Volumetric LED garland on the Christmas tree. DIY Christmas tree on MK How to make a Christmas tree from LED strip

Under New Year I want to decorate my house in an original way: not like the neighbors, and of course, not like the last time. With the help of the LED garlands offered for sale, you can create interesting compositions, but the price of the issue crosses out the bold design solutions... And typical Chinese LED decorations look the same, and as a rule they are faceless.

A smart solution is to create a garland with your own hands

First, it will be a 100% original product.
Secondly, the configuration of the decoration will be exactly what you need.
Thirdly, this is real money saving.
And finally, you can safely say to family members, and especially children: "Dad can!"

The biggest challenge is lighting the Christmas tree. Actually, there are only two options: wind a standard garland in a spiral, or try to arrange it vertically, in the form of a pyramid. We choose the second option, especially since the lines can be made of the required size: according to the height of the Christmas tree.
The concept is as follows: wires are stretched from the top to the lower branches, the LEDs are located at the same interval, as if creating tiers.

The light must be dynamic: you need a control controller. Simple LEDs glow nicely, but spotlights don't add volume. This means that we need plafonds for each LED element.
The calculation of the garland starts from the power supply. The option is purely individual: I used an unnecessary PSU from a laptop. The estimated number of LEDs is no more than 100 pieces, when using standard 5 mm LEDs, the total consumption current (20 mA * 100) is 2 A at maximum brightness. For serial connection of 6 diodes (voltage drop for each of the order of 3 volts), the voltage of the power supply is 18-20 volts.
General calculation of the garland power:
We collect 5 lines. Each "string" consists of 18 LEDs, 6 pcs. per channel (RGB option). 18 * 5 = 90 pcs, total current 1.8 A. Thus, a laptop power supply with parameters: 19 volts, 4 amperes is suitable. At the same time, a double power reserve is provided.

Selection of the necessary materials:

1. LEDs. I ordered for red, green and blue LED elements of the "straw hat" type, the scattering angle is 120 degrees.
2.. Let's dwell on this element in more detail. If you don't want to waste time making your own circuit (there are many options, the cheapest of them is on Arduino), you can take a ready-made controller for RGB tape. All circuits work according to the same principle: 3 controlled channels, the sequence of switching on, and the brightness of the light are set. Actually, the three chromaticity is conditional here, you can connect 3 channels of the same LEDs, and enjoy the lighting effects.
To power the 19-volt channels, I chose a controller with a universal voltage of 12-24 volts. The control circuit is powered from any voltage in this range, we get voltage at the output.
A prerequisite (for my scheme) is the presence remote control control modes.
3. Instead of a wiring harness, I chose (3 channels + 1 common).
4. different colors.

For ease of installation, I used 4 pin dupon connectors (pitch 2.54 mm). The corresponding set was purchased long ago from the same Chinese, an excellent help for various electronic crafts.

Since I planned to hide the LEDs in the shades, I bought it on Aliexpress. Landing diameter 5 mm.

Calculation of the connection diagram

LEDs, even with a serial connection (in my case, 6 diodes), are connected through a current damping resistor. Parameters of LED elements on the package:

The calculation of the resistor is performed using the formula, or on the LED calculator. I took advantage of online service:

For the RED channel (voltage drop 1.8-2.0 V), the resistance is 420 ohms.
For GREEN and BLUE channels (voltage drop 3.0-3.2 V), the resistance is 82 ohms (green) and 75 ohms (blue). The green LED element shines brighter, therefore the resistor with a higher value, to equalize the overall picture.

Block diagram (together with a schematic diagram) in the illustration:

I bought a controller for common anode RGB LEDs. That is, a minus is supplied to each channel, and a plus is supplied to the common wire.

We collect the garland

You can use twisted wires, like in factory garlands. I liked the design on the train better.

We make a reinforced leg for each LED element. This will require toothpicks and heat shrinkage.

We collect, warm with a hairdryer.

It turns out like this:

It makes sense to immediately prepare and test all 90 LEDs.

Then we mark the loop, determining the installation locations of the diodes at an equal distance. I made neat cuts along the cable on the wires of the desired color, cut and tinned the installation sites.

