Posted: December 13, 2016
Updated: December 20, 2020

Introduction

Back in 2016 I built a gingerbread house out of a $7 kit, adding an MSP430 circuit to control lights and a servo to rotate two gingerbread people. In 2020 I made a new one, this time remote controlled using the same basic circuit for the ice car for the Iced Electronics project. I added an Adafruit Audio FX Mini Sound Board and changed the firmware so trying to go in reverse will trigger the music.

Related Projects @mikekohn.net

Videos

This is the RC based gingerbread house. https://youtu.be/LSau2g7CNFg

A video of the lights on the house flashing and gingerbread people moving. https://youtu.be/nPNxkKRDKsc

Pictures

This is the 2020 remote controlled gingerbread house.

This is the 2020 remote controlled gingerbread house showing the circuitry inside the house.

Here's the 2016 circuit board. The 16 pin micro to the left is the MSP430 which controls 2 strips of LEDs and 2 servo motors using four PN2222 transistors.

Here's the 2016 gingerbread house assembled with the 2 LED strips and and gingerbread people on the servo motors. The LEDs are all hooked up in series (6 * 1.8v gives approximately 10.8v forward voltage) running off 12v with a 47ohm resistor. A PN2222 transistor is used to allow the 3.3v MSP430 control the 12v strip of LED's. The two servos are running at 5v and also use PN2222 transistors on the signal line.

Source code
gingerbread_house.asm

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