Hi all!!! Happy New Year everyone!! Let all the bad things remain in the old year, and let all the good things be with us in the new year!! So in this article I want to tell you how to make just such a small Christmas tree in just a couple of hours that can decorate yours, for example. workplace, in the new year, or maybe standing somewhere at home

The basis of the device is a simple multivibrator.

The oscillation frequency depends on the values ​​of capacitors and resistors in the base circuits. Wide field for experiments.

What do we need?

1) LEDs. I used three colors: green 6pcs, yellow 6pcs and red 7pcs.
2) Resistors. 10kOhm - 2 pcs, and 1kOhm - equal to the number of LEDs used.
3) A pair of transistors
4) Heat shrink with a diameter of 2 and 4 mm
5) Copper wire, varnished, approximately 0.8 or 0.7 mm thick
6) Something else...

The wire should be cut into pieces approximately 10-15cm long. The number of such segments should be equal to the number of LEDs multiplied by two. It is advisable to make half of the segments 10cm, the other half 15cm.
Resistors are soldered to the LEDs, then all this is soldered to our pieces of wire, as in the figure.
Then the resistors on the LEDs are “hidden” in heat shrink.

After this, you need to once again check each LED with a resistor for functionality, and clarify the polarity. Then we twist together all the “pluses” of the LEDs, and all the “minuses.” Then we split the bunch of “pluses” into two so that we get two approximately identical groups of LEDs, which we will connect to our multivibrator. Something like this.

I made the multivibrator mounted on two KT816G transistors, and unfortunately I didn’t have time to take a photo.
All that remains is to stuff it all into any suitable case, and voila!! Enjoy!!

This instructable shows how to handle LEDs in order to make some kind of luminous circuit out of them, talks about general rules application of LEDs using the example of making a glowing Christmas sign LED Christmas tree. Knowing and using the principles outlined here, you can easily repeat other designs using LEDs, such as

, a section of the site where ALL homemade Christmas trees and ALL options for making a Christmas tree are presented.

Step 1. Details

This LED tree is made from 17 red, green and yellow LEDs - the cheapest ones that were available at the electronics store (I don't know who the manufacturer is).
Their specification: (same for all colors)
forward voltage drop = 2.0 V
Max continuous current = 15 mA
If you can, try to find LEDs that have the same characteristics - this will make creating the tree easier.

The power supply from an old printer was found on the street - no power source DC no more. IN in this case I have a voltage of 30 V, with a current of up to 400 mA. Enough power for 300 LEDs, but overkill.

Step 2: Circuit Design

There are three possibilities when designing an LED tree circuit, depending on the number of LEDs, their forward voltage drop, and the supply voltage.

1. The LEDs will drop less voltage than the power supply supplies.
(That is, for example, if you have a 12V supply, and you have 5 LEDs - each with a forward voltage of 1.8V - then the drop across the LEDs will only be 9V)
When connecting LEDs connected in series directly to the power source, too much current will flow, and at least one of the LEDs will burn out (hopefully it will break the circuit and protect the others).

In this case, you must include a resistor to limit the amount of current to a safe level. To calculate the total resistance you need:
R = (Vs - Vf * N) / Is
Vs: - Supply voltage
Vf: - Voltage drop per 1 LED.
N: - Number of LEDs
Is: - Safe current for LEDs.

My initial design was similar to circuit A: R1 and R2 each have half of R_total (for symmetry), resistors added to give total resistance.

2. The LEDs drop exactly the same voltage that the power supply produces. Great! No resistors are needed, just connect all the indicators in series to the power terminal wires.
Be careful, if you calculate incorrectly the LEDs will burn out.

3. LEDs drop more than the supply voltage. The bad news is you can't connect LEDs in series. However, you can divide the LEDs into parallel strings. If you look at Diagram B, you can see that there are two paths for current to flow from Vcc (+) to GND (-). The path on the left circuit only has 2 LEDs, so it needs a current limiting resistor to keep the current flowing at a safe level (Scenario 1). The path on the right circuit has 15 LEDs, the voltage drop of each LED is 2.0V and the power supply is 30V, this gives me exactly the voltage drop I need when I can do without a resistor (Scenario 2).

If you have a known supply voltage and required quantity LEDs with a known voltage drop on each, you can figure out what scenarios are possible for you and develop your own LED Christmas tree!

Step 3. Aesthetic design

It's time for artistic skills!
When designing a tree, remember:
1. The electrical circuit must be defined (see previous step), which will determine your next steps.
2. Try not to make the distance between adjacent LEDs more than twice the length of the LED leads, or you will have to use an extra wire.
If you look at Design B, you can see that there are two paths that current flows: the pins on the bottom green LEDs connect to the power supply and the current follows them around the entire outline of the tree. Another way is to connect the bottom two green LEDs through a resistor to create a second parallel circuit.

Step 4: Use the jig!

This project does not use a PCB, and anyone who has tried to solder components together knows how difficult it is! Wood presents an even more challenging option, as the wires and components need to be placed aesthetically - you want the wires to be straight and the wood to be symmetrical.
To overcome this, I used a jig - print out your layout plan or draw it by hand, and glue it to a piece of wood at least 5mm (1/4 inch) thick. If you have smooth wood like plywood or MDF, you can simply paint directly onto it.
Find a drill bit the same size as your LED (3mm or 5mm as a rule) and drill small holes for each LED. Ideally, each LED should fit snugly in the hole, without moving.

Step 5. Soldering LEDs

At this stage, you need to find out in which direction the current flows through your tree (clockwise or counterclockwise). This will determine the location of the power pins and how you want the tree to be oriented (forward facing).
Deal with this - otherwise, either the Christmas tree will not light up, or it will be turned backwards.

Place each LED in the hole of the jig, making sure they are oriented so that the positive lead of the first LED goes to the power supply (possibly through the first resistor), and the negative lead of each LED is connected to the positive lead of the next LED.

Carefully bend the LED leads towards the adjacent LEDs, and trim the excess so that there is only ~1cm of overlap. Align them carefully and solder them together.

WARNING:
LEDs are temperature sensitive - if you overheat the leads, they will burn out.
Solder as far away from the LEDs as possible.
Try melting the solder and placing it on the connection rather than heating the wires while the solder is melting on them.
If you fail to solder in the first ~10 seconds, wait for the LEDs to cool and try again. If you are soldering two long wires together there is little risk, but if the LEDs are very close together (like the yellow LEDs in my design) then you have to be much more careful.

Step 6. Almost done...

(If you rush to take out the LEDs, you will warp your tree)
Using the pliers, go around the jig and carefully pull each of the LEDs and then move on to the next one, then go back and pull each one a little further until the wood is free.

After removing the tree from the jig, it must be connected to a power source. If you have a good compact power supply like I do, then you can use that as a solid base...otherwise you may need a small one wooden block.

Insert the tree with its legs into the holes, or bend the legs at an angle of 90 degrees, and solder to the power supply terminals.

Now that the tree is firmly in place, you can correct any deformations that have occurred by carefully bending the structure. Make sure the wires are not touching each other before you connect power.

This instructable does not show checks at each stage of construction, as needed to ensure that each LED is connected correctly, that electrical diagram It will work that the supply voltage is sufficient, that the forward voltage drop of the LEDs is within specification, and that the LEDs are not overheated during soldering.
Take due care (measure twice, cut once) and you won't have any problems with anything going wrong.

Step 7. C LED Christmas tree Otova!

Hooray! New Year's LED Christmas tree, which doesn't take up a ton of space when not in use, is ready!

Somehow before the New Year I was left without a Christmas tree and without Christmas tree decorations (since it was in the middle of the ocean). But my soul demanded a holiday... I somehow imitated the Christmas tree, but I had to think about the toys. It was then that the remains of multi-colored LED strips came to hand.
Next, I’ll start by chewing and then briefly describe how to make original LED Christmas tree decorations. And at the same time we will consider connection options.

For this we take LED strips different colors, not in silicone.

The first one will be round, let's chew it

	White ribbons, in the sense painted white, look festive
	Cut the tape with scissors in the right places three LEDs per correct segments
	For this decoration we will need three pieces
	Glue them together using adhesive backing
	We fasten the first two segments in the form of the letter “L”. Please note that you need to maintain polarity and place the tape pieces with their poles facing each other, i.e. so that the plus of one tape is directed towards the plus of the other.
	We glue the third one across, getting something like the letter “A”
	We tin the pads at the ends of the tapes to make it easier to solder later.
	And we connect them in pairs with wires, here I connected two “pluses”
	Soldering all the wiring we get this: Christmas tree toy. Here I have short wires without insulation - this is wrong, everything needs to be insulated. By the way, short ones are a “plus”, and long ones are a “minus”.

Further it would be correct to describe how and what to connect this joy to, but that will be later, but now I want to consider what other options there are.

Other options with a larger number of segments

Square

Then, in increasing numbers of segments, there is a square of four segments. I won’t chew it anymore, I think you can understand the principle from the photo. Just wanted to pay attention to the top two wires, they are both needed for a complete circuit. It’s not visible in the photo, but I made the top wire in the form of a loop.

Star

The star, naturally, already consists of five segments. The peculiarity here is that there are practically no wires, and the pieces of tape are attached to each other by soldering two contact pads to each other (do not forget to observe polarity!).

six pointed star

Consists of six segments. Or rather, these are two intertwined triangles, and I made them from different ribbons (different colors).

Ball

I also tried to make something three-dimensional and it turned out to be a ball like this. But I didn’t really like it and I stopped there.

More segments

You can go further by extending sections of ribbon, but, IMHO, this is already too much, then just glue it onto some kind of base and make snowflake appliqués.

In progress

This is what it looks like when lit:

Connection

Option 1: simply 12V

The easiest way is to simply turn everything on to 12 volts and the multi-colored toys will shine steadily. We simply solder the connector that hangs on each reel with 5-meter tapes and plug in a regular 12-volt power supply, which is sold in the same place where the tapes are sold.

We solder the toys sequentially one after another.

Option 2: RGB controller

More interesting option, this is connect to RGB controller, which are on at the moment more than affordable, with a large selection of both functions and capacities.
If you connect toys of the same color in rows to the corresponding controller pin (a row of red ones to pin R, green to G, blue to B), we’ll get a MoodLamp-style Christmas tree - with a customizable color as desired.
Please note that on such controllers control is carried out via “ground” (as a rule), i.e. Common to all channels is the “plus” wire.

Option 3: Microcontroller

This is the most fun option, although it is also the most difficult and time-consuming. Those. It’s optimal to take some Arduino and a shield with a TLC5940, connect LED toys for 16 channels, connect a sound sensor and get a disco tree.
This is exactly what I did last year:

Here's a short New Year's video report:

Threat. Who needs the sketch from this video?

Thank you

I hope mine small idea will come in handy and with its help someone will be able to make the New Year even more fun and colorful. Thank you to everyone who took the time to review my article. I look forward to your feedback and comments.

Hi all, New Year It’s already arrived, everyone has already celebrated the holidays, but the Christmas tree remains!) In this review, I would like to talk about the “Christmas Tree” construction set, which you need to assemble yourself. More details under the cut.

I somehow decided to take for review a set that has long been known to everyone - the “Herringbone” construction set, in order to decorate my desktop. It was at the beginning of December, when choosing it, I thought that the parcel would still break through the New Year's blockage at the post office, but Ali's coupon fever did its dirty work. Absolutely all parcels, regardless of whether they have a tracking number or without a tracking number, all fell into the general flow of rubble, so I picked up my package only after the New Year holidays. It’s still necessary to assemble the constructor, don’t wait until next year =).
The parcel was traveling by regular China post Registered Air mail, i.e. by ordinary mail of China with full tracking both on its territory and throughout Russia. The packaging was not bad, the seller wrapped all the contents in several layers of foam, thanks to which everything arrived intact.


The parcel was assembled, I will not show anything that does not relate to the review. The package with the kit is an ordinary zip bag, with some kind of internal store markings that won’t tell us anything useful.


Peculiarities:
Model: CTR-30C (Colorful light)
Operating voltage: DC4.5-5V
Power: 3xAA batteries (finger-type) or USB charging (not included)
Dimensions: 60 x 136 x 60mm (Length x Height x Width)

Equipment:
1 x Christmas Tree LED Flash Kit

Content:
After unpacking the contents, I did not find any instructions. Looking ahead, I will say that it turns out that the instructions were available for download on the product page, but I noticed it there only after I had already assembled everything)). I didn’t even have a simple assembly diagram on hand, so I decided to assemble it starting from the easiest and gradually moving on to the more complex.
The kit included the following:
- Three printed circuit boards
- Holder for batteries (or accumulators) type AA
- 13 resistors
- Power button, input for 5V
- 6 capacitors
- 6 transistors
- 37 diodes
- USB cable
- Cogs, bolts


Preparing for assembly
Before we start assembling, I would like to say a few words about quality printed circuit boards, it's just on top level. I did not expect such care from the Chinese in making them; there are no printing jambs, no jambs of the forms themselves. All tracks on the boards are where they should be.


To assemble the Christmas tree, we will need to prepare a workplace, remove it and lay it out necessary tools. Of course, a soldering iron will come in handy (in my case soldering station), without it we will not collect anything; side cutters, a screwdriver, and if you have one, a multimeter. Good light is also necessary, there are a lot of parts and they are all small, so as not to accidentally solder adjacent tracks, you need to clearly see what and where we are soldering)).


Assembly
Let's start manual labor, start soldering from the very simple elements. I will tell you how to build this construction set on behalf of an ordinary person, without much knowledge and skills in radio electronics. The additional package contains diodes with transistors and capacitors, let's get them.


Let's start soldering the capacitors first, because this is the easiest to do. There are only six of them, all with the same characteristics - 16V, 47uF (microfarads).


We bend the contacts of the capacitors at an angle of 90 degrees.


Soldering must be done observing polarity; the shaded side is always a minus. You can also look at the “legs”; a long leg is always a plus. On the board itself there are also hints in the form of graphic designations of soldering points - C1, C2, C3; the plus side is indicated and the minus side is shaded. True, the values ​​​​for capacitors are marked as 22uF, although in the kit we have 47uF, I think this does not play a big role. We solder the contacts to the board and cut off the excess with side cutters. For convenience, you can bend them to different sides so that the element does not fall out until we solder it.

Additional photo

My solder turned out to be of very poor quality, refractory, I had to raise the temperature to 350 degrees, and it was also thick - 1 mm. For work like we need to do, it is better to use the thinnest one with a lower melting point.

Having finished with capacitors, let's move on to transistors, if anyone doesn't know, these are the ones with three legs)). There are also 6 of them and the same markings - S9014 C331.


You need to solder following the markings on the board itself, firstly, all the places for transistors are labeled accordingly (9014), and secondly, there is a hint for their correct installation.


The legs of the transistor can be bent in different directions to facilitate the soldering process, after which we bite off the excess.


Next, we bend the transistor towards the board so that nothing sticks out and it looks more presentable.

Additional photo

All transistors are in place.

And now the next step, as it seems to me, is the most difficult thing - installing resistors. They are not marked in any way; it is impossible to immediately understand which one is which denomination. Let’s imagine a situation where we don’t have a multimeter in our household, even the simplest one, what can we do then? The answer is simple, each resistor has color coding(ring), by which its denomination can be determined.
After carefully looking through the entire set, I identified three types of them:
- brown, black, red, gold 1KOhm
- red, red, red, gold 2.2KOhm
- brown, black, orange, gold 10KOhm


I checked the resulting values ​​using a multimeter and everything agreed, you can go soldering. First of all, I install resistors with a nominal value of 10KOhm, because only for them there are markings on the boards (R1, R3, R5 on both one and the second board). It makes no difference which side you solder them on; resistors have no polarity.

Measurement with a multimeter

10KΩ resistors are installed in their places.


But here's a dilemma, for the remaining resistors they are not signed seats, where to solder which?.. I decided to install resistors with a nominal value of 1KOhm in place of R2, R4, R6, and 2.2KOhm on R7.


Let's move on to the LEDs, they are all externally the same color, which makes our task easier and we don’t need to filter by color groups.


The places for them are marked D1-D18. When installing, you need to be careful, the LEDs have polarity, the long leg is a plus. Now we look at the board, there are two clues there, the first is the shape of the solder joint, the positive contact is always square, the second clue is the key next to the negative one (see photo below).

The process of installing the LEDs turned out to be very tedious; it took more than half an hour for the whole job. And you need to be especially careful. To avoid any confusion with polarity, I don’t think anyone will want to resolder and correct their mistakes later.

