{"id":456,"date":"2011-12-18T23:58:34","date_gmt":"2011-12-19T04:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/?p=456"},"modified":"2011-12-19T07:35:31","modified_gmt":"2011-12-19T12:35:31","slug":"the-usb-powered-christmas-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/the-usb-powered-christmas-card\/","title":{"rendered":"The USB Powered Christmas Card"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This one came to me out of the blue the other day while I was at work. A Christmas card with some LEDs inside that got power from a USB port. How geek is that?!<\/p>\n<p>I decided that the LEDs needed to blink so I dug out my supply of 555 timer chips and built an astable circuit to to the job. I connected two different colors of LEDs to the output on pin 3 of the 555. The green ones have the anode (positive) side connected to pin 3 and the cathode (negative) connected to ground. The red LEDs have the cathode connected to pin 3 and the anode connected to the 5 volt positive rail. This allows the red LEDs to light when pin 3 is high, and the green LEDs to light when pin 3 is low. The blue LEDs are connected directly to the 5 volt power supplied from the USB cable. When you plug the cable into a USB port on a computer that is powered up, the LEDs flash. <\/p>\n<p>Below you&#8217;ll find a parts list, a schematic, a build video with an explanation of the circuit and JPEG files of the templates to build the paper box. This is an easy and fun holiday project to build for the geek in your life!<\/p>\n<p>Merry Christmas, have fun and&#8230;<br \/>\nKeep on hackin!<\/p>\n<p><strong>PARTS LIST:<\/strong><br \/>\n2 &#8211; 1.2K ohm resistors<br \/>\n1 &#8211; 470 ohm resistor on pin 3 output<br \/>\n1 &#8211; .01 uF ceramic capacitor<br \/>\n1 &#8211; 220 mF electrolytic capacitor<br \/>\n1 &#8211; LM555 timer chip<br \/>\n1 &#8211; USB cable<br \/>\n15 &#8211; Green LEDs<br \/>\n13 &#8211; Red LEDs<br \/>\nHookup wire<br \/>\n4 &#8211; Sheets 8.5&#8243; x 11&#8243; white card stock paper<br \/>\nTwo sided adhesive tape<br \/>\nHot glue and glue gun<br \/>\nSmall perf board.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/?attachment_id=474\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-474\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/christmas-card.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"christmas card\" width=\"800\" height=\"610\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-474\" srcset=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/christmas-card.jpg 800w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/christmas-card-150x114.jpg 150w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/christmas-card-300x228.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/?attachment_id=461\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-461\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/christmas-card-schematic1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"christmas card schematic\" width=\"800\" height=\"479\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-461\" srcset=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/christmas-card-schematic1.jpg 800w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/christmas-card-schematic1-150x89.jpg 150w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/christmas-card-schematic1-300x179.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TY4vJpm29Hk\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/?attachment_id=458\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-458\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-bottom.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"paper box template bottom\" width=\"2550\" height=\"3300\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-458\" srcset=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-bottom.jpg 2550w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-bottom-115x150.jpg 115w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-bottom-231x300.jpg 231w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-bottom-791x1024.jpg 791w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2550px) 100vw, 2550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/?attachment_id=459\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-459\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"paper box template cover\" width=\"3300\" height=\"2550\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-459\" srcset=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-cover.jpg 3300w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-cover-150x115.jpg 150w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-cover-300x231.jpg 300w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-cover-1024x791.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3300px) 100vw, 3300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/?attachment_id=460\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-460\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-top.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"paper box template top\" width=\"2550\" height=\"3300\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-460\" srcset=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-top.jpg 2550w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-top-115x150.jpg 115w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-top-231x300.jpg 231w, http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paper-box-template-top-791x1024.jpg 791w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2550px) 100vw, 2550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This one came to me out of the blue the other day while I was at work. A Christmas card with some LEDs inside that got power from a USB port. How geek is that?! I decided that the LEDs &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/the-usb-powered-christmas-card\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hacks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions\/476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hackaweek.com\/hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}