Winter Solstice is upon us! Celebrate in DIY style and make these electronic ornaments to give your holiday decorations more spunk.
They are easy enough to make, and you don’t need a lot of material. The ornament itself is 3D printed and the interior is filled with common, and easy freestyled electronics. Let’s get to it!
Ingredients
- a bunch of 5mm LEDs in any color you like
- CR2032 battery coin cells
- CR2032 battery holder (visit your local electronics store or get creative with freestyle electronics)
- electrical wire
- natural PLA filament
- transparent fishing thread or some nice rope
Tools
- soldering station
- solder tin
- a 3D printer
1. 3D prints
Find all four .stl files on https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4058245 . We designed a snowflake, a Christmas tree, Santa’s sock and a snowman! The inside of the 3D model is designed so you can inserts the electronics nice and easy. And there’s also a small hole in each ornament so you can hang it anywhere you like!
Simply download the file you like, upload natural filament into your 3D printer and you’re ready to go!
2. Freestyle electronics
Depending on the ornament, the number of LEDs change:
- snowman: 2 LEDs
- snowflake: 6 LEDs
- sock: 5 LEDs
- tree: 7 LEDs
First, some important polarity rules of thumb:
- Connect the LEDs from one + side to the other plus side and eventually to the + side of the battery. The same rule applies to the – side.
Also remember: the long leg is the + side and the short leg is the – side. - Make sure that the + legs or wires never touch the – legs and visa Versa! Otherwise, you will create a shortcut and your electronics may go poof!
Start by placing two sequential LEDs in the back of the ornament and bend their legs in the right direction (+ to + and – to -). Dot not solder them yet! Check out the picture below to see the end result.
![](/wp-content/uploads/Snowman-1024x683.png")
Because we don’t want to burn the ornament, remove the LEDs and then solder them (+ to + and – to -).
Repeat these steps until you have soldered all the LEDs to each other, except for the one + and – leg that will be connected to the battery.
To connect the battery to the LEDs, you will need to use some electrical wire to extend the connection.
When everything is finished, you can put the freestyle electronics inside the ornament. You can use some transparent tape to keep everything in place.
Lastly, use some rope or thread so you can hang the ornament.
