The 2025 ornament was a departure from some of the previous years technologies. Making it USB-tethered allowed for a much higher power budget and the construction was swapped from PCB only to FPC. The LEDs were also switched out to WS2812 style smart LEDs in a diffused 2mm square package. 6 woven FPCs carried power, ground and a single daisy-chained LED bus through all 60 RGB LEDs.
A tiny, 12mm diameter, controller PCB was designed around a STM32C071 with a USB-FS device for programming, debug and pattern uploading. All internal-facing solder pads were used to connect the FPCs into a 80mm diameter ball and the controller PCB soldered between 3 vertices, with an ambient light sensor and tiny mode button.
Fred Temperton 