LED Christmas card

BTW, I was impressed that all RadioShack stores I've visited now have a stand with a featured project flyer in the electronics section.  The current one is a LED christmas card mod.  Basically you would take a normal card and add a couple LEDs, a tact switch and coin cell.  Pretty simple but cool to see accessible projects like this promoted to the public.

Cheers,

Drew

Odd that you posted about this, as I was throwing away Christmas cards from years ago today.

Do you think this is just more wasteful that ever? It seems excessive.

Unless they are cards made from recycled e-waste, forced to light up little trees. (Now that is a cool idea... I will have to look into this.)

Cabe

I don't think it is wasteful at all.  It's a decoration that you could reasonably mail as a card.  So I think it is actually less wasteful than a regular card, as I would expect the recipients to keep them for years... but I do have admit coin cell is probably the most wasteful way to power a device.

Cheers,

Drew

Me and my family has placed a ban on all types of "e-cards". I received one of those talking cards for my birthday this year. I ripped it apart to find 3 coin cell batteries and a small board. I asked my wife how many of these cards end up in the land fill each year? I contacted the manufacture and they said the same thing - "We expect the recipient to keep them..." I'm sure some do but I'm more positive that the vast majority don't.

I would suggest you make the board in the actual shape of a tree, globe, reindeer or Santa. This will make it mush more appealing, when NOT lit, hanging on a Christmas tree rather than just a square card. I feel more would then be used as a decoration rather than just a "oh that's cute" object.

Another suggestion would be to give it a connector that you can plug into the christmas tree light string. Almost all tree lights use the same bulb base, so instead of batteries (that probably won't be replaced when dead) they can simply remove a blub from the tree lights and plug in their new ornament.

Yeah, I don't like the electronic cards at the store.  However, I know the people I would be sending a DIY Christmas card would love it and not throw it out.

I agree the PCB design is a bit bland.  The latest Velleman xmas tree kit has a nice design and accepts USB in addition to coin cell for power:

http://www.element14.com/community/message/40605

Christmas tree light bulb power source is a cool idea.  That would have been fun to try to mod the design for that.  A member of my hackerspace designed a 8x8 LED matrix ornament that is powered that way.

Cheers,

Drew

Hi fustini,

I designed this board, I'm glad you're finding a good use for it It was offered as a kit for simple beginner SMD soldering practice. If you need any help please give me a shout here or at Dangerous Prototypes.

Cheers,

Ian

Hi Ian,

Great to hear from you!  Seeed shipped my fusion PCB order yesterday, so I'm excited to see how they came out and looking forward to assembling.

Btw, listened to your open source hardware junkies interview awhile ago and enjoyed it very much.

Thank for sharing your design!

Drew

Hooray, my BatchPCB and Seeed Studio PCB orders just arrived today.  Now it's time to order the tannenBOM

Cheers,

Drew

I finally assembled a couple and am off to give them to my parents and grandparents at Christmas Eve

Thanks so much Ian for designing this cool open source hardware project!

Happy Holidays!

Drew

I ended up modifying a spare board into a musical Birthday card for my mom:

Merry Birthday to You!

http://www.element14.com/community/blogs/pdp7/2012/01/24/merry-birthday-to-you

Cheers,

Drew