Introduction: Color Changing LED Christmas Tree

By Buy Arduinos in Canada here!
About: I love tinkering with Arduinos and other electronics. I am the owner of A2D Electronics, an online store based in Ottawa, ON that is committed to providing Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, accessories, and other elect…

I found this Christmas tree at a dollar store last year, and wanted to put an LED in the bottom to light it up, but never got around to it until a year later.

This is a very simple project that requires very little
soldering and makes a beautiful end result. It only costs a few dollars to build. I even used a coin cell from an old computer motherboard to keep the cost as low as possible.

Sorry for the low quality pictures, they were taken with my aging iPhone 4.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

Tools
Soldering Iron

Hot Glue Gun


Materials

Coin cell holder (Aliexpress)

Small slide switch (Aliexpress)

Color changing LED (Aliexpress)

Step 2: Electronics

Solder one leg of the switch to the positive leg of the coin cell holder.

Solder the positive leg of the LED (longer leg) to the other side of the switch.

Solder the negative leg of the LED to the negative side of the coin cell holder.

That's it! Test it out by putting a coin cell in the holder and sliding the switch. I got mine from an old motherboard, but they are available everywhere.

Step 3: Add Electronics to the Tree

Put the electronics in the bottom of the tree and glue it there with hot glue. Make sure that the LED is pointing upwards into the tree.

After finishing this project, I wish the LED were a bit brighter so that it would illuminate more of the tree, but it still looks cool. I used a diffused LED, but the ones linked above are not diffused. They should be brighter.

If you build this I would love to see pictures!