Hack the Holidays Blog

Stereo Prize - Hack The Holidays

2023-05-24T06:18:17Z

This is a short blog to exhibit the prizes I won in the Hack-The-Holidays Project14 Contest. This is the Star Twister blog about animated LED ornaments. The prizes were a Fluance RT82 turntable with pre amp and a pair of giant Fluance speakers. These...(read more)

Santa Tracker

2023-01-11T14:00:00Z

Every year, on Christmas Eve, Santa Claus leaves his home in Rovaniemi (iin Finland, closed to the Arctic Circle) to travel all around the world and give presents to all the children. Wouldn't it be great if we can track Santa Claus position and ...(read more)

Project: Santa's little Helper

2023-01-10T18:22:10Z

Hello There Thanks for taking a moment to read my blog post for this year's Hack-The-Holiday competition. As you all know, Santa works hard all year round to make sure he has an accurate list of children who are naughty or nice. This project should b...(read more)

Holiday lights to brighten spirits

2023-01-10T06:27:16Z

My good friend and neighbor was recently very saddened when his daughter announced right before Christmas that she was moving to Florida along with his Grandson; to whom he is very close. I decided to do something sneaky for them for Christmas and su...(read more)

Art in Motion: Snoopy’s Christmas P.O.V. , singalong and Dogfight Animatronics

2023-01-09T16:46:56Z

I was inspired to do a project this year that was nostalgic and artistic; highly visual, musical, entertaining, and inspirational. The visual message was chosen to be persistence of vision (P.O.V.) based since I’d never tried that before. ...(read more)

SANTA ONE TWO THREE

2023-01-07T17:54:57Z

I just had enough time left to create SANTA THREE : The Baubles befoe the close of the Hack The Holidays Project 14 competition. This adds some dancing baubles to the SANTA ONE and TWO displays, to create the full throttle SANTA ONE TWO THREE. It is...(read more)

SANTA TWO : The Diorama

2023-01-07T17:47:26Z

SANTA ONE was fun but I didn't do much hacking with it so I thought I needed a SANTA TWO too, and possibly (time permitting) a SANTA THREE. So for SANTA TWO : The Diorama, I decided to implement a Christmas Themed animated (automated?) display....(read more)

Help! Where's My Draft

2023-01-06T17:39:43Z

I saved a draft of my latest Blog for the Hack the Holidays Project14 competition (because Element14 wouldn't insert videos or pictures) and now I cannot find it. The website said it could be found in Posts List, but as I do not know where Posts ...(read more)

Star Twister

2023-01-01T14:25:00Z

This is a Hack The Holidays project to make some interesting electronic ornaments. This year I really wanted to finish before Christmas, so the ornaments could actually be used to contribute to the festive season. Here is a video that shows the ...(read more)

Musical LED Christmas Tree

2022-12-31T04:23:13Z

The holidays are often the only time of year that I have time to work on projects - cold, rainy (or snowy!) weather with long dark nights are perfect for indoor techy projects! This year was a better in terms of being able to create more pr...(read more)

BLE Christmas Tree Lights - Neopixel Wiring

2022-12-25T06:33:20Z

I decided to use some 30 AWG silicone insulated wire that would flexible enough to allow me to position the Neopixels easily in the tree. I wasn't sure how many would be enough, so I started with 6 and hopefully the spacing between Neopixels wi...(read more)

The Sa(d)nta Hotline

2022-12-24T03:02:13Z

Recently, the national carrier in Australia (Telstra) began advertising free calls to Santa from their payphones just by dialling #HOHOHO. Never having the chance to do this as a kid (as it only first entered service in 2021 to my knowledge), I decid...(read more)

SANTA ONE (Simple And Neat Trembling Automata One)

2022-12-23T16:17:51Z

I thought I would go for something relatively easy as my contribution to Hack the Holidays as I have not done any programming or electronics for 9 months, plus I have wanted to build a balancing robot for some time. So I purchased the Elegoo Tumbller...(read more)

BLE Christmas Tree Lights

2022-12-23T00:06:53Z

The Covid pandemic has really put a damper on our holiday celebrations for the past 3 years - no family dinners and holiday gatherings with friends. This year we have a new grandson, so we are still keeping things low key. One tradition t...(read more)

LED Christmas Tree Advent Calendar

2022-12-05T19:36:39Z

After last year making the Die Hard Christmas tree ornament, I through I would combine my newfound love of LEDs with my below average woodworking & craft skills once again. To make this LED Christmas Tree advent calendar, I used 24 individ...(read more)