After assembly, each LED looks like this:

It turned out neatly and reliably.
It is convenient to solder on a device with a magnifying glass, which is called the "third hand".

Next, we connect the supply wire (common "+") with the channels through resistors.

We insulate the parts with heat shrinkage.

And we connect with "plus".

We cover this loop with a large diameter heat shrinkage.
We mount connectors on the opposite end.

Then we put snowflake shades on the LEDs.

The lesson is not easy (after all, 90 pieces!), But exciting.

Check again. The effect is amazing.

Note: Working LEDs do not work well in photographs, so the image is much worse than the original.
All that remains is to mount the garland on the Christmas tree - and call the kids to admire their father's work.

Outcome:
The total financial costs for the garland are not more than 1000 rubles. The main consumable part is a ready-made controller. The power supply is shareware. Diodes and wires are mere pennies. Additional costs: 300 rubles for snowflake lamps. This option is optional, but it significantly increases the attractiveness of the garland.
The time spent (4 full days off) is not a pity at all: it was interesting to work, and the result was worth it.

The traditional large Christmas tree was replaced by its miniature versions, made from the most different materials... The Christmas tree made of LEDs looks the most festive. There are several ways to use an LED Christmas tree. At the same time, the Christmas trees look different from each other and original.

LED herringbone on the wall

The simplest and easiest way to make an LED Christmas tree does not require special efforts... To make such a tree, you will need an LED garland, pushpins and photographs or small plastic toys. The tree will decorate the wall.

The buttons must be fixed at the top of the spruce, at the ends of its legs and at their base. Mark the middle of the LED string and attach it to the top button. Then pass both ends of the garland through the buttons, depicting a Christmas tree. You can decorate such a tree with light balls, toys or photographs. Turn on the LED string and admire the new tree.

LED Christmas tree from a bottle

The original Christmas tree with LEDs can be obtained on the basis of an empty champagne bottle. In addition to the bottle, you will need a drill, drill, plasticine, glue, LED string, and paper.

The bottle must be cleaned of the label and rinsed. Fix the prepared bottle on work surface with the help of plasticine. At the bottom of the bottle, paste over the place of drilling with plasticine. Start drilling the hole. After a small notch forms, put a few drops of water into the hole. This is to prevent the drill from getting too hot. Drill the hole all the way. Remove all the clay, rinse the bottle and wipe it dry.

Pass the string through the drilled hole and fill the bottle with it. To make the product more like a herringbone, roll the white parchment paper into a cone, secure the edges with glue. Include a garland. This completes your Christmas tree.

LED Christmas tree made of floral mesh

This Christmas tree is appearance will resemble a Christmas tree from under, but will look more aesthetically pleasing. To make a Christmas tree, you will need a floral mesh, thick cardboard, cling film, scissors, PVA glue, a brush, sewing needles, an LED garland and decorations for the Christmas tree.

Twist a cone of the desired height from cardboard. Cut the floristic mesh into strips. Dissolve PVA glue with a small amount of water in a container. Wrap the cardboard cone with cling film, cut off the excess. Soak pieces of floral mesh in a solution of glue, and apply them to the cone, fastening with sewing needles. After the first layer of mesh is dry, lay out the second in the same way. Leave the cone to dry completely.

After that, remove the cone from the mesh from the cardboard structure, carefully remove the film as well. Place an LED string inside the cone and decorate the whole Christmas tree with toys.

DIY LED Christmas tree, no programming required!

This project shows how to do Christmas decoration in the form of a Christmas tree without much effort and knowledge. The Christmas tree has a size of 120 x 80 cm and is made of ordinary LEDs, but for their work, a microcontroller and its programming are absolutely not required. This means that everyone can do it.

It doesn't take too long to complete the project, even though it contains almost 1,500 individual LEDs. It is assembled quite quickly and easily, but this is taking into account that you will follow the instructions below, which will give warnings against various errors. Before starting the assembly, it is recommended to watch the video presented above.

