Electronic Valentine’s Day card

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.

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February 14th, 2009 2

Xander Hudson, aka Synoptic Labs, posted this cool heart card project to the MAKE Flickr pool. He writes:

This year I gave my sweetheart a LED valentines day card. The LEDs were animated with a pulse harmonic tuned to my own heartbeat. (sappy, yeah I know, but she makes me feel sappy). Incorporates 1 AVR ATTiny45 microcontroller driving 2 constant-current shift registers driving 16 LEDs.

Bill of Materials:
1 AVR ATTiny45 microcontroller
2 STP08DP05TTR 8-bit contsant current shift registers
16 red LED’s (0805 package)
Pyralux flexible circuit board material

Synoptic Labs

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LED Valentine’s Day heart