Flashing Snowman
Approx construction cost US$11
This starter project is really just a polystyrene ceiling tile fitted with some LEDs that flash. It is a simple but amusing Christmas decoration that should raise a smile or two.
The tile is fashioned and painted to look like a Snowman, and it has LEDs to form the eyes, nose, and mouth. The LEDs for the eyes and nose are lit continuously, but there are three sets of LEDs to form the mouth. Some are lit continuously, while the other two sets are operated in anti-phase (when one set is switched on the other set is switched off).
The idea is to arrange the LEDs so that the Snowmans expression alternates between an internet-style smile and frown. This is just a suggestion, and there is plenty of scope for doing your own thing. You could use a different character, such as Father Christmas, as the basis of the project, and he could be made to wink, for example.
More details on this construction project can be found in the January 2000 issue of EPE Online, the world's first web-delivered electronics and computing hobbyist magazine.
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