Apr 29, 2022 — 2 mins read — Electronics

Super simple wall art with electronics - Makers Rock 2022

One of the benefits of being a maker on YouTube is the ability to connect and hang out with like-minded people.

For the fun of it, we sometimes want to create the same things so we've come up with Makers Rock. Makers Rock is a collab on YouTube where a bunch of makers like me recreates rock album covers with any technique and material that they want to.

Each maker works on a different album cover and combined with the different techniques and materials from each, this is one of the most diverse art creation gatherings on YouTube.

For my entry, I'm making the Eliminator album cover from ZZ Top that features the Ford "Eliminator" coupe with a front view, having the headlight directly in front gave me the idea to embed some LEDs behind it so they can light up and it makes the entire thing a lot more interesting.

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For the electronics, I've used an Attiny85 microcontroller that runs a simple random blink sketch to turn on the LEDs with random durations as well as random off times. The LEDs are salvaged from a 12V 5050 LED strip and I've added a relatively small resistor so they can be powered from 5V instead of 12V as on the original strip.

Since the LEDs draw a lot more current than what the Attiny can safely provide, I've also added a 2n2222 transistor to each to use it as an on/off switch and offload the current handing to it.

This is not my first entry into the Makers Rock collab and I've previously built an Arduino light show back in 2018.

Tools and materials used in the video:

Attiny85 Microcontroller - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ALr5ct
5050 SMD LEDs - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_9hnQ8d
Soldering station - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_A1heIZ
Tweezers - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_97hsxF
Hot glue gun - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_A3IKvX
Carving knife - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_9uaH3R
Box cutter - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ArkIdR
Mini breadboards - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_99MW1r
Bench power supply - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_A1Kacz

workshop led soldering attiny

Written by: Bill Kolicoski

Blagojce (Bill) Kolicoski is a web developer with multiple domain knowledge gathered since he started in 2008, and he's got a real knack for all things tech, especially when it comes to building websites and fiddling with electronics. He's as excited about robots and space as he is about nurturing his garden at home. Bill is a dad who loves sharing his interests with his kids and readers alike, making sure every blog post is filled with easy-to-understand, useful info that shows just how fun and amazing the world of technology can be. His mission is to demystify technology for everyday people so they can be encouraged to play with it.
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