Merry Microchips! — 2025 Holidays Competition Discussion Thread

robogary said:

hopefully gains mass

Thanks for this input. I will add option for tare support as well.

JoRatcliffe said:

stick to new year resolutions

My new year resolution for 2026 is using green energy for small projects. I am thinking of buying some small solar panels (10-20Wh) and energy harvester circuits(0.5-1Wh). I have already started using rechargeable batteries (AA) wherever possible. But I don't have much experience in the component selection for low power devices, battery charging circuits (for LiPo, 18650). I think next year there will be lots of trials and errors.

That should be quite an interesting activity. A while ago I bought a USB power bank (3x 18650) which has a solar charger built-in but indoors my 6W rated panel isn't really up to it. I ended up using a joule thief circuit to charge it using old alkaline batteries before disposal.

Have you seen Doug's super capacitor weather station project where he runs a microcontroller off a super capacitor charged by a solar panel ?

Just when you thought it was safe to wander down the seasonal aisle at the local supermarket, you then find stuff like this on display

Ok, so the skateboarding dinosaur has an Xmas wreath, but an air fryer ? 

Anyone planning on making any custom baubles ?

I've always thought infinity mirrors would look really good as baubles but how to make them small enough for the indoor tree. 
( Perhaps not 'Oregon small' though... ) 

Haha! I'm kinda liking the skateboarding dinosaur because it's a bit whimsical, there's at least a token effort to make it Xmas-y. It's the most wonderful time of the year, maybe just for one day dinosaurs really could skateboard (ok it's a bit of a reach).

I'm 100% with you on the airfryer bauble. Perhaps if it was an airfryer trying to cook a comically large turkey, something like that could be fun.

Custom baubles sounds like a great idea for the Holidays competition.

The kitchen applicance ornament line is so edgy ......avante garde....:-) yum yum gotta get me some.

Yes JoRatcliffe . Thinking of building something interactive, fun and engaging

Hi all, hope everybody had a great December! We have just over a week to go until the end of the competition at midnight UK time on Sunday 11th January 2026 so I thought I'd say hello and check in, how is everyone doing with their projects?

Few of us in my company are in a project support from Christmas till the end of Jan 10. Sadly, this means I won't be able to participate in this contest.

I came up with a simple project idea.......that turned into significantly more work than expected :-)  and toss in a bit of procrastination and daily distractions......not done yet, but slowly getting there. 

The mickup will be ready to share and entertain the E14 community in time.