An Overview Of The Christmas Tree O'Digital Logic
On a complexity scale, this project is actually not too difficult. The difficulty really comes in the build process. The way we did it required a lot more work (wire-wrapping) than was really necessary. However, the system worked and hopefully it brought you some Holiday joy. The LED tree looks pretty darn cool when it is running and the shift registers work flawlessly driving each individual LED, as they should. Look Mom! No Software!
What To Do Now
There are many places you can explore after building a project like this. It feels more like art than electronics and so you can move in different directions, either to different shapes and sizes of LED objects, or to more intelligently controlled things like an 8x8x8 LED cube. Choose a path and get going, because you'll only have more fun learning and building.
Conclusion
As a project, this one was pretty darn successful. The outcome is mesmorizing, as we'd hoped, and the different modes and speed control worked like we wanted. For a simple digital hardware project, it doesn't get any more pure than this, a clock, cool looking output, and shift registers driving everything. We hope you enjoyed this article and project and, more importantly, that you build one of your own!
If you have any further questions, I implore you...don't be shy, take a look at the forums or ask a question there. I check them out regularly and love getting comments & questions.
On a complexity scale, this project is actually not too difficult. The difficulty really comes in the build process. The way we did it required a lot more work (wire-wrapping) than was really necessary. However, the system worked and hopefully it brought you some Holiday joy. The LED tree looks pretty darn cool when it is running and the shift registers work flawlessly driving each individual LED, as they should. Look Mom! No Software!
What To Do Now
There are many places you can explore after building a project like this. It feels more like art than electronics and so you can move in different directions, either to different shapes and sizes of LED objects, or to more intelligently controlled things like an 8x8x8 LED cube. Choose a path and get going, because you'll only have more fun learning and building.
Conclusion
As a project, this one was pretty darn successful. The outcome is mesmorizing, as we'd hoped, and the different modes and speed control worked like we wanted. For a simple digital hardware project, it doesn't get any more pure than this, a clock, cool looking output, and shift registers driving everything. We hope you enjoyed this article and project and, more importantly, that you build one of your own!
If you have any further questions, I implore you...don't be shy, take a look at the forums or ask a question there. I check them out regularly and love getting comments & questions.