Electronic Valentine Heart: LEDs are red my dear （1）

Published:2011/7/28 22:25:00 Author:Li xiao na From:SeekIC

Design by F. Wolling

Although this month’s Mini Project is not exactly stunning from a technical point of view, there are a number of unusual sides to it, mainly regarding why and how it came to be published in this issue. Read on...

Unusual aspect no. 1: This is the first Valentine circuit ever to be published in Elektor, and no, the highstreet flower shops are not to blame if that is the first you associate with Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day is reportedly the day we ’celebrate’ the beheading of a priest called Valentinus on 14 February 270. The execution orders came from an oppressive emperor called Claudius Goticus (a.k.a. Claudius II). According to some sources, Valentinus was a bishop and the 14!n of February a popular Roman holiday. The legend of Saint Valentine tells us the martyr was executed for illicit marrying of Christian couples, the occasions being marked by Valentinus presenting lots of flowers to the newly weds.

The oldest literary evidence for Valentine’s Day being associated with (secret) love may be found in 14th century writings, as well as in some of Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays.
Unusual aspect no. 2: The designer of this circuit, Florian Wolling, was 14 years old when he sent us his article proposal — making him the youngest external author ever to make it to publication of a Mini Project.

Unusual aspect no. 3: Originally, this project did not stand a chance of getting published in Elektor Electronics. Just like all contributions and other article proposals we receive from free-lance authors, Florian’s papers were ’evaluated for publication value’ during a meeting of editors and design staff. Although the project met with praise for the meticulous way the circuit, the circuit board and the documentation had been designed and presented, and despite the fact that the small heart-shaped LED ornament was ’charming’, the manuscript was rejected for publication because the complete project was found rather too simple for our demanding readership. However, when writing a letter informing Florian about the rejection of his project, still encouraging him to send further projects in the future, one of our fellow editors suddenly recognized the simple arrangement of LEDs on a board as the perfect circuit for Valentine’s Day. Having discovered that such a circuit had not been ’done’ before in our magazine, and because Elektor editors are always open to novelties, the LED Heart was added to out forward planning schedule. So, here it is, although one more thing should be noted...

Unusual aspect no. 4: The Elektor designer assigned with the technical preparation of Florian’s project (mainly to make it meet our design standards), could not resist doing his bit of post-engineering. Admittedly, there’s not you can change drastically

when looking at one resistor and a bunch of paralleled LEDs, but improvements and fine tuning are always possible. The difference between Florian’s LED Heart and the Elektorised version boiled down to the components used. Apparently. Florian was encouraged to use SMD LEDs by our two-part article ’SMDs — Don’t Panic!’ In the January and February 2003 issues of Elektor Electronics. The resulting project, he thought, would make a excellent gift as well present a convincing exercise to win over those readers still hesitant about their own skills in handling these tiny components. The latter aspect has been crossed out, however, because the Elektorised version of the project employs normal size components, not only with an aim to make the project easier to reproduce for beginners, but also to prevent component sourcing problems. Because all components except the LEDs are soldered at the rear side of the board, only the LED faces are visible from the front, allowing the front side of the board to be painted or sprayed in whatever way you like. For our own prototype, we happened to have some red paint left...

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