Wishing You a Very Random Christmas
- Dan Koellen AI6XG
- Nov 23, 2020
- 1 min read
Being the holiday season I decided to post this article from the December 2014 issue of Nuts & Volts magazine www.nutsvolts.com that I wrote about an outdoor Christmas Tree display I built and erect every holiday season. I had built an outdoor tree of light strings in a tree formation but was not pleased with the static display. So I built a microcontroller control box that will change the display in a random manner. At each power up, the seed for the random number generator is changed so that patterns are different for each operation.
I have posted here the article for your viewing pleasure and the C source code in GitHub. From the article and source code you can build your own version. The C program was used with an old compiler so if you compile with the current Microchip 8 bit compiler there will be errors thrown but they should be easily resolved. I also have posted here the original photos used for the article with an additional video of the 'Christmas Tree' in operation.
The right figure is a drawing of the 'tree' as viewed from the top, eight sets of LED lights result in 16 legs.
The left figure is a drawing of the side view of the 'tree'. The legs are the LED light strings meeting at
the top of an 8' metal pole.
Looking down at this watch, you see so many shapes. There's a round bezel over an octagonal frame. Then the case itself is octagonal, but sort of built into a square platform. So link it sits on the wrist as link a square, but it is not a square watch. It's an octagonal watch on link a square platform built in thin, delicate layers.
This marvel is made possible by the caliber MHUB1100.H3. This self-winding movement link delivers a power reserve of link some 42 hours. Each piece is complemented by a black rubber and calfskin strap featuring printed colored link stripes.