element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • About Us
  • Community Hub
    Community Hub
    • What's New on element14
    • Feedback and Support
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Personal Blogs
    • Members Area
    • Achievement Levels
  • Learn
    Learn
    • Ask an Expert
    • eBooks
    • element14 presents
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Spotlight
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
    • Learning Groups
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • Technology Groups
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents Projects
    • Project14
    • Arduino Projects
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
    • Project Groups
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Avnet Boards Community
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Multicomp Pro
    • Product Groups
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Choose another store...
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
  • Settings
Holiday Special 19
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Project14
  • Holiday Special 19
  • More
  • Cancel
Holiday Special 19
Blog Christmas Spirit-tron videos (Christmas Spirit Meter)
  • Blog
  • Forum
  • Documents
  • Events
  • Polls
  • Files
  • Members
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
Join Holiday Special 19 to participate - click to join for free!
  • Share
  • More
  • Cancel
Group Actions
  • Group RSS
  • More
  • Cancel
Engagement
  • Author Author: garengllc
  • Date Created: 29 Dec 2019 8:01 PM Date Created
  • Views 1161 views
  • Likes 4 likes
  • Comments 4 comments
  • holidayspecial19ch
  • holidayspecial19ch.
Related
Recommended

Christmas Spirit-tron videos (Christmas Spirit Meter)

garengllc
garengllc
29 Dec 2019

I put these videos in a comment reply to one of my previous posts, but I'll give them their full due in case it was easy to miss.

 

Well, I hoped to do a better video, but it is out in the yard and I don't want to tear it apart while it is working well image .  One comment I would like to make is that in the video I said that I was generating 5V for the LM3914, I am actually running that off of 15V as well.  So both converters put out 15V, it is just that one has better current output.  I am still working on a schematic, but as you can see in the video, it isn't too complicated.  There is 2 lights per bulb for the first 4, and 3 lights for the top bulb.  When you add it all up, you get ~30W, and that was about what I was measuring when I had some meters hooked up to it (it was actually closer to 25W at "full speed").

 

I had planned on putting some nice analog meters on the box to show people how much voltage and current they were producing, but I also wanted to show the wattage.  So I bought a self powered back-lit panel meter that show current, voltage, wattage, and Ahr rating (which is pretty useless for this app).  It worked pretty well, but took about 2s to fire up before you would start to get readings.  After I built the enclosure (which was PVC trim board left over from my deck install, you can see some scraps in the back), I couldn't come up with a slick way to mount the panel meter and make it waterproof.  My wife talked me out of stressing over it so I could get it into the yard and come back to it later, good advice from her as usual.  I am glad that I didn't attach it to the enclosure because when people are cranking, there is a lot of wiggle to the whole thing, this would make it very hard to read.  In a video I am going to post later of the first run of it in the yard, you can see A LOT of wiggling.  I ended up adding two 5ft poles banged into the ground behind it and mounted them to the enclosure, it is a lot better now.  I think if I do end up putting one/all/some of the meters out, it would be better to mount them separate on something that won't be wiggling.

You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image

 

And the first try:

You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image

  • Sign in to reply

Top Comments

  • aspork42
    aspork42 over 5 years ago +3
    This is awesome. You should tell the kids: "You have to light the top light to make the "nice" list with Santa..."
  • dubbie
    dubbie over 5 years ago +2
    Looks like good fun - for a short period of time anyway. Dubbie
  • garengllc
    garengllc over 5 years ago in reply to dubbie +2
    Plenty of fun for a shooooort amount of time. I know that the kids like to crank it for a bit, then go and look at my other displays, and then come back a few more times. I was actually pretty pleased…
  • garengllc
    garengllc over 5 years ago in reply to dubbie

    Plenty of fun for a shooooort amount of time. I know that the kids like to crank it for a bit, then go and look at my other displays, and then come back a few more times. I was actually pretty pleased with how durable it was considering I saw numerous overzealous middle schoolers using it. This and my Candy Cane dispenser were probably the most popular this year.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +2 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • garengllc
    garengllc over 5 years ago in reply to aspork42

    But think of all the disadvantaged lefties of the world thinking that they are going to get coal since they have no where to brace their right hand image.

     

    We actually were trying to use some other phrases at each level that made reference to different Christmas movies, but we couldn't find enough that we liked.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • dubbie
    dubbie over 5 years ago

    Looks like good fun - for a short period of time anyway.

     

    Dubbie

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +2 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • aspork42
    aspork42 over 5 years ago

    This is awesome. You should tell the kids: "You have to light the top light to make the "nice" list with Santa..." image

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +3 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
element14 Community

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2025 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

ICP 备案号 10220084.

Follow element14

  • X
  • Facebook
  • linkedin
  • YouTube