Step 1: materials and tools

For the manufacture of this project, you really do not need as many materials and tools as it might initially seem. This makes the project cheap and easy to build. So, you will need:

Materials:

5mm LEDs. Almost 1100 green, 300 yellow and 100 blue LEDs were used in this project. Moreover, the yellow and blue LEDs should be blinking.
MDF or fiberboard sheet
Soldering materials
Electrical wires, about 30 meters, preferably of thin, solid copper strand. In this case, a stripped telephone cable was used.
An old laptop charger as a power source, in this case, an 18.5 Volt 4 Ampere power supply was used.

The biggest secret in this project is to keep the LEDs of the individual colors blinking. In this project, these are the yellow and blue LEDs. When designing, it was assumed that they would flash at different intervals, causing a random pattern over time, and this theory turned out to be correct. At the moment of power supply, they start blinking at the same interval, but after 10 - 15 seconds, they start blinking randomly. If we take into account this feature of not the same response, then it turns out that to create beautiful effect No microcontroller required, no programming, no resistors, no capacitors, nothing but LEDs!

Of the tools, you will also need very little:

Drill with a diameter of 1 mm and 5 mm, drill
Soldering iron
Wooden layout - matrix
Insulating tape
A tool for stripping wires (as it turned out, the most important, since it greatly simplifies the work).
Ruler, pencil and other little things.

Step 2: Prepare the design

Getting ready to go takes about half of the time it takes to make this project, and trust me, it's worth it.

First, you need to draw the image on checkered paper (you can use graph paper) using only the colors of the LEDs that you can find. Be careful with the red color as in this case, 100 red flashing LEDs were ordered, and it turned out that when they are combined into a series, they turn off the entire series at the same time and no longer light up (this looks ugly and is not recommended for you). By combining red LEDs in a series of 9 pcs. they practically did not catch fire. Blue and yellow LEDs are not affected by this problem, so we had to exclude red LEDs from the whole project.

In this project, initially the image was created in Photoshop, but it turned out to be enough difficult moment... After searching for similar programs on the Internet, many software products were found that decompose images into square pixels. There are a lot of them, and what is more convenient is for you to choose. The essence of this step is to divide the image by color into squares of a certain size. Then print it on paper.

The next step is to properly orient the LEDs to reduce physical connections. It would be possible to simply orient all the cathodes in one direction, and the anodes in the other, while creating a kind of a square mask, connecting the power to only two poles, but in practice this turned out to be very inconvenient. Therefore, the connection diagram in this project looks like the connection of rectangular areas, since this does not require the presence of a large number additional resistors to reduce the voltage applied to the LEDs, and at the same time, and reduce the current consumption.

From technical description LEDs, it was found that each LED has a voltage drop of about 2.5 volts. In order to completely eliminate the use of resistors, it was decided to combine LEDs in a series at the rate of 18.5 Volts / 7pcs. = 2.6 Volts (Voltage drop across LED). Thus, one series of LEDs should contain 7 LEDs and at the same time they will glow at maximum brightness.

In our case, we used a pattern with squares, in the center of which there was a point a certain color... Then, on paper, each color was combined into a series of seven LEDs. It was a very tedious exercise, but fun in its own way, almost like solving a puzzle. As it turned out in the end, a series of 7 LEDs is not enough to withstand a voltage of 18.5 Volts, so in the end the series had to be increased to 9 LEDs. We strongly recommend that you find out and accurately calculate the allowable voltages per series. This will save you from reworking the entire circuit.

Step 3: Coordinate soldering (LED series)

To make life easier, a small matrix was made. Using the same dimensions as for final assembly, a small wooden board was made with a 5 mm pitch between the dots. When applying this matrix to an MDF or fiberboard sheet, it must exactly match the places where the holes are drilled. After marking the holes, it is recommended to mark the row and column numbers, this will further simplify your further assembly. Also, on this matrix, in the next step, separate series of LEDs will be assembled, which will then be inserted into the main template.

Step 4: Create Custom LED Series

Now, if you have a convenient template for making a series of LEDs, you can proceed to the next step. You need to start from the very beginning, i.e. from the first episode. Arrange the LEDs of the first series in the required order. Some of the LED pins must be shortened, otherwise they may short-circuit. Then unbend the legs of the LEDs so that you get a serial connection (i.e., plus the previous one, minus the next, etc.). To mark the series, small pieces of adhesive tape were glued with the series number on the anode of the last LED, and the minus was not indicated in any way. After assembling the series, it is checked for operability, if everything is fine, then you can proceed to the next series. In this project, 150 series of LEDs turned out, the work is very tedious and requires attention. Remember to check the connections after soldering.

