The flat screen TV was just the beginning of a trend to save space on objects that reside in our living room. This idea can also be applied to the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree.
After googling on 2D and alternative c Christmas trees I have got some basic idea how I wanted the Christmas tree to look. The material of choice to create the frame became bamboo sticks.
I have started to cut the bamboo sticks to the desired measures.
I have ended up with 9 sticks of these measurements: 120, 109, 92, 78, 65, 52, 38.5, 24.5 and 11.5 cm. In total I have used 3 sticks of 2 meters each. The distance between each stick was 20 cm.
The next step was to connect them together with a fishing line. I have created a small cut on the ends using an utility knife.
Then I have placed the fishing line inside the slits.
It ended up like in the image below.
It was time to hang it on the wall and do some small corrections.
Just to be on the safe side I have applied some hot glued to the bamboo sticks so the fishing line will be more secure.
For the light I had used these 3 meter multicolor LED strips.
They were powered by 3 AA batteries (4.5V) , so I had to cut them in order to use a power adapter. I have thought that using a 5V USB adapter will not damage them. The leds were using 3 different SMD resistors in order to get the correct amperage to the LEDs. The blue led 200 Ohm, greed led 1K and the red led 510 Ohm.
The next step was to glue down the led strips to the bamboo sticks.
After they were all attached to the sticks I had to take it down and solder the led strips together. You need to solder the ends of the strips in a way that it will form one long connected strip. Keep in mind to solder the plus to plus and minus to minus. After soldering each line I have checked it they were working by connecting the power adapter.
On the bottom strip I have soldered a USB connector so I can plug it into a USB power supply.
Just to be on the safe side, I have used 2A power supply. But it ended up too much as the total output of the leds was a bit more than 500mA.
All the led strips lit up.
Now I have left the rest to my wife as she finished decorating the tree. She did a great job in hiding all the wires that were connecting the led strips.
