LED Mount and Light Diffuser a for Moon Light

thingiverse

The moon light lithophane is great and ever since I made the first one for my Grand-Daughter I've had request for more and more prints. The discrete dim glow is just right to allow young children to sleep and parents to navigate an otherwise dark room. The main problem addressed by this project is the uneven light distribution and the light and dark spots shown on the surface of the lamp when adding LED lighting. It is also difficult to ensure the LEDs remain fixed in the centre and don't flap about. This project provides a simple light diffuser add-on to the moon light which makes it easy to add LED lighting. The LED strip just slides into the centre slot, and the diffuser can be glued to the bottom section of the moon. This keeps the lighting centred without bright and dark spots appearing in the lamp. The super simple F360 source file and a STL is provided so you can alter it yourself. The STL is designed to be printed in "Spiral Vase" mode and works best just with a single shell. Mine prints in about 2 hours. For the lighting, cut 2 sections of 3 LEDs at the marked lines. Expose the copper pad on both and stick them back to back using the built-in adhesive backing with the -ve on the same side as the other -ve and the same for the +ve pads. Solder the 2 -ve pads together and same for the +ve pads. Grab an old 12V DC plug pack and solder the -ve to the -ve pads on the LED strip. It needs to be 9 to 12 V DC to illuminate the LEDs. Connect the +ve line via a 2.2 k-ohm resistor to the +ve pads. Tape the exposed connections so they can't short, plug in and test. Insert the LEDs into the diffuser and glue