diwali or Christmas?