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HankR
Senior Member

Joined: 02/01/2015
Location: United States
Posts: 209

Posted: 12:09pm 17 Dec 2015

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The batch of animated LED Christmas tree ornament PCBs have just arrived in the US minutes ago from palcal. Thanks Paul!

This is a very cute little green triangular PCB measuring 2 inches by 3.75 inches tall (tree shape). It was apparently designed by someone at Saarland University in Germany (noted for computer science). The traces are all on one side making this easy to hack if needed. It's all set to be loaded with 10 leds, 5 resistors, an ATtiny 45/85, and some type of small cell for power; that's it! It would super simple to hook it up with a minimal Chinese miniature Arduino on a board, too.

A few trace mods would allow it to be used on a Microchip 8 pin such as the 12F629F (which would run Great Cow Basic) or a PICAXE 08M2.

The LEDs are arranged as a set of 5 pairs, where any pair can be turned on or off without any multiplexing using the five AT output pins (six available for Microchip).

It's getting pretty late for Christmas, but for some of you well-stocked hobbyists out there up to the challenge, this might still be a doable project for you to get going and hanging on your tree this year.

I'm going to offer a few of these to people in the US who would be interested in these, but first I'd like to ask those who think they are equipped to get one of these done that fast to PM me. You can also PM your request if you aren't able to get it done on that kind of fast track. Please make it clear in your message whether yours is a fast track or a normal delivery request. Please only ask for fast track if you realistically think you can do it in time and have all the parts already on hand. Of course, provide your complete physical mailing address and especially for fast-trackers, an email address to go direct after your PM is received.

It might help to also post on the forum so that everyone knows how the response is going. I will send from one to three to you by first class mail. Haven't yet determined the max that will go under one stamp, but it looks like at least two. To allow for people to have several days to read about this offer and respond, I may have to limit quantities so everyone who asks will get at least one. I have about a dozen to give out.

Lastly, some folks outside the US have already requested, and I assume already received their PCBs from Paul. Could anyone who has possibly already got these ornaments going please post how it turned out and what you did?

Hank

HankR
Senior Member

Joined: 02/01/2015
Location: United States
Posts: 209

Posted: 12:28pm 17 Dec 2015

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HankR said
A few trace mods would allow it to be used on a Microchip 8 pin such as the 12F629F (which would run Great Cow Basic) or a PICAXE 08M2.

The LEDs are arranged as a set of 5 pairs, where any pair can be turned on or off without any multiplexing using the five AT output pins (six available for Microchip).

In the next weeks, I'll try to document some of these changes, and I invite others to contribute their mods and software in the usual TBS way. Maybe even some videos of the light patterns.

WhiteWizzard
Guru

Joined: 05/04/2013
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2948

Posted: 08:07am 18 Dec 2015

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HankR said . . . Lastly, some folks outside the US have already requested, and I assume already received their PCBs from Paul. Could anyone who has possibly already got these ornaments going please post how it turned out and what you did?

Hank

Parcel not yet arrived here in UK

Hopefully will turn up early next week before Thursday. Have a MuP ready to do some PWM MOSFET 'flashing'. I have red and green leds but really should have ordered in some white ones for better effect

Will update when the PCB trees arrive . . . .

WW

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