Flame Crystal

thingiverse

Art project. 3-D design, electronics, programming. Proof of concept for bigger projects, maybe. Definitely a work in progress. https://youtu.be/58YBYkTr3eM UPDATE 2017.02.02 This project has evolved into http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2081258 Print Settings Printer Brand: MakerBot Printer: MakerBot Replicator Z18 Rafts: Yes Supports: No Resolution: High Infill: 0% Notes: The 0 infill setting is only for the cover piece, as it is intended to be completely hollow. I used whatever the default infill was, and regular support for the rest of the pieces. I used a small nut and bolt run through the center hole of the scaffold and the base to hold them together. Post-Printing After carefully removing it from the raft, carefully (much harder than anticipated...) remove enough material from the bottom of the cover to accommodate the scaffold inside it. NeoPixel LED strip The scaffold is designed to hold the "Adafruit Mini Skinny NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Strip - 144 LED/m" which I purchased at https://www.adafruit.com/product/2970 to illuminate the sides and one of the "Breadboard-friendly RGB Smart NeoPixel" which I purchased at https://www.adafruit.com/products/1312 to illuminate the apex. I spent some time reading through the NeoPixel Überguide before slicing the strip apart for this project. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide/overview Attaching sliced apart LED strips to scaffold, and soldering them back together Soldering To allow my micro-controller to communicate with the LEDs, and thus control them, I need to make sure there is a serial data path that connects them all. The idea is to connect the data out of each LED with the data in of the next one. This means needing to solder a cable from the middle lead above the top LED of each strip to the middle lead below the bottom LED of the next strip, and from the last strip to the data in on the apex LED. The first LED's data in port will then be connected through a resistor to pin 6 on the Arduino. Powering the LEDs is simpler, as they are powered in parallel. I need to connect all the power leads together. Program the micro-controller The included FlameCrystal_RainbowFlame.ino file is an Arduino sketch. Compiling and uploading this code to an Arduino connected to the Flame Crystal results in the rainbow flame light show behavior shown in the video above. See the comments at the top of the file for an attribution link to the original code I began from, as well as links to the needed Arduino libraries. How I Designed This Ramble I started by mocking up the LED strips in SketchUp, then what a toothed rail to hold them would look like. Then I decided what the outside shell would look like, and I arranged the rails in order to be as aligned with those faces as I could. Then I connected all the rails together in a printer friendly way. The base I threw together last, and was probably the least thought out part of the thing. Custom Section Lessons Learned The toothed rails worked exactly as imagined, along with zip ties they wound up being perfect for the job of holding the LED strips in place. However, I badly measured the little pedestal at the apex of the scaffold, so the single LED there does not fit as snugly as planned; I used putty to help and it's alright. However... I'm still not actually using that apex LED, as the NeoMatrix library doesn't have a way of accommodating an extra LED on beyond the rectangular 2D array that it handles. Soldering tiny components is difficult and fatiguing, particularly if you have large hands and a lot of caffeine. If you make mistakes, you might need to undo and re-do connections. I worked on this for a couple of days before I could verify that everything was connected correctly. Future Ideas Bigger, more complex shapes. Re-designing the base piece to hold the Arduino, breadboard, and power supply would be useful. Re-designing it to be powered off of batteries. Maybe adding an audio component to "crackle". Re-designing it to run at night off of batteries that charge during the day.