Step 5: Prepare the fiberboard

The size of the MDF sheet that was purchased for this project was perfectly sized so there was no need to cut it. If you have such a need, then cut the sheet to the required size.

Draw a square grid all over the sheet, but make sure it matches the grid you used to create the LED sections, i.e. corresponds to the preliminary matrix. Be careful if you break the square matrix a little, i.e. draw the lines not perpendicularly, it can ruin your whole project!

Then, using the square template drawn on the paper, identify the circular areas where you want to drill holes. These are not precise areas, they are only needed to understand the outline of the figure. Then mark the precise points for drilling the holes.

After that, to make the holes easier to drill, drill all the holes with a 1 mm drill, and then go through all the holes with a 5 mm drill. This step is quite long, it took about 7 hours to drill 1500 holes!

Another hour was spent sanding various irregularities and removing burrs.

Step 6: Installing the LEDs in the MDF board

This step is quite simple, but again if you have exactly the same dimensions of the pre-die and the holes drilled in the MDF sheet. If everything is accurate, then just insert the LED sections from the back of the MDF sheet into drilled holes, according to the paper map. Ideally, you won't need any LED fixing.

Be careful when inserting the LEDs into the holes if the distance is slightly out of alignment, then there is a possibility of damage to the LED lens or the soldering of the contacts. Also, do not rush to remove the tape with the section numbers, it will come in handy in the future!

Step 7: create positive and negative power rails

To create power buses, you need to take a regular wire that is used for a voltage of 230 Volts (for example, wires of a PVA wire), strip it of insulation, and twist it well to avoid stratification of small wires. Each side will require approximately 150 cm of wire. Then fix each of the cores on the reverse side of the MDF sheet, for example, with plastic staples, on both sides of the sheet vertically. At the intersection of the lines of the squares, the wire must be tinned for further soldering (in this case, it turned out about 60 points on each side).

Step 8: Connecting the LEDs

At this step, when all the LEDs are in place, clearly determine where the series has a plus and where a minus. The order in which the sections are connected does not matter.

Start at the bottom row. Solder all sections one by one to the positive and negative power rail. In order to save time, wires and the number of rations, consider the possibility parallel connection sections - this will significantly save your time and effort. Remember that the wires for connecting to the power bus must be insulated, otherwise a short circuit will occur!

It is recommended to connect line by line, this will greatly help you in case you make a mistake. Also, if you wish, you can add to the scheme conventional switch on the power supply between the charger and the LED tree, in our case the project works simply by connecting the power supply to the outlet.

This completes the production of the project, but remember that this idea is suitable not only for the image of a Christmas tree, you can implement your own, absolutely different ideas.

Possibly one of the few DIY soldering kits that produces useful product(we do not take into account the kits for assembling full-fledged devices), which, after assembly, will not go to lie in a dark corner, but will be used for its intended purpose, especially if a child is connected to the assembly.
In the review, there is a description of DIY 3D Christmas trees and assembly instructions.

After assembling the constructor, you should get a 3D tree, blinking with LEDs of 3 colors, which can work either from 3 AA batteries or powered by USB.

The set is packed in a bag with a bubble wrap, additionally wrapped in foam wrap. I ordered from this seller () several times, everything came without damage in the same packaging, the equipment is in order. At the time of ordering, he had best price on AliExpress for this Christmas tree, and there were about 200 sales, now there are more than 1700.

The set for soldering a 3D Christmas tree includes:

3 boards (base CTR-30C and 2 pieces of "tree trunk" CTR-30A and CTR-30B)
LEDs (12 green, 12 yellow, 13 red)
6 capacitors at 47uF 16V
6 transistors S9014
7 resistors 10 KOm
2 resistors 330 Ohm
2 resistors 1 KOm
2 resistors 2 KOm
1 button
1 power connector (length 1 m)
1 x USB power cord
2 bolts and 2 nuts
Box for 3 * AA batteries

Here's what was included.

