Turn your Arduino into the best gift of all

Please vote for me in the Holiday Gift contest and the Make it Glow contest!

First, this started out as a gift, and not an instructable. So please excuse some hand waving here and there as I do not have any pictures of the etching and drilling portions.
Arduino Gift
Second, this is for my dear dear wife. Yep, I got lucky enough to have a wife who likes to solder. We found out this summer when out of the blue she asked me if she could solder my RockSat PC board. We also are huge fans of snow flakes. We even had a snow flake themed wedding! Finally, this our 6th year of marriage, so what could be better than a 6 pointed snow flake!

Ok, so get ready, get set, Lets make one together!

Step 1: Get ready!

Lets gather our supplies.

Software:

Parts

Supplies

Tools

  • Soldering iron
  • Clothes iron
  • Something to cut the PCB (I used a bandsaw)
  • Something to drill the PCB (I used a drill press)
  • Scissors

Step 2: Design snowflake

NOTE!!

If you like my original design you can skip this step and go straight to etching. I would like to guilt trip you a tad and remind you that every snow flake is unique. Copying violates that, but if you can live with it, so can I 🙂

Ok, so this process is more something that a graphics artist would be familiar with. For simplicity sake I spliced together a video that shows the process.
Arduino Gift schematic
In short…

  • Export PCB in eagle to clipboard
  • Open paint.net and insert
  • Find and open snowflake in Paint.Net
  • Resize snow flake appropriately
  • Create a new image with 3 layers, the black flake, traces in black, traces in white.
  • Layers should go flake, white traces, black traces.
  • Use a blur function to widen the white layer.
  • Use magic wand to select widened traces.
  • Use paint bucket to thicken up those traces.
  • Save as bitmap!

multi.pdf212 KB

[box color=”#985D00″ bg=”#FFF8CB” font=”verdana” fontsize=”14 ” radius=”20 ” border=”#985D12″ float=”right” head=”Major Components in Project” headbg=”#FFEB70″ headcolor=”#985D00″]
  • Arduino
  • LED’s
  • Resistors
  • 0.1 male headers

[/box]


About The Author

Ibrar Ayyub

I am an experienced technical writer holding a Master's degree in computer science from BZU Multan, Pakistan University. With a background spanning various industries, particularly in home automation and engineering, I have honed my skills in crafting clear and concise content. Proficient in leveraging infographics and diagrams, I strive to simplify complex concepts for readers. My strength lies in thorough research and presenting information in a structured and logical format.

Follow Us:
LinkedinTwitter

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top