The ornament projects we post around here tend to be simple, stand-alone projects. We are, however, well into the era of the Internet of Things (like it or not) and holiday ornaments need not be single, unconnected blinking objects. For Christmas this year, [Sean Hodgins] came up with some connected DIY ornaments that respond to Christmas cheer.
[Sean Hodgins] had some beautiful PCBs done up in festive shapes and he hand-pastes and oven-solders the SMD components on both sides. Each one is battery powered and controlled by an ESP8266. LEDs and a button on the front of each ornament comprise the user interface. When the button is pressed, data is sent to a Phant server and a “Christmas Cheer” counter is incremented. Other ornaments, so long as they can connect to the Phant server, will periodically check the counter. If the Christmas Cheer has increased, the ornaments will play a tune and flash some lights.
The ornaments are open-source — [Sean Hodgins] posted the code and PCB designs on GitHub. They look great, and would be a good way to let people know you’re thinking of them over the holidays. Check out this light-up menorah or these lighted acrylic ornaments for more holiday fun!
Cool ???? But sound like this might get annoying rather quickly if they auto play after someone somewhere presses a button.
If there is constant cheer being sent they will only check and sing every 5-10 minutes. I recommend people put the battery in on Christmas morning. That way everyone can send each other cheer, but it isn’t driving everyone nuts. Just letting them know we’re all connected in some way.
Thank goodness for sleepTimeS; a really good idea! :-)
Where did you get the multi-colour boards done, Sean?
Haha, Yes. Thanks!
I got them done through PCBWay They have a number of options and this project gave me a chance to try a bunch of them out. Still need to check out yellow, white, matte black and matte green. The matte colours are quite a bit more in cost though.
Ho Ho Ho; excellent project. Must get those onto the Do To List for next Christmas. In the meantime, please add a Christmas Project Cheer point from me. Cheerio.
Well, I thought my SMD LED Christmas Tree was Sierra Hotel :(
Nicely done sir!
IoT Christmas ornament. It is fun. You just put it right next to your internet router. Keep it there all year. It is fun…
Nice boards. Did you draw all the outlines and silkscreen/copper art directly in KiCad, or import DXFs or something?
you would think they would be one of Santa himself giving it Ho Ho HO
ann