Basic details close-up... EQKIT logo on the boards.

Back side boards:

Larger:

All components were in stock, even an extra LED was left. Before soldering, I checked all the elements with a transistor tester, everything turned out to be in good order. Unfortunately, there are no assembly instructions included.

The seller attached assembly instructions in the form of photographs, but did not sign the resistor values, and the attached photos show very poorly the resistor values. But the seller is responsive, he quickly sent the scheme, though in Chinese, but the main thing is from a completely different tree. After pointing out this fact, he said that he only had such a scheme, but still promised to answer any questions if something could not be collected. At this, it was decided to end torturing the seller and try to collect from the pictures he had, with the assumption that they were still from this set. In the end, everything worked out, below all resistor ratings and other assembly information will be indicated.

The contact pads on the boards are perfectly plated. When soldering, I didn't even have to use a flux, what was contained in the solder was enough. He soldered half of the tree in primitive Chinese, though with the ones bought separately for him. Actually, I started this for the test of new tips; relatives of the sting did not even want to take solder. The other half was already soldered with a soldering iron at a station with T12 tips. Now I could not determine where and what was soldered, i.e. you can assemble this constructor using any tool, as long as your hands are in the right place :)

I checked the resistors with a multimeter for compliance with the marking and signed them for convenience. Perhaps it will be useful to someone.

First, I soldered all the resistors to boards A and B. Everything is clear with the 10K resistors, they are signed on the board. The rest of the denominations must be placed in the following places:
CTR-30A board
R1, R3, R5, R7 - 10K
R2 - 2K
R4 - 1K
R6 - 330

CTR-30B board
R1, R3, R5 - 10K
R2 - in the photo - 330
R4 - pictured - 2K
R6 - pictured - 1K

It turned out the following. You can see where which resistors should be.

Next, you need to solder the transistors and capacitors. The capacitors on the board are signed as 22uF, they come with 47uF, for some reason the Chinese did not save money here. We bend the legs of the capacitors and resistors 90 degrees so that after soldering they lie horizontally on the board, and do not stick out in different sides on the finished product. The negative contact of electrolytic capacitors (C1, C2, C3) is indicated on the board by a shaded area, and on the capacitor itself by a light strip. The orientation of the transistors (Q1, Q2, Q3) is also indicated on the board in a semicircle, respectively, the contour of the transistor case must match when installed (before bending the legs) with the drawing on the board. In this case, it turned out that all the transistors are "face down", and are oriented in reverse side from the semicircle on the board.
All resistors, transistors and capacitors are soldered.

Next, we solder the LEDs. The LEDs have polarity, everything is indicated on the board. All LEDs are oriented in the same way, so it is enough to remember how to solder one, the rest are the same. For those who are not in the know, in this case, we solder the LED with a short lead (cathode, "-") closer to the top, respectively, with a long lead (anode, "+") to the bottom of the tree. At the final assembly of the tree, you will need to solder the last red LED on the top, the polarity is already indicated there, we solder the LED to the "+" with a long lead.

Before soldering, bend the legs of the LEDs at a right angle so that the body of the LED extends beyond the tree.

The color distribution of LEDs is as follows:
Board A:
D1-D6 - red,
D7-D12 - yellow,
D13-D18 - green.
Board B:
D1-D6 - green,
D7-D12 - red,
D13-D18 - yellow,

All parts on the main boards are soldered.

Another photo from a different angle.

I recommend testing the boards before assembling them by applying a voltage of 4.5-5V to them. Each board can work independently, that is, in principle, you can get two 2D trees. If the trees work separately, you can proceed with further assembly.

I think there is no point in describing the assembly process further, tk. everything is obvious. Boards A and B are soldered together. The main thing is not to mix up the polarity, when installing the tree on the C board (the polarity is signed everywhere, you need to try to mix it up).
The battery holder has a rather long wire, which is not needed here, it is better to cut it to the desired length... Just in case, let me remind you that the red wire must be soldered to the "+" terminal, the black wire to the "-" (signed BAT 4.5V).

