Christmas Tree Top Star Bling

A cool bright and colorful LEDs star to bling your Christmas tree this holiday season made from addressable Neopixel LED strips and Arduino microcontroller.

Checklist

Neopixel/ WS82xx addressable LED’s(Set of 3 Led’s X8) --
https://www.adafruit.com/category/168

popsicle stick (8)
Arduino pro nano or pro mini
Solder Iron
Wires

Glue gun

Let's Get Started

Place all the sticks as shown in the photograph. All the sticks should be at the same angle for a perfect shape.

Stick Em Down

Use a thick beat of hot glue to stick them together at the center.

LEDs All the Way

Test place LED strip, cutt in 3 per side and ensure the arrow on the neopixel led should be facing outside.

Neopixel LEDs have 4 pins:

1. VCC - for power, generally +5v but you should be good above +3volts

2. gnd - for power supply ground

3. Din- this gets input signal from microcontroller.

4. Dout- To send signal to next LED. This allow daisy chaining LEDs.

Stick on Sticks!

Apply glue on the led strip and fix it as shown.

Taking Shape

Repeat last step for all sides and you'll see start taking shape.

Connection Time

Connect Din pin of led strip with any of the digital pin of Arduino with the 1st branch of star, and then connect Dout of 1st with Din of 2nd , Do of 2nd with Din of 3rd and continue doing this until all the strips are connected together.

Wire Management

Connect the USB cable with Vin and Gnd pin of Arduino Pro Mini and manage wire using glue gun on back side of stick.

Program It.!

Arduino uses Adafruit Neopixel LED library to drive them. Download Neopixel library from arduino library manager or from adafruit Github, extract under arduino library folder.

Library Link -

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_NeoPixel

Code: Use library sample program - Strandtest and you're good to go. You can also program custom animations, just refer examples from library.

Merry Christmas and Happy new year :)

Christmas Tree Top Star Bling