What is it?

The Tiny Snowflake is DIY soldering kit on a PCB shaped like a snow flake with 19 LEDs, 5 resistors, 1 capacitor and an ATtiny. The LEDS are independently controlled using charlieplexing. The microcontroller comes preprogrammed with a random blinking pattern in the kit. It is possible to upload new code to device with AVR dude using a Bus Pirate, a AVRisp mk II or similar. It is not Arduino compatible.

Why did you make it?

These snowflakes were originally designed for my mother, who is a public school teacher. She loves to decorate her classroom for each holiday, but is not allowed to have religion-specific decorations. Snowflakes are festive, but not religious so it is ok to have them at school.

The best part of the project was that over thanksgiving break I got to teach all my nieces and nephews how to solder these together and program them. I woke up late one morning to find 11 soldered by the kids. Now they all love tinkering in electronics.

What makes it special?

It is a festive work of art that you can solder yourself. Additionally, it is possible to turn it into a piece of jewelry by downloading and 3D printing a coin cell necklace clasp