I connect some rather nice fairy lights to an ESP-12 module based on the ESP8266 chip, running Nodemcu firmware and a simple Lua script. I describe how to connect a P-channel FDN340P MOSFET and a 2N3904 NPN transistor to form a high-side driver to switch big loads from this tiny wifi module and its 3.3V logic.

The result: I can control my fairy lights over wifi, potentially from anywhere in the world using MQTT. The possibilities are endless, but for now I’ll enjoy the cool glow and shimmering reflections of my “Moroccan” fairy lights…

The Lua code for controlling the fairylights using MQTT can be found here:

https://github.com/lucsmall/Fairylights