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[dave w]

Interesting.  I wonder if an old incandescent nightlight with light sensor would work with the bulb removed (or burnt out bulb installed for safety)?

Don't think so. The bulb provides the shunt for the sensing current. You also need black tape over the cadmium sulfide cell to maintain current through the bulb.

[Brian H]

I have some round ones with an LED light source.
I used Black plastic model paint and covered the sensors window. 

[roger1818]

Don't think so. The bulb provides the shunt for the sensing current. You also need black tape over the cadmium sulfide cell to maintain current through the bulb.

I suggested it because demcgovern said an "LED night light that has a light sensor" fixed the problem for him.  Since the LED likely isn't what is helping, I figured it must be in the light sensor itself.

[HA Dave]

I setup my Christmas lights early this year (long story).

Through the years we've gone more and more to low energy LED lighting solutions for Christmas lights. This year... we're using 6 projectors for lights ON the house... with LED displays in front of the home. A LOT of LED's.

This is the 1st year... I've had enough (guessing) LED noise on my line that one X10 outdoor module couldn't hear the OFF command. I only had one filter left.... which I plugged into an extension cord... then plugged another extension cord into the filter. Put the filter in a ziplock bag with the cords sticking out. Then cut a notch in the rim of a plastic jar and screwed the lid tight around the protruding cords. Then I added the filter-jar in the line out by the "blue tree". That apparently filtered enough noise. Everything works fine now.

[dave w]

I setup my Christmas lights early this year (long story).

Looks nice.

[HA Dave]

I passed by a house tonight.... that was totally covered in lights... and they all blinked and danced to the music of a local radio station that is only playing Christmas music right now.

It made me feel non-productive and lazy.

[bkenobi]

Couldn't you just ask Alexa to blink the lights for you?  Seems like she can do anything so this should be easy.

[IPS]

For years I have used LM15A to control x-mass lights. Trick is to add one non LED string..no glow problems and string just mixes with others.
Wish you all happy and successful lighting displays.

[brobin]

I passed by a house tonight.... that was totally covered in lights... and they all blinked and danced to the music of a local radio station that is only playing Christmas music right now.

It made me feel non-productive and lazy.

Over 50 years ago I did that with a few strings of lights using a "color organ" I built from a mail order kit.  They're still available from $5 at Radio Shack (yes, they're still in biz online!) to $70 on Amazon (they're still in biz too).

[HA Dave]

I passed by a house tonight.... that was totally covered in lights... and they all blinked and danced to the music of a local radio station that is only playing Christmas music right now.

It made me feel non-productive and lazy.

Couldn't you just ask Alexa to blink the lights for you?  Seems like she can do anything so this should be easy.

There is some new WiFi hardware that CAN be controlled by Alexa..... in a very limited way. Heck even my limited [Christmas] setup has 8 separate switches/modules (Six are Alexa [Homeseer] controlled X10 and two are Alexa controlled wifi).

Over 50 years ago I did that with a few strings of lights using a "color organ" I built from a mail order kit.  They're still available from $5 at Radio Shack (yes, they're still in biz online!) to $70 on Amazon (they're still in biz too).

Those fancy displays are a combination of engineering and art, hardware and software, hard work and hard cash. Way over my head in both skills and ambition. But I do enjoy and appreciate those displays and people that can and do go that far.

[dave w]

Couldn't you just ask Alexa to blink the lights for you?  Seems like she can do anything so this should be easy.

LoL I tried that, but with X10's slow "one second" per command timing, I could only play a very very slow waltz. 

[dave w]

Those fancy displays are a combination of engineering and art, hardware and software, hard work and hard cash. Way over my head in both skills and ambition. But I do enjoy and appreciate those displays and people that can and do go that far.

You need a DMX lighting control. If you play an instrument you could write the routine for "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy". 

[bkenobi]

LoL I tried that, but with X10's slow "one second" per command timing, I could only play a very very slow waltz. 

Bah, stop exagerating.  It's only 0.6 seconds, so you can play a moderate waltz.

[dave w]

Bah, stop exagerating.  It's only 0.6 seconds, so you can play a moderate waltz.

I think you are off by 150,000 nanoseconds.

[chaspear]

We switched to LEDs last year, rather than use a night light, I bought a bunch of "scent candle" plug-in devices at our local Dollar Tree ($1 each) and they have a ceramic resistor across the terminals to create a little heat to make the scent liquid in the bottles evaporate, etc.
We don't put any of the scent bottles in the units, but I add one of these small resistive loads on the load side of the X-10 switches and they will then turn fully off when cycled.

HTH,
Chas