I am an EET student at HVCC and I took a Microcontroller class this semester. We have gone through all of the examples and projects in the “What's a Microcontoller?” book so I am listing that as my reference for this project. This is my first project outside of class and is definitely NOT going to be my last because we all know how much microcontrollers rule! Unfortunately I had to give back the 2x16 serial LCD at the end of this semester last week so it got removed from the project. This project has taken me a total of about 10 days to construct, program and troubleshoot. It also doesn’t help that finals are this week...

I have constructed a Christmas scene at the North Pole with LEDs and photoresistors put into various objects. A Joystick is used to control two servo’s and a pushbutton for the laser. When the photoresistor is hit by the laser then the target’s LEDs will light up and it will make some noises throughout. I am using the BASIC Stamp on the BOE for this project. The intro song used for the North Pole is "White Christmas" and the song used for the villain is "In the Hall of the Mountain King."

I picked up a few cheap Christmas decorations at the dollar store and Walmart as well as cotton balls, glitter (don’t ask) and 9V batteries for about $10. I threw everything on top of a pizza box and had used other cardboard boxes for things. I had to pick up two servos, LEDs, photoresistors, a speaker, joystick, various resistors and wire from RadioShack. I had used my $50 gift card I’ve been holding on to for a year. The laser was bought off of Amazon for like $5. The BOE was picked up at the beginning of the semester.