7 segment LED sign (parametric)

youmagine

Here's a video of the almost finished project: If there's interest, I can upload the electronic specifications/program too, but it's pretty straightforward, anyone who has done any Arduino work at all can replicate it. Customize the SCAD to fit your needs - you can customize anything, size, depth, number of LEDs, etc. Make a single segment and any masks you need. Turn on the segments that you require for each digit. For a 1, you can turn off "fulldigit" to create a narrow "half digit" as I have in the photo. Remember it prints upside down so choose your segments accordingly. I use standard 7-segment A through G terminology. Print out as many copies of the segments as you need. I printed the segments at 0% infill - they're still pretty sturdy (at 3 solid layers) and the light diffusion is a little better than with infill. Put LEDs in, wire them however you like. I used sets of three LEDs in series with 220-ohm resistors, intended to run off 12 volts. I simply hand-wired the LEDs, inserted the segments into the masks, then hot-glued everything together (as seen in one of the photos), then drilled the corners and secured it to the plywood with self-tapping "sheet metal" screws. After completing the sign, someone suggested that given the team name "Technical Difficulties", at least one digit should flicker occasionally. Therefore I built a controller based on an Arduino that does a few patterns, including one of the digits is wonky every few seconds. You can see this as well as a glance of the electronics in the video above. I also threw together a quick box to cover the electronics seen in the video - saved as electronics box and plunger (for the mode switch).