An interactive Advent calendar
Pairing a Rasp Pi with a few ICs, servomotors, and LEDs makes it possible to build a one-of-a-kind Advent calendar with moving parts and musical accompaniment. The basic concept behind the design for the project is simple: Pressing a button each morning during the Advent season will prompt the Rasp Pi to play a Christmas tune and deliver a small surprise gift for the day thanks to the servomotors. A wheel driven by a stepper motor shows the current date, and LEDs turn on for a festive display of lights.
Because the Rasp Pi GPIO pins cannot handle all of these components alone, this project requires the addition of an I2C bus. Each of the electronic modules is on an individual board, as shown in Figure 1, which makes testing and alterations easy. In this way the calendar can be reused for future Advent seasons.
You will find all of the wiring diagrams and listings for the calendar project as a gEDA wiring plan and in EPS format on the Raspberry Pi Geek website [1]. You should look for a folder aptly named calender/. A short video shows an Advent calendar in use after the project has been completed.
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