Every maker should have a signature attire. Like a special hat, goggles or bow tie. When you go to a maker meeting, people recognize you based on this. I need a signature attire too, to show off at parties and gatherings! What if I make a tie with lots of LEDs? A FestiviTie!
FestiviTieThe last weeks of 2025, I’ve worked on my FestiviTie project; a tie with lot’s of LEDs and a Matrix display.
Why do I need a FestiviTie?
Every maker should have a signature attire. Like a special hat, goggles or bow tie. When you go to a maker meeting, people recognize you based on this. Last November, I did visit Maker Faire Shenzhen. And figured that I was lacking this signature attire…
As I was in Shenzhen, I took the opportunity to visit the M5Stack office for the Open Day 2025. We did get a tour through their R&D, manufacturing and order processing departments. Great way to see in real life where our little MCU devices come from. A second great advantage from this Open Day, is that they gave out limited edition M5Stack MorseCode Matrix devices.
A nice little MCU with Matrix LED display should not get into the Junk Drawer for too long. I was sure that I soon had to build project with this. And that is where the Hackster.io Junk Drawer competition came around, right in time for Christmas. I need a signature attire to show off at parties and gatherings! What if I make a tie with lots of LEDs? A FestiviTie!
What do I need for that?
- MCU + Display »»» M5Stack Matrix
- LED lights »»» Christmas decoration
- Something to stick it on »»» a silver tie
What did I make of that?
The silver tie has in the middle the M5Stack Matrix display (including an ESP32 C3 MCU) added. From top-to-bottom there is a string with 40 LEDs, connected to GPIO 9 of the Matrix. The tie can be configured by connecting your phone with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) via a website to the FestiviTie.
With the my company’s holiday party I’ve tested it first time in public:
I took the remarks with me for building an even better version. You can read all about it on my Hackster.io project page.
