Save Christmas!
The Problem:
My neighbor decorated her front door with christmas lights; someone channelled the Grinch and stole them.
The Solution:
I decided to do this personal project to save christmas by building a LED christmas ornament. In order to prevent this ornament from also being vandalized or stolen, I designed it to be used as a desktop ornament. I wanted it to be USB-powered, however, given the time constraint the final product was powered by a AA battery pack.
The Process:
I used a laser-cutter, acrylic sheets, LEDs, and solder to make a quick substitute holiday ornament. In order to do this, I appropriated a DIY plywood project I found online to suit the scale needed for a moveable desktop ornament. I designed and fabricated this project within half a day (just in time for christmas eve). The final product was assembled with hot glue, (4) LEDs soldered n parallel, a current-limiting resistor, acrylic cut-outs, and a AA battery pack.
The biggest challenge faced with this project was the time constraint. If given more time, I would have liked to redesign the acrylic pieces to not require any glue during assembly; I also would like to include more LEDs and add an option to create different lighting patterns or interactivity.