Self Automated Christmas Tree Advent Calendar

Have you ever wanted a Christmas advent calendar that could be reusable? Have you ever forgotten to open a window on a specific day? Have you ever thought your advent calendar was not personable? Well, with my self automated Christmas calendar, your problems will be solved!

• Here is the calendar working

For this project you will need:

1) A Particle Argon

2) Breadboard

3) PIR Senor

4) Neo Pixel Light Strip (3 lights)

5) Servo

6) A Few Pieces of Cardboard

7) Acrylic Paint

8) Scissors

9) OLED Display

10) Tape

When you begin your code, you will need to import a few libraries:

• neopixel (1.0.0) // This is the library for the NeoPixel lights
• Adafruit_SSD1306 (0.0.2)  // This is the library for the OLED Display

After you import the OLED and NeoPixel libraries, you will want to:

• Define the number of lights on your light strip
• Define the pin number for your lights
• Define the pixel type for the lights
• Define the width and height of the OLED display
• Define the OLED reset
• Initialize the PIR sensor and the sensor value

In the void setup() :

• Set the brightness of the LED lights
• Set the original position of the servo along with the pin it is connected to on your Argon

Here are a few documents that may help with programming Servos, the NeoPixel Lights, the OLED Display, and the PIR Sensor:

• Servo Document
• NeoPixel Lights Guide
• OLED Display Guide
• PIR Sensor Guide

Full Code:

#include <Adafruit_SSD1306.h>

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <neopixel.h>

#define PIXEL_COUNT 3 // 24 Pixels on our ring
#define PIXEL_PIN D6 // Ring uses D6 as default pin
#define PIXEL_TYPE WS2812B // Ring uses WS2812 Pixels
#define SCREEN_WIDTH 128 // OLED display width, in pixels
#define SCREEN_HEIGHT 64 // OLED display height, in pixels

#define OLED_RESET 4
Adafruit_SSD1306 display(OLED_RESET);

#define NUMFLAKES 10
#define XPOS 0
#define YPOS 1
#define DELTAY 2


#define LOGO16_GLCD_HEIGHT 16 
#define LOGO16_GLCD_WIDTH 16 


#if (SSD1306_LCDHEIGHT != 64)
#error("Height incorrect, please fix Adafruit_SSD1306.h!");
#endif


Adafruit_NeoPixel light(PIXEL_COUNT, PIXEL_PIN, PIXEL_TYPE);


Servo myServo; // create Servo object to control a servo
int sensor = 5; 
 
int sensorVal =0;

int ledPin = 4;
int ledCount = 3;

//time a = 0;

void setup()
{
  // Has to be a PWM capable pin; In this case, D2.
  Serial.begin(9600);
  light.begin();
  light.setBrightness(5);
  myServo.attach(3);
  myServo.write(10);
  pinMode(sensor, INPUT);
   
  pinMode(7, OUTPUT);

   
  delay(2000);
  
  
  

 // by default, we'll generate the high voltage from the 3.3v line internally! (neat!)
  display.begin(SSD1306_SWITCHCAPVCC, 0x3C); // initialize with the I2C addr 0x3D (for the 128x64)
 // init done
  
  display.display(); // show splashscreen
  delay(2000);
  display.clearDisplay(); 
 // Display static text
 
   

  // 0 and 180 are not numbers you usually try to use on these micro servos
   
}

unsigned long prevTime = 0;
void loop()
{
 //light.setPixelColor(2,(255,100,255));
  // colorWipe(light.Color(0, 255, 255), 50);
  //light.show();
  
   
  sensorVal = digitalRead(sensor);
  // Does nothing
  if(sensorVal==HIGH )
  {
    colorWipe(light.Color(255, 0, 255), 50);
    myServo.write(170);
    digitalWrite(7, HIGH);
     
    display.setTextSize(10);
    display.setTextColor(WHITE);
    display.setCursor(0,0);
    Time.zone(-6);
    display.println(Time.day());
    display.display();
     
     
  
  } 
  unsigned long currTime = millis();
  if(currTime - prevTime >= 8000 && sensorVal == HIGH)
   
  {
    prevTime = millis(); 
    delay(1000);
    display.clearDisplay();
    display.println(" ");
    display.display();
    myServo.write(10);
    delay(1000);
      
    
     
 
     
    

  }
   
  if(sensorVal==LOW)
  {
    //myServo.write(100);
     
    colorWipe(light.Color(0, 0, 0), 50);
    digitalWrite(7, LOW);
     
    return;
  }
   
 
   
}

void colorWipe(uint32_t c, uint8_t wait)
{
  for(uint16_t i=0; i<PIXEL_COUNT; i++)
  {
    light.setPixelColor(i,c);
    light.show();
    delay(wait);
  }
}

In order to get the door of the advent calendar to open and close, I needed to find a way to delay the servo just enough for the person in front of the calendar to read the day it is. I utilized the time class in order to achieve this.

• In the void loop(), I constantly checked if my PIR sensor detected motion or didn't
• Once my PIR sensor did detect motion, my lights would trigger and my servo would turn to 170 degrees
• Along with my servo moving and the lights turning on, my OLED display would utilize the time class to access the current day it is
• However, the door of my advent calendar will not close immediately. I created another if statement that checked if eight seconds have passed since motion was last detected. If motion was detected for a second time, the OLED display will clear and the door will close

How to wire the OLED Sensor:

• For the OLED Sensor, you have four different wires: the VCC, the GND, the SCL, and the SDA.
• I connected the VCC wire to my 3V pin on my Argon.
• I connected the SCL and SDA wires respectfully to the SCL and SDA pins on my Argon.

How to wire the PIR Sensor:

• For the PIR Sensor, you will also have three different wires: the VCC, the pin, and the GND.
• In respect to my code, I connected the pin on my PIR Sensor to D5 on my Argon.
• I connected the VCC wire to the positive rail on my breadboard which was connected to my USB pin on my Argon.

How to wire the Servo:

• For the Servo, you will have three different wires: the VCC, the DIN, and the GND.
• In respect to my code, I connected the DIN pin to D3 on my Argon.
• I connected the VCC wire to the positive rail on my breadboard and connected that to my USB pin on my Argon.

How to wire the NeoPixel LED Lights:

• For the NeoPixel LED Lights, I soldered three long solid core wires to GND, DIN, and VCC.
• Like the rest, I connected the GND to the negative rail on my breadboard.
• I connected the DIN pin to D6 on my Argon.
• I connected my VCC to the USB on my Argon.

For this step, you will need your:

• Cardboard
• Tape/ Hot Glue
• Acrylic Paint
• Your Sensors

Now that you have finished the wiring of your advent calendar, you can be creative when it comes to building how you want your advent calendar to look!

I have found in order to open the advent calendar door the easiest, I would need to elevate my servo ( mainly because of the shape I decided to go with for the calendar. )

• I first punctured three holes on the left-hand side of the tree and made sure that the door could open easily with very minimum pressure.
• Once I elevated my servo to be roughly the height of my calendar, I connected my twine from the fin of the servo diagonally to the lower right-hand corner of the calendar door. ( The angle the twine created was about 45 degrees )

Congrats! You made your own advent calendar! How exciting!