LED Xmas Tree Project

I wanted to create a simple project that could be followed at home to celebrate this festive time of year. As I had some spare PIC16F88 devices lying around I decided to use one of these to create a LED Xmas tree.

The 16F88 has an inbuilt internal oscillator and reset functionality so this helps to reduce the complexity of the circuit we want to build.

Parts list:
PIC16F88
18 Pin Chip Socket
15 x LEDs
15 x 120 Ohm Resistor
Some wire – insulated RoadRunner wire is very good for this
Slide or Toggle switch
Piece of single sided copper Veroboard

Here is a schematic showing the circuit we are going to be building.

Here is a layout image showing the position of the components on the veroboard

Here are some build pictures.

Carefully cut the veroboard to shape and use a 3-5mm drill bit to remove the copper in the areas shown.

Next Fit the LEDs and Resistors and solder everything into place ensuring it is flat to the board. Remove the surplus component legs.

Here is a picture the solder side of the veroboard

Bend out the legs of the chip socket and solder this into place.

The board should now stand on it’s own.

Use solder bridges and the wire from some of the removed LED legs to connect up the first row of LEDs.

Here is a picture showing the wires

Use more of the LED legs to route the ground to all the LEDs.

Next use thin wire or RoadRunner wire to connect up the remaining LEDs.

I created a video tutorial which walks through testing the hardware and designing the software to drive the board.

All the files from the project can be found here.

LEDXmasTree

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