Each vacation is a chance for {hardware} hackers to ply their commerce as they create eye-catching and sudden devices that make the season even brighter. And with Christmas proper across the nook, everybody — from the armchair engineer to the skilled — is racing to get their initiatives constructed whereas there’s nonetheless time. We now have definitely seen our share of festive builds this 12 months, like this energy-harvesting digital Christmas card that lights up when it will get close to a Wi-Fi router or microwave oven.
Extra not too long ago, a really distinctive Christmas card made by the Janky Jingle Crew caught our consideration. In years previous, these holly jolly souls have introduced us uncommon creations just like the Reindeer Quantity Meter and a microcontroller-powered mannequin hearth. This 12 months, they went all out with what they name the North Pole Circuit. It’s an digital Christmas card that’s not simply festive, however hyper-festive. It has the standard (for uncommon customized digital playing cards, that’s) lights and music, nevertheless it doesn’t cease there. It additionally contains a race observe that loops round a tiny village the place Santa and his reindeer can get some observe for the massive night time.
The hint structure makes magnetic propulsion attainable (📷: Janky Jingle Crew)
The cardboard, after all, is powered solely by Christmas magic. Finish of story. Nothing extra to see right here. Until you’re the type of person who likes to peek at presents earlier than Christmas morning, that’s. In that case, learn on.
The cardboard contains a pair of dual-core, 32-bit CH32V003 RISC-V microcontrollers and is powered by way of USB-C. Customers can work together with it by putting the 3D-printed sleigh and reindeer on the observe and controlling their movement with buttons that regulate their pace and course. A separate button prompts a Christmas jingle (performed on a buzzer) accompanied by synchronized motion.
The propulsion system is predicated on the Lorentz drive, which generates movement by making a perpendicular drive the place an electrical present interacts with a magnetic area. Magnets with vertically aligned poles are connected to Santa and the reindeer, and so they work along with PCB traces laid perpendicular to the observe’s course. Relying on the course of the present, a ahead or backward drive propels the magnets alongside the observe. For optimum propulsion, sinusoidal waveforms with a 90-degree part shift are utilized to the tracks, mimicking the microstepping method utilized in stepper motors. Guard rails run parallel to the tracks to stabilize the magnets by curves.
Did you get one? Me both. Possibly subsequent 12 months… (📷: Janky Jingle Crew)
The digital design is split into two main circuits: the driving force circuit and the ornament circuit. The motive force circuit controls the propulsion system, together with the part tracks and guard rails. DRV8833 motor drivers substitute conventional elements, providing decrease resistance and enhancing the effectivity of the system. The ornament circuit controls the LEDs and buzzer. This circuit makes use of I2C communication to synchronize with the driving force circuit, permitting the lights and music to be synchronized with the sleigh and reindeer’s movement.
To complete off the construct, a 3D-printed village was added to the cardboard, with some LEDs beneath for illumination. The Janky Jingle Crew made a complete of fifty of those playing cards. If you weren’t fortunate sufficient to obtain one (be part of the membership!), then make sure you take a look at the mission write-up to be taught how one can make your individual.
