Customisable LED matrix diffuser grid

thingiverse

This is a customisable diffuser grid for an LED matrix display, for displaying animated patterns or pixel art. Matrices can come in a number of sizes, either prebuilt units (8x8 or 16x16 are common sizes), or for larger displays, you can solder together strips of LEDs to build a grid, row by row. Plenty of how-tos on making matrices that I've seen have the diffuser laser cut out of cardboard or other material. I'm a long way from a laser cutter, hence this design. The aim of this design is to allow you to print a grid of arbitrary dimensions, irrespective of your printer's print area, by printing it as a series of units that snap together. To do this, you will need to make multiple uses of the customiser to print units with and without edges to generate a full grid. You can also include optional attachment points on the edges and base of your design, to hold your matrix securely in a frame. A quicker way to generate a set of printable files is to download the included .scad source file for the design, and open it in the free [Openscad](http://openscad.org/) and generate your stl files in there, directly. This was my first Openscad model, it is a reproduction of my original single-use Sketchup design. Openscad is a powerful tool for generating complex print-ready geometry, from code, and I'm happy to have added it to my modelling toolbox. Prints are generated upside down, so if your first layer suffers from a bit of "elephant's foot", this is not the end of the world. If your are planning to paste a paper diffuser to your grid, it can be an advantage! UPDATED 28/12/21 - Dogfooded the design some more in printing a full 32 / 32 grid (16 prints, 9 models) from it, improved mounting points size and positions.