Arduino Compatible Christmas Tree

tree

It wouldn’t be the holidays without an LED Christmas tree, and luckily [Danilo] brings the goods with an Arduiinofied LED Christmas tree (Italian, translation).

In the past week, we’ve seen LED Christmas trees of digital logic and a great freeform circuit version. Unlike these other builds [Danilo]’s LED tree uses a piece of protoboard masterfully cut into the shape of a Christmas tree. There’s no PCB for this build; just a lot of bare wires and a lot of patience.

Because [Danilo]’s tree makes use of the PWM pins on his Arduino, it was possible to connect his tree to the Arduino with a few 90 degree headers. This provides a great base for his tree and makes it possible to build a professional-looking enclosure for his project.

You can check out [Danilo]’s tree in action after the break.

9 thoughts on “Arduino Compatible Christmas Tree

  1. while i find this annoying i must admit i made my own arduino Christmas tree when i was starting out.
    it was a grid of 5*5 leds on lengths of green cat5 pairs, twisted together to make the trunk and spread out to make branches.
    i meant to make a stand alone out of it and give it away but i didn’t have a crystal and i couldn’t figure out how to use internal oscillator so it got scrapped.

    feels like ages ago.
    while it is a common and decent way to learn, i wouldn’t want it on hackaday then, and certainly not now

  2. I do not understand this “Arduino” device. But I commend you on your perseverance in solving the problem with such a complicated tool.

    In my laboratory, I invented a similar contrivance that uses fewer components. A piece of phenolic insulating board was cut into the shape of a tree. Placed upon it are a number of gas discharge tubes (type NE-2 etc.) with various gases within to provide the colors (e.g. orange, blue, green, and such). Ten megohm carbon composition resistors and 0.1uF condensers were connected as relaxation oscillators to provide a pleasant blinking rate.

    Power consumption is exceptionally low. It has operated for months on a 90v B battery that was already depleted so as to be of no further use in a radio.

    Thomas A. Edison
    West Orange, NJ
    December the 20th, 1912

    1. It’s got connectors in the shape of an arduino shield, so it connects to an arduino…

      At least this seems to be an actual arduino, not an AVR breakout board like it usually is when hackaday announces new arduino devices…

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