Smart lightbulbs cost your firstborn child. Which is a shame, because smart lights unlock tremendous potential for home automation, energy savings, and all sorts of cool projects.

If only there was a way to control your lights without breaking the bank...

And now there is! For $19 on Amazon, you can get a 4-lightbulb kit from China that ordinarily is limited to 4 channels from a single remote...but with some creative hacking, can be used to control an unlimited number of channels using an arduino and a very simple RF module!

Here's a video of them in action as part of our smart bathroom project (Instructable for that coming soon!):

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Time required: 1-2 hours

Total Cost: $19 for four sockets ($5/socket), ~$20 for a transmitter

You should know:

How to program an Arduino (see here)

The basics of using a Bus Pirate (see here)

Materials:

Tools: