It's Almost Christmas and I Don't Have a Christmas Tree Yet...

But an ordinary one is kind of boring for an electronic enthusiast, so I sat down and created my own miniature LED Christmas tree. It turned out to be a nice decoration, and I'm going to show you the easy steps to build your own.

What Did I Used for This Tree?

Well, not much exactly - most importantly it needs time and patience on the material side. We have a small PCB for mounting the root of the tree and giving the whole construction stability. Then of course, we have the LEDs that I use, defused green ones with a forward voltage of 3.2 volts.

The Most Important Material for Creating a Structure is Bridge Wire

Basically just Cooper wire which is silvered. And lots and lots of solder. Step 1: creating a lot of straight strings of the wire. I use to apply us to grip the wire and stretch it, so you should get really nice straight wire this way.

And we're gonna need a lot of it. Step 2: I did not have a PCB with the right size, so I used this old one where only one half is used just going to use my cutter to engrave a line and then use an edge to break the PCB apart.

Step 3: I soldered for Cooper wires which are 40 centimeters long to the PCB. Which will represent the root of the tree. Two of them will be the 5 volt array of the tree, and the other one will be to the ground rail. And I also added those plastic feeds to give the PCB more grip on the surface.

Step 4: Bending the wires to circles. I basically had four different sized wires for the circles - 40 centimeter, 30 centimeter, 20 centimeter, and obviously 10 centimeter. And I am slowly bending those wires by hand and soldered the ends together, which really requires patience because it has to look somehow like a circle in the end.

And even with all my goddamn patience, sometimes it looks well not nice. Those will be the positive circles which will have the 5 volt potential later. You thought you were done with bending round? Wrong.

Step 5: Bending the ground circles. The LEDs will later sit in between those two. So the ground circle has to be slightly smaller. I subtracted 2 centimeters from each circle and Bend rings again okay.

Step 6: Time to solder the LEDs to the Rings

The positive side goes to the bigger circle, and the negative side to the smaller one. I used 8 LEDs for the two biggest circle pairs and then 4 LEDs for the two smallest ones. And always test your circles during the bullet - you don't want to replace an LED when the tree is complete but only use 3 point 2 volts when you don't want to use a resistor in serious.

Step 7: Now it's Assembly Time

I used 9-volt batteries as spacers and juice bridge wire again to connect the circles to the root. Positive circle connects to the 5 volt strings, and negative circle connects to the ground strings. Remember this wire is conductive in every point - that means I have to look out that 5 volts and ground potential never touch at any point that would equal a short-circuit, and the LEDs will not light up.

And at the end, I put a single LED on top between the 5 volts and ground root. Because we can't use 5 volts for 3.2 volt LEDs - a resistor is necessary. The tree draws 204 milliamps at 3 point 2 volts, which means we have to divide 1.8 volts by 0.2 4 amps which equals around 8.8 ohms.

And the power of 0.3 7 watts I bought this one Watts 10 ohm resistor and just soldered it in seriously to the 5 volt rail now. It works for 5 volts and even USB power.

I Wish You a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and I will see you next time!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit is almost Christmas and I don't have a Christmas tree yet but an ordinary one is kind of boring for an electronic enthusiast so I sat down and created my own miniature LED Christmas tree which turned out to be a nice decoration I'm going to show you the easy steps to build your own what did I used for this tree well not much exactly most importantly it needs time and patience on the material side we have a small PCB for mounting the root of the tree and giving the whole construction stability then of course the LEDs I use defused green ones with a forward voltage of 3.2 volts and the most important material for creating a structure is bridge wire basically just Cooper wire which is silvered and of course lots and lots of solder step 1 creating a lot of straight strings of the wire I use to apply us to grip the wire and stretch the to force you should get really nice straight wire this way and we're gonna need a lot of it step 2 I did not have a PCB with the right size so I used this old one where only one half is used just going to use my cutter to engrave a line and then use an edge to break the PCB apart step 3 i soldered for Cooper wires which are 40 centimeters long to the PCB which will represent the root of the tree two of them will be the 5 volt array of the tree and the other to the ground rail I also added those plastic feeds to give the PCB more grip on the surface step 4 bending the wires to circles I basically had four different sized wires for the circles 40 centimeter 30 centimeter 20 centimeter and obviously 10 centimeter I am slowly bending those wires by hand and soldered the ends together which really requires patience because it has to look somehow like a circle in the end and even with all my goddamn patience it sometimes looks well not nice those will be the positive circles which will have the 5 volt potential later you thought you were done with bending round you wrong step 5 bending the ground circles the LEDs will later sit in between those two so the ground circle has to be slightly smaller I subtracted 2 centimeters from each circle and Bend rings again okay step 6 time to solder the leds to the Rings positive side goes to the bigger circle and the negative side to the smaller one I used 8 LEDs for the 2 biggest circle pairs and then 4 LEDs for the two smaller ones and always test your circles during the bullet you don't want to replace an LED when the tree is complete but only use 3 point 2 volts when you don't want to use a resistor in serious step 7 now it's assembly time I use 9-volt batteries as spacers and juice bridge wire again to connect the circles to the root positive circle connects to the 5 volt strings and the negative circle connects to the ground strings and remember this wire is conductive in every point that means I have to look out that 5 volts and ground potential never touch at any point that would equal a short-circuit and the LEDs will not light up and at the end I put a single LED on top between the 5 volts and ground root step eight how to power it we can't use 5 volts for 3.2 volt LEDs a resistor is necessary the tree draws 204 milliamps at 3 point 2 volts which means we have to divide 1.8 volts by 0.2 0 4 amps which equals around 8.8 oooohs and the power of 0.3 7 watts I bought this one Watts 10 ohm resistor and just soldered it in serious to the 5 volt rail now it works for 5 volts and even USB power I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and I will see you next timeit is almost Christmas and I don't have a Christmas tree yet but an ordinary one is kind of boring for an electronic enthusiast so I sat down and created my own miniature LED Christmas tree which turned out to be a nice decoration I'm going to show you the easy steps to build your own what did I used for this tree well not much exactly most importantly it needs time and patience on the material side we have a small PCB for mounting the root of the tree and giving the whole construction stability then of course the LEDs I use defused green ones with a forward voltage of 3.2 volts and the most important material for creating a structure is bridge wire basically just Cooper wire which is silvered and of course lots and lots of solder step 1 creating a lot of straight strings of the wire I use to apply us to grip the wire and stretch the to force you should get really nice straight wire this way and we're gonna need a lot of it step 2 I did not have a PCB with the right size so I used this old one where only one half is used just going to use my cutter to engrave a line and then use an edge to break the PCB apart step 3 i soldered for Cooper wires which are 40 centimeters long to the PCB which will represent the root of the tree two of them will be the 5 volt array of the tree and the other to the ground rail I also added those plastic feeds to give the PCB more grip on the surface step 4 bending the wires to circles I basically had four different sized wires for the circles 40 centimeter 30 centimeter 20 centimeter and obviously 10 centimeter I am slowly bending those wires by hand and soldered the ends together which really requires patience because it has to look somehow like a circle in the end and even with all my goddamn patience it sometimes looks well not nice those will be the positive circles which will have the 5 volt potential later you thought you were done with bending round you wrong step 5 bending the ground circles the LEDs will later sit in between those two so the ground circle has to be slightly smaller I subtracted 2 centimeters from each circle and Bend rings again okay step 6 time to solder the leds to the Rings positive side goes to the bigger circle and the negative side to the smaller one I used 8 LEDs for the 2 biggest circle pairs and then 4 LEDs for the two smaller ones and always test your circles during the bullet you don't want to replace an LED when the tree is complete but only use 3 point 2 volts when you don't want to use a resistor in serious step 7 now it's assembly time I use 9-volt batteries as spacers and juice bridge wire again to connect the circles to the root positive circle connects to the 5 volt strings and the negative circle connects to the ground strings and remember this wire is conductive in every point that means I have to look out that 5 volts and ground potential never touch at any point that would equal a short-circuit and the LEDs will not light up and at the end I put a single LED on top between the 5 volts and ground root step eight how to power it we can't use 5 volts for 3.2 volt LEDs a resistor is necessary the tree draws 204 milliamps at 3 point 2 volts which means we have to divide 1.8 volts by 0.2 0 4 amps which equals around 8.8 oooohs and the power of 0.3 7 watts I bought this one Watts 10 ohm resistor and just soldered it in serious to the 5 volt rail now it works for 5 volts and even USB power I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and I will see you next time