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  • Author Author: ntewinkel
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Finally! Two Trees Assembled

ntewinkel
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Merry Boxes & LEDs

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It seems like there's always another something-or-other that takes precedence over my fun projects; however, this evening I did finally find some time to finish soldering the second xmas tree.

 

For future reference, I ended up trying the green LEDs with a 10k resistor, but then it barely flashed. So I used the supplied 2k resistor for green, 1k for yellow, and 330 for red.

For the very top I used a 680 ohm resistor (instead of the supplied 10k) and put a flashing LED on the peak instead of the supplied red one. I like how it gives the peak a more festive effect image

image

 

The first tree has been on the mantle downstairs looking pretty for the last few days already, powered by one of those little rechargeable battery boxes often used to refill a cell phone on the go. It looks and acts identical to the tree in the gif (which is showing the one I just finished tonight).

 

The soldering marathon tonight had solder fumes causing my eyes to tear up a little, and I poked myself with a sharp resistor end making me bleed a bit. I also worked up a little bit of a sweat while concentrating. Nothing gross of course, just one of those sexly manly kinds of sweat, honest image

My point is though, that I've put blood, sweat, and tears into this project! sorry, that was bad. but it had to be done image

 

So now that I finally have two trees to work with, the real part of the project can begin - where I connect two WeMos D1 Mini ESP-based boards to them and have them talk to each other!

 

I suppose I could have simply used a little string of battery-powered LEDs for this too, and saved me several nights of soldering up these trees image  But hey, this is much cooler.

 

Cheers,

-Nico

 

Previous posts:

Connected Christmas Trees

Assembling the Trees

 

Next Posts:

Two Trees by a Tree

Connecting the Tree to the Internet

Motion Sensor on Wemos

Trees! one with motion sickness...

Motion Sensor Issues, continued

The Connected Trees are Working!

Merry Boxes - A Project Within a Project

Connected Christmas Trees - Finished!

Parents Comment Children
  • in reply to mcb1

    Mmmmhhhh. Not 100% sure, Mark. It's true that the ne556 (one maybe sufficient) is probably a bit costly than transistors resistors etc. but if we sum all the costs of PCB board the circuit comes easier.

     

    S9014 TransistorS9014 Transistor x 6 is about 0.9

     

    NE556NE556 x 1 is 0.3 (one corresponding to two NE555 IMHO maybe sufficient) but using two cost remain 0.65, about 30% less.

     

    Then, consider you will use less discrete components and smaller PCB cost is considerably lower.

     

     

    maybe your version for Project14 could do that version

     

    What do you mean?

     

    Enrico

  • in reply to balearicdynamics
    What do you mean?

    You could whip up a set of flashing lights that you could add to a tree shape (or something else) driven by 555's.

     

    You've got until the 14th. image

     

  • in reply to balearicdynamics

      wrote:

     

    >S9014 TransistorS9014 Transistor x 6 is about 0.9

     

    On AliExpress they are about a penny a piece - about a dollar for 100.

    Maybe at the source in China the economics are in favour of the transistors?

     

    But now you do make me wonder about other ways of doing it image

     

    Cheers,

    -Nico

  • in reply to ntewinkel

    Hello Nico!

     

    The point is - IMHO - that if we make a serious price comparison, we will refer to a serious commercial site. I have searched both components on the Farnell site, in Europe. Then it's true that you find the same somewhere in China for less than less, but - always IMHO - this is not a reference. Then my critic was not about you, as you already know by my previous comments, I loved this idea. What I say is that the guys from China, those who made the original design of the chips, at least some more elegant circuit it was possible to do, This is what I see. Then probably using NE555 SMD bought from China, I don't know the price but sure everything was possible to fit on the same tree base. So, add the tree base, no extra PCB, fewer components etc. and it is possible that also for Chinese guys this was cheaper.

     

    And with some astable configuration of the 555, it is possible to do something better. In you case where you have added a considerable value with the extra board, not bat to "program" the 555 just changing some parameters, for example, with a digital potentiometer connected to the IC. But this is just a fly through. The original critic was for the Chinese engineers.

     

    Enrico