All LEDs are in place

Putting aside the finished Christmas tree layouts, we will prepare the base for its installation. It is a small square made of PCB with slots for two other boards with a herringbone shape.
In addition, you need to solder a power button and a 5V input to the base for power from USB charging.

After I installed the button and the input, I decided to check whether my assembly would work, and then something incomprehensible happened: everything worked with batteries, but there was no charging from USB.


It turned out that I soldered them to the wrong side of the board, everything had to be installed on the one that had the inscriptions, this can be seen in the photo below.


We will install the board with our LEDs; there are special slots for it in the base, as well as a soldering area. Don't forget about polarity; all boards have hints in the form of graphic symbols + and -.


The second half of the layout is in place and our construction kit is almost assembled!


Additionally, to increase the rigidity of the structure, we solder the halves together; there are special areas for this (marked with arrows).


We place the holder for batteries (accumulators) under the base of the tree and fasten it with two screws.




We bring the wires from the holder out from the top of the board and solder them in following the prompt (+ - red wire, - black).


The Christmas tree constructor is assembled and ready for the first official use! =)


First start
As you can see, the result met all expectations, all the LEDs light up and change color, by the way, each one can shine in red, green and blue alternately. The whole process took about 3-3.5 hours, of course it could have been assembled faster, but each stage had to be recorded in a photo, and this was additional time spent.
The set is well suited for those who are just learning to solder, who want to learn to be diligent and patient!


Consumes absolutely nothing, measurements showed a result from 0.019 to 0.02 amperes.

That's all, Happy Chinese New Year everyone =))

The product was provided for writing a review by the store. The review was published in accordance with clause 18 of the Site Rules.

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On the eve of the New Year holidays, the soul demands that everything around be beautiful, magical and reminiscent of the upcoming celebration. People actively decorate not only indoors, but also outdoor spaces. In this article we will tell you how with my own hands make a bright glowing Christmas tree. It will complement well the area near a house or a small store.

You will need:

• plastic hooks;
• the LED garland itself (for a 2.5 meter Christmas tree, approximately 30-50 meters of garland are required);
• pegs;
• vertical support ( metal pipe, wooden block, etc.).

A little secret: a garland with closely spaced bulbs will help create a brighter and “fluffier” Christmas tree. It is also important that the threads are located as closely as possible to each other. Standard length garlands do not exceed 10-20 meters. To lengthen it, you can choose models with a special connecting connector at the end or fasten the products with improvised means (for example, tie them with threads). Once the garland is ready, start creating the decoration. What to do:

• prepare free space on the site (for safety reasons, it is better to choose an area away from buildings and trees);
• install and securely fasten a vertical support, you can dig it into the ground;
• Place pegs at equal distances around the stand;
• take the garland and arrange it in this way: starting from the first peg, lift it to the top, fix it on a plastic hook, lower it down to the second peg, wrap it around, bring it along the ground to the third, lift it again to the top, etc.

As you can see, making an LED Christmas tree is very simple. It will take a minimum of time and will not require special preparation. The recommendations given can be used to create decorations not only outdoors, but also for the home. The principle is the same, you just need to adjust the height and cut out a round base with symmetrically located attachment points. Don't forget to disguise the vertical stand and bottom: you can cover them with green wrapping paper or wrap them with threads, ribbons, and tinsel.

Borisova Tatyana

I am an ardent fan of everything natural and environmentally friendly, so the question of what kind of Christmas tree to buy on new year holidays– live or artificial – it’s not even worth it. I bought a Danish spruce 200/225 cm. The smell in the house is simply divine - fresh pine, and the festive atmosphere and the corresponding mood appeared on their own. I'm very pleased with the purchase.

Krasko Svetlana

I work as a secretary at a private children's development center. We purchased a live spruce 300/350 for installation in the hall. The tree is simply gorgeous - fluffy and thick, and also has a very beautiful and rich emerald shade. And after decorating with toys and garlands it looks like best traditions American cinema. Both children and parents are delighted.

Zhukova Larisa

Every year I promise that this year we will not put up a Christmas tree and will limit ourselves to a small artificial one, but from the eyes of my husband and children I understand that I am not going anywhere. I have been ordering green beauties from Denmark from this store for several years now. Although their price is slightly higher than domestic ones, they also look more presentable and last much longer. Last year our tree stood until Epiphany and looked the same as the day it was purchased.