StarDunes Christmas Light Controller

I bought this for one reason only: I wanted twinkling lights. Flashing strobing, dimming, chasing, or any other sort of disco lights do not interest me for Christmas decorations. I would even say these effects, whether indoors or outdoors, are abominations. Twinkling lights, on the other hand, are directly related to what I think of as holiday magic. A combination of poor product information and negative reviews made me highly skeptical that this product would deliver true twinkling lights. “Poor product information” in this case includes the video featured here and another review on YouTube that focuses too much on why the product exists instead of showing what it can do — in my case, I wanted to see video evidence of twinkling lights before laying out cash. I was further discouraged by the disclaimer that the device wouldn’t work with “Balsam Hill and some other pre-lit trees.” This kind of incomplete information drives me crazy. I would have appreciated more detail as to what kind of prelit trees it doesn’t work with. My trees and garlands are all prelit. But because I wanted twinkling lights so badly, I took a leap of faith and ordered two of these for different areas, fully intending to return the devices if they did not deliver the twinkle I was looking for. And return them I did. Buried in the instructions was this disclaimer: The controller cannot make individual light bulbs in a string light work differently. And there you have it. In order to have what I think of as truly twinkling lights, individual bulbs do need to work independently — they need to come on and off randomly. The 3 functions that this manufacturer describes as “twinkling” are really “pulsing” features that turn all of the lights on and off at different levels of intensity. There is no charm and certainly not the randomness I associate with twinkling lights. In the end, there is no substitute for using twinkling lights at the get go. There is certainly no after market product that can make individual bulbs twinkle. If you are happy with flashing, strobing, and pulsing, then go for it for almost $50 a pop. I was very disappointed and my hope in leaving this review is that you will move on if it is truly twinkling lights you are looking for.