Here we present two open-source, do-it-yourself, microcontroller-powered holiday electronics projects: A micro-readerboard Christmas tree ornament and a mini-LED Hanukkah menorah. Read on to see exactly what they do (Check out the video!), how they work, and how you can make your own.
Continue reading How to make high-tech LED decorations for the holidays
This article contains some reference data relevant to the holiday electronics projects.
Continue reading Holiday Electronics Projects: Technical details and Reference data
We have written instructions for building two sweet microcontroller-based electronics projects for the holidays: an alphanumeric LED christmas tree ornament and an LED mini-menorah (hanukkiah).
These are open-source projects; You can download and modify the source code, use it to program your own microcontroller, and solder the microcontroller to some LEDs to help make your own holiday decorations.
If programming microcontrollers is not your idea of a good time, we understand. Not everyone has (1) access to a microcontroller programmer, (2) the time and (3) the desire to modify the firmware of their christmas tree ornaments.
Low-cost open-source holiday project kits brought to you by Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.
In order to help our fellow citizens Evil Mad Scientists with their holiday projects, we have put together electronic soldering kits for these projects. (Updated: November 2007)
LED mini-menorah kits are now available at our new web store.
Kits for version 2.0 of the open-source LED Micro-Readerboard project are now available at the Make Store.
This *was* the place to discuss tricks, tips, and troubles with the holiday electronics projects.
However, we’ve moved future support (and the discussions that were here) to the
Discussion Forums.
Chips, tubes, boxes, solder…. What are those Evil Mad Scientists up to now?
update: cat… bag…
The lab staff is travelling this week. Here’s what I brought with me, which might give you a hint about some of our upcoming projects:
We made– and sold (!)– this art lamp a couple of years ago. It’s a life-sized hollow glass head glued to an aluminum base. Inside the head are two long, tangled, strands of multicolored christmas lights, each with a bimetallic “blinky” bulb. The two halves switch on and off quite irregularly in an animated effect that seems much more complex than the simple electronics should have produced. The end effect is a bit like neurons firing, or perhaps like the brain from a cheesy tv robot.
In this photo, JellyBean is sitting on the top of the bookcase with the lamp and is doing her best to blend in with the surroundings– cats are good at that.
See more pictures of the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories Feline Auxiliary here.
Turn off that television in classic style!
Here we show you how to hack a TV-B-Gone into the case of a vintage television remote control, such that the original on/off button instead activates the TV-B-Gone. We also modify the power supply so that it runs off of a regular 9 V battery, instead of a set of lithium coin cells.
Continue reading Vintage Remote TV-B-Gone Case Mod
Woo-hoo! We won the grand prize in the MAKE & CRAFT Halloween contest for our set of halloween projects!
Apparently the world was ready for the invasion of Cylon Jack-o-lanterns— They made it onto TV, into magazines, and presumably onto a lot of front porches as well. Lots of people made their own and we’ve rounded up a list of some of the Cylon pumpkins (and umbrella-bat costumes) that we spotted this year. Read on to see where they showed up!
Continue reading Halloween project round-up
Halloween is tomorrow! Do you want to bring a carved pumpkin to work, but aren’t allowed to burn candles in your cubicle? Do you want to carve a mini-pumpkin that’s simply too small for a candle?
Or are you just running late and need to make a procrastinator’s pumpkin?
If you said yes to any of these questions, we just might have the solution that you’re looking for. Here’s an easy way to make a tiny blinking-LED jack-o’-lantern.
The blinking LED circuit is borrowed from a Tirefly, a commonly available type of motion-sensitive light that attaches to the valve stem on the wheel of a bike or car. Our quick modification (less than five minutes and no soldering) defeats the motion sensor so that the LED can blink all day (or all night) for you. (For hardened geeks who want to solder something anyway, we’ll also show you how to mod the circuit to use a higher-capacity battery.)
[Update: (10/2008) A reader wrote in that they have had trouble getting the circuit to blink continuously; the tirefly circuit may have been changed. (Confirmed– It has changed!) Do any other readers have recent success or failure to report?]
Continue reading Easy Itty-Bitty Blinky LED Jack-O’-Lantern