We solder the power button, the connector for power supply via USB, fasten the holder for the batteries - everything is ready.

For a more secure attachment of the DC 5V power connector, there is no metal bracket in the kit, although there are holes for it. Instead, you can use the rest of the leg from a resistor or capacitor, which I did.

Here you can see how the boards are soldered together. Everything is very confident, it will fall apart only if you specifically set this goal.

The tree works quite well from Ni-MH 1.2V batteries, I tested it on. But when working from USB (5V), the light is still brighter. I tried to measure the power consumption when connected via USB, it shows 0.00A, while the tree blinks with might and main and works as it should, therefore, the consumed current is very small, below the minimum response threshold of the tester, so the batteries should last for a very long time.

3D Christmas tree assembly:

Turn on the power - the LEDs light up and blink smoothly, pleasing to the eye.

I liked the toy, it is interesting to collect, and the children too. This is one of those soldering kits that, after assembly, are not thrown into a distant drawer, but can be used, for example, as a night light for children.

Whoever saw this tree and knows what a soldering iron is, they also wanted to assemble it. Apparently there is something in it ... I bought it back in the summer, so I managed to collect it for the New Year. But now the prices for such sets have decreased.

Good day to all! Before New Year there is still time, I decided to make a Christmas tree. As they say, I blinded her out of what was!

And it was precisely:

Copper tube 30 cm high with a diameter of 5-7 mm (iron is also possible),
Copper wire with a diameter of 1-1.5 mm I don’t remember how many meters, soft electrical tape "Japan" (Actually "Made in China") I think narrow tape will do,
Shrinkage with a diameter of 4 mm,
Copper wire (I used twisted pairs from UTP cable),
3mm LEDs (the number depending on the number of branches on the future tree) are green and red that were in stock, which were once ordered from a Chinese online store,
Resistors (the value and quantity depends on the connection method and supply voltage, I dropped the resistors from old circuits of phones, TVs, tape recorders),
Pliers,
Scissors or wire cutters,
Green grass "Yarn" was purchased in the "Yarn" department,
Power supply (used an old phone charger)
Resistor ratings, quantity and wiring diagram can be calculated on the website: http://www.casemods.ru/services/raschet_rezistora.html
The calculation of the multivibrator was done in the program "Symmetrical multivibrator"

Let's get started!

We measure the wire on the upper branches, make an allowance for fastening the branch to the trunk, fold it in half and twist the halves together. Thus, we get the preparation of the branch:

The number of branches in the first row depends on your imagination, I made 4. Next, we attach the branches to the trunk using electrical tape.

We make the crown in the same way. Next, we make the second row of branches down. I have 6 of them, all made like the first ones, only they are a little longer, the number of branches in a row and the number of rows in a tree depends on you. Thus, you need to make and fix all the branches on the future tree.

If you do not want to make a garland, then you can immediately wrap the branches and trunk with Grass yarn. But I made a garland, or rather, even two separate ones. One garland of red LEDs and the other of green ones.

I soldered the LEDs in series, 2 pieces each, a 120 ohm resistor of 0.04 watts. The supply voltage is 6 volts. There is one LED for each branch tip. The tip of the branch was inserted between the legs of the LED. The wire from which the branches are made in varnish insulation. After soldering, heat shrinkage was put on.

Before winding the branches, I checked the entire structure for operability (as you can see in the photo, this is already the second tree, and in the video at the end of the article it is the third).

The tree stand was made from a cardboard tube (the base of a roll of packaging film). The top of the stand is sawn out of chipboard, a hole is drilled along the diameter of the barrel, the chipboard is attached to a cardboard tube with nails, the bottom of the stand is sawn out of cragis. The barrel is fixed in the stand with hot melt glue. The stand is lined with black cashmere.

A hole has been drilled on the side of the stand for the power cord.

A multivibrator is inserted into the stand, calculated in the "Symmetrical multivibrator" program and soldered according to this scheme:

Everything is connected according to the scheme. After installing the multivibrator in the stand, we fix the bottom of the stand (cragis) with a furniture stapler. The tree is ready! If you wish, you can imitate snow on the branches with gouache.