The Christmas tree who lost his sparkle

Stars pattern

Revision #1 won't work as positive and negative are touching in the switch

Revision #2 can work but uses a lot more conductive thread than Original Design

A careful plan hatched To expose the circuit's cracks. A design and two revisions were sketched

A new way was found But when testing its grounds It turned out the original was best!

How can we check our hypothesis next So Chrissie can twinkle alone

There is a way To review without delay And the method lies in the Law Of Ohm

Connecting Chrissie after moving location of battery

61.3 Ohms Is the resistance the thread owns Leaving 50 milliamps to power Poor Chrissie

But for 6 LEDs The current he needs Is 120 milliamps for each to be pretty

As for Chrissie, do not fear He's happy, full of cheer He knows Not to be startled

He's in good hands With people who understand Adamant to regain his

Bolt black

4 out of 6 lights Just isn't that nice Fixing it Is my Core task

So waiting we are So patiently from afar To make our dear Chrissie complete

It is true we have learned A lot as far as circuits are concerned It's certainly made Things more concrete

The thread of the circuit has resistance to interpret 16 ohms for a 30 centimetre reach

<a href="https://learn.adafruit.com/conductive-thread">https://learn.adafruit.com/conductive-thread</a>

The question remains How much thread does Chrissie Contain? Some quick measurements show a stark truth

Understanding how much thread is in Chrissie

Unfortunately Our circuit disagreed And chrissie was Still left unchanged

All of that effort To make all the lights fluorescent But blue lights Remained disengaged

Excited with glee We modified him with ease And then reconnected Chrissie up

We checked everything Every light, every string And couldn't wait To do a fist pump

A few tests ensued To see if we could exclude This factor of Light Malfunction

Our small tests unpacked That the LEDs were intact No answer for Chrissie's dysfunction

Graph paper

Are the threads touching? Terminals mucked up?

What's stopping this being the best?

What could it be Causing this misery? So many questions To ask

V equals I R Is a great step so far 6 LEDs pull 20 milliamps each

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm's_law">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm's_law</a>

V = Voltage I = Current R = Resistance

<a href="https://www.ledsales.com.au/index.php?main_page=page_3">https://www.ledsales.com.au/index.php?main_page=page_3</a>

So why won't it work? What is its main quirk? Let's do a series of tests!

It didn't make sense! Our disappointment was immense! We scratched our heads In dismay

How Could it be? What didn't we see? How can we make it OK?

In one final burst To break the darn curse We looked at our working out

What we had done Was quite a bit dumb Mixing centimetres And ohms about

Video of connecting Chrissie - blue lights not lit

Before and after moving the location of the battery. Estimated 17cm of thread cut.

Looking up close The red lights are lit most The green ones are looking a lot dimmer

Perhaps what it is Is thread resistance Too high to let the blue ones shimmer

For our calculation We knew the situation: 14 centimetres of thread Must be cut

To do this we decided To move where the battery resided 17 centimetres saved To get us out of a rut

Believe it or not 115cm he's got The overall reaction is:

It seemed a bit futile But one final google Might rid the mystery's existence

Ah! Yellow, green and red Must be used instead Otherwise the circuit Takes the path of least resistance

<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/274055/leds-for-a-project-wont-work-in-parallel">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/274055/leds-for-a-project-wont-work-in-parallel</a>

WHOOOOPS! It was 61.3 ohms from 115cm!! This needs to be 115cm

A circuit designed With bright lights in mind Carefully brought To real Life

A star as a switch Revealed a great glitch Poor Chrissie's blue lights In strife

So what we must do Is consider options anew Of how to reduce The thread's length

Four options considered Pros and cons are committed With Option 2 chosen Because of its strength

Smaller Chrissie still only has 4 out of 6 LEDs lit

In a usual circumstance We could quickly advance By putting in A yellow replacement

But in this day and age with COVID-19 in a rage Supplies are Stuck in a basement!

The Christmas tree who lost his sparkle is an enthralling story of a 3AI Masters student's journey with circuits, transformed into a picture book. A tale of perseverance, many obstacles are overcome in a quest for Chrissie to sparkle brightly. A classic in the making and a must read for everyone wanting to shine.

Chrissie the Christmas Tree Couldn't wait to be Sparkling In the 3A Build Zone

Coloured LEDs With a 3 Volt Battery Carefully Stitched And Sewn

So what that meant Chrissie to be cut by 60% A smaller Chrissie Was needed

Some fiddly work Which drove us berserk And Still we have not succeeded

Ohm's law - Wikipedia

We left it a day To keep our frustration at bay And reviewed the paths We had chosen

What we thought we found Was far from profound:

Name

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