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Christmas Countdown Display © GPL3+

(http://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-3.0)

Keep track of the number of days till Christmas in a fun new way.
 christmas (/projecthub/projects/tags/christmas)

display (/projecthub/projects/tags/display) rtc (/projecthub/projects/tags/rtc)

1,126 VIEWS 0 COMMENTS 3 RESPECTS

COMPONENTS AND SUPPLIES 

Arduino Mega 2560

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Kuman LCD 3.5"

× 1
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micro sd card × 1

DS3231 RTC Module × 1

Coin Cell Battery CR2032

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Barrel Plug Male End × 1

12V Power Supply × 1

Barrel Plug Thru-hole Jack × 1

Dupont Jumper Wires × 1

NECESSARY TOOLS AND MACHINES 

3D Printer (generic)

ABOUT THIS PROJECT 

Digital Christmas Countdown

The Idea
The intention of the project is to have a real time clock will keep track of how many days
there are until Christmas. A small screen will be the focal point and will load an image
showing the current number of days until Christmas.
To make this easy to recreate, the design will include an Arduino Mega with a plug-in
3.5" TFT display. The display includes an SD card port where each individual number will
be stored to be pulled up as needed. The microcontroller will use the RTC to determine
how many days there are until Christmas, and based on that will display the correct
number on the screen. It will all be enclosed in a 3D printed enclosure and decorated.

Creating the number images

I wanted to use a nice Christmas-y font for the numbers and did some research. Many of
the free Christmas fonts available to use aren't terribly exciting, but I managed to find a
great tutorial on making your own candy cane text.
https://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/holiday-candy-
cane-text-effect-photoshop/ (https://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-
text/text-effects/holiday-candy-cane-text-effect-photoshop/)
I needed to overlay this number over a nice background, so I found a nice free-use
Christmas-themed backdrop to put the custom numbers on to.

Then began the tedious task of putting together images for each day of the year,
between 0 and 365. The display is able to display images of 320x480, so that was used
as the basis for this. The files had to be converted to BMP in order to be used by the
display. Once this was done it was loaded onto the micro SD. These images take up
about 160MB, so a large micro SD card is not needed.

Building the Code

After testing the default program supplied with the display (attached to this project), I
worked to modify the program to suit my needs. The first challenge that came up was
that the software was intended to be used with the Arduino Uno, but for this project I
needed to use something with more pins as there were none extra available for use with
the Uno. The SPI pins of the shield lined up with the SPI headers of the Uno, which are
different for the Arduino Mega. The fix for this was to bend out the display pins and
reroute them to the appropriate headers on the Mega.
The only other pins I needed to use were the I2C communication pins for the RTC.
In order to best observe the real time and ensure leap years are accounted for, the RTC
was needed. Using the library RTClib, I found a function that allowed for me to find out
what the time and date would be at a certain point in the future.
The method used to find out the days to Christmas was a very brute force method, but
effective. I would continually add 60 seconds to the current time, and keep track of how
many times I had to add 60 seconds to the time until the month and date equaled 12/25.
Once that date was reached it would take the tallied number of minutes and translate
that into days. The resulting day would be matched with the appropriate image file and
displayed on the screen.
The software is linked to this project, as well as the images meant for the micro SD card.
The only thing needed to get this working is to load up the micro SD card with the
images, and use an RTC example sketch to set the current date and time.

Putting Together the Enclosure

I chose to 3D print the enclosure with built-in stand-offs for the Arduino Mega and RTC
module. Autodesk Fusion 360 was used for Modelling. 3D printer was Craftbot Plus.
The small groove in the bottom exists to allow a screwdriver to pop out the faceplate if
required.
The intention is to wrap the box in wrapping paper, so a top faceplate was designed as a
snug fit to cover everything up.
Wrapping it Up
The above video at the top details some of the wrapping process. I started by cutting out
a piece of paper as a template for what the opening size for the screen would be. I put
the wrapping paper over the front, and used the extruding screen to create an indent to
give myself a place to cut out the screen hole. After that I centered it around the screen
hole and wrapped it like any other present. Lastly I slowly cut around the power jack hole
to allow for access to it.

Download Files
Arduino Code:
https://github.com/sclandinin/christmas_calendar
(https://github.com/sclandinin/christmas_calendar)
Enclosure 3D Models:
https://myhub.autodesk360.com/ue2a5a987/g/shares/SH56a43QTfd62c1cd9680d20cc
8ff1013610?
viewState=NoIgbgDAdAjCA0IDeAdEAXAngBwKZoC40ARXAZwEsBzAOzXjQEMyzd1C0IAzG
AYy4CcAJgAsAWl64AJgDYxIgBy4A7GMa4R4qTy4QArAsYyhymGgC%2BIALpA
(https://myhub.autodesk360.com/ue2a5a987/g/shares/SH56a43QTfd62c1cd9680d20cc
8ff1013610?
viewState=NoIgbgDAdAjCA0IDeAdEAXAngBwKZoC40ARXAZwEsBzAOzXjQEMyzd1C0IAzG
AYy4CcAJgAsAWl64AJgDYxIgBy4A7GMa4R4qTy4QArAsYyhymGgC%2BIALpA)
Number Image Files:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MpnzfiZdUA1tnpUmTqE-d9HRny1jSG4A/view
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MpnzfiZdUA1tnpUmTqE-d9HRny1jSG4A/view)
Unzip these and copy over all images in the folder into the micro SD card.

CODE 

Code
0 (https://github.com/sclandinin/christmas_calendar/watchers) 0 (https://github.com/sclandinin/christmas_calendar/forks)
sclandinin (https://github.com/sclandinin) / christmas_calendar
(https://github.com/sclandinin/christmas_calendar)

No description — Read More (https://github.com/sclandinin/christmas_calendar#readme)

Latest commit to the master branch on Download

11-22-2020as zip (https://github.com/sclandinin/christmas_calendar/zipball/master)

CUSTOM PARTS AND ENCLOSURES 

3D models
https://myhub.autodesk360.com/ue2a5a987/g/shares/SH56a43QTfd62c1cd9680d20cc
8ff1013610
(https://myhub.autodesk360.com/ue2a5a987/g/shares/SH56a43QTfd62c1cd9680d20cc
8ff1013610)
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B DOWNLOAD (HTTPS://HACKSTERIO.S3.AMAZONAWS.COM/UPLOADS/ATTACHMENTS/1227011/CALENDAR_BASE_B
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SCHEMATICS 

C DOWNLOAD (HTTPS://HACKSTERIO.S3.AMAZONAWS.COM/UPLOADS/ATTACHMENTS/1225450/20201120_200523_
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COMMENTS 

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AUTHOR

(/projecthub/sclandinin)

Scott Clandinin (/projecthub/sclandinin)

8 PROJECTS 15 FOLLOWERS

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December 1, 2020

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