xmas_v2

Just finished assembling the second ornament, and so far they both work perfectly! No problems with assembly, everything is going well. I should be able to make about 14 more of these with the parts I have. Other than that, I can pretty much consider this project to finally be done.

Yesterday I have finally received my completed PCBs from ITEAD Studio! They are kind of rough around the edges, but they appear to work. I also received an additional 9 boards, from my 20 board order.

During the time since the last update, I have received all the other parts necessary to start assembling everything. However, not everything went as smoothly as I had hoped. There has been a reoccurring problem with receiving defective and/or counterfeit ATTiny modules, which is partly my fault for not doing nearly enough research. Fortunately, everything turned out in my favor and I was refunded as necessary and ended up received what I needed in time.

Anyways, have a look at the finished PCBs!

As of today, I have finished designing the PCB, and have sent it off to get manufactured by ITEAD Studio. The board is approximately 2" x 1.75" in size, or 1" on each side. Not much else to say, so I'll let these pictures do the rest of the explaining.

I think it's about time I formally announce this new project! I am making a blinky, snowflake-shaped LED Christmas ornament thing to give out as gifts this coming holiday season. It is driven by an ATTiny13, and displays 6 different animations on its 18 LEDs. A 3 volt CR2032 coin cell powers it all, which should make it last at least a few years in standby depending on use. A single button lets you switch animations, and wake it up/put it to sleep (on/off).

This project is a successor and direct improvement to last year's Tree_v2 (I still need to give it a formal project page), which will be renamed to Xmas_v1. I know the naming system was a little confusing, so it should hopefully make more sense now.

As of the day of this posting, I have finished the prototyping and programming part this project. You can find all the code I used in its GitHub repo, and see how it works in the video below:

Tonight I am beginning work on the hardware design part. I will make sure to keep you guys updated on how things are going. I should mention that I have also posted, and will keep posting many quick updates to my Twitter too. While they are not as in-depth as the ones here, they do happen more often.