Christmas fun for makers
Maker Christmas

© Lead Image © fabio bergamasco, 123RF.com
Make your own Christmas music box with a microcontroller, servomotor, NeoPixel LED ring, and mini-MP3 player.
Music boxes and Christmas pyramids are among the top sellers in Germany during the Advent season. Expensive, hand-carved items can fetch four-figure sums, whereas cheap imitations sell for EUR20 (~$17). Christmas pyramids are often powered by the heat of candles, and the cheaper ones in particular have such an unfavorable candle-to-propeller ratio that the pyramid will not turn without mechanical help. Music boxes are driven by fragile springs, but the constant need to rewind them spoils the fun.
My idea of building a music box of my own design was born from these frustrations. In terms of the electronics, you do not need many components. The following sections are intended to give you some ideas for your own projects; the parts used in this example can easily be replaced by whatever delving into the depths of your lumber box reveals. The only important elements in this project are light, motion, and music.
Controls
To control the project, I used a Trinket M0 microcontroller [1] by Adafruit (Figure 1), which runs CircuitPython, a minimalist Python that supports a wide range of peripherals with its many libraries. The price of the controller is in the same range as a Pi Zero, including an SD card, but it is easier to put into operation because you do not need to install and configure an operating system.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.