TAKING INSPIRATION FROM MY FRIENDS
This year I wanted to make something fun for my super nerdy friends for the holidays, so I took inspiration from all of them and created an advent calendar kit that makes a glowing Christmas tree. For the first 9 days, my friends would get a different electronic component that, when all soldered together, create a repeating oscillating LED cycle. These lights are then housed in a laser-cut Christmas tree enclosure that disperses the lights to look like the holiday lights on a tree. This project was truly inspired by all of my friends, each with their own talents and ambitions spanning electronics and arts and crafts, who make me excited to create and try new things every day.
PCB DESIGN
I had never made a PCB before so this was really a learning experience! First I figured out the circuit using what few electronic components I had on hand at my parents' house, eventually deciding on a modification of a bistable multivibrator (can I call it tristable? the internet says no.) Then, I transcribed this to a schematic via KiCad. KiCad takes schematics and suggests connections for the actual PCB layout, but I still needed to draw the individual traces and define each components' footprints. After checking my work about a million times, I sent the board out to be manufactured, and received them within a few days. And to my surprise, they worked!
Inspiration 1: one of my friends once made 100 PCBs for a project in our manufacturing class. When I asked her how she knew how to do this, she said she didn't before, but she decided to just try. It was so simple, but really changed how I look at things, and I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't adopt that attitude too. Also, I'm friends with her and her girlfriend, both of whom create these beautiful artistic light displays that I'm always enchanted by.
Inspiration 2: one of my friends had been cobbling together some lights she found in the trash to make an elaborate sound-controlled rainbow room lighting system. She once told me that if I got into working with colored lights, it would really take my design work to the next level.
CHRISTMAS TREE HOUSING
I knew I wanted the lights to illuminate some kind of free-standing desktop structure. After considering everything, I figured that a small Christmas tree would make the most sense because they're known to have colorful lights on them anyway, and because I didn't think my friends owned many of their own Christmas decorations. I designed the enclosure in SolidWorks so I could get the connections right and understand it first in 3D. I then imported the DXF files into Adobe Illustrator, where I adjusted the tree shape to be more friendly and detailed. I then lasercut everything out of wood at my local community makerspace, making test pieces first to adjust the tolerances to achieve a slight press-fit.
Inspiration 3: one of my friends often spends Christmas by himself and remarks how lonely it has been in the past. He keeps his room lit with calming, warm pinks and oranges, so I wanted to make him a little light piece that could keep him company during the holidays. Also, he once made me my own serene little lamp that was bird-shaped, so this was my turn.
Inspiration 4: two of my friends are dating, and together they combine EE with ME with art. I made this project imagining the two of them having fun soldering the pieces together, assembling the tree, and hopefully adding their own little flare by painting it. (all of this came true)
PACKAGING THE KIT
The packaging really took up a third of the total time working on this project. Sourcing all of the parts was hard enough with holiday travel delays, but then creating the electronics' boxes with all of their compartments was a completely new dilemma I hadn't worked much with before. I made tons of prototypes both for the compartment dividers and the perforated doors on top before settling on the final design that I was able to reproduce 6 times.
The laser-cut pieces had such drastically different dimensions from the electronics so I eventually decided to just package them separately in a way that would all line up nicely in the USPS priority mail boxes. To create cohesion between all of the boxes, I created vinyl number appliques for all of the compartments and kept all of the packaging in the same metallic/neutral color palette.
Inspiration 5: one of my friends is older than me, and was the first person I felt safe enough to go up to to ask my stupid questions like "which way does voltage go?" when I was just starting to explore electrical engineering. He never lets anything get in his way when he wants to do something, so I could definitely imagine him just pulling out a soldering iron the second he opened the first box.
Inspiration 6: one of my friends sometimes gets a bit depressed when classes and finals are over because of the sudden abundance of free time. Thinking about this made me want to force a small project onto him that could keep the last bit of motivational flame burning over the break.
I truly loved every part of this project, but found it most exciting that someone out there would actually get the experience of receiving and playing with something I made. I had my friends' interests in mind throughout the process, and it helped inform a lot of my design decisions (for example: cramming all of the soldering steps into the first 8 days so they would still have access to a soldering iron before going home at the start of winter break.)
This simple project challenged me in a lot of ways, mostly in having to design for reliable reproduction and in creating a design that was easy to understand and assemble by someone who wasn't myself. I am endlessly thankful to the kind people that put up with me every day and who make me feel supported and inspired in engineering. Here's to them, and I hope everyone has a lovely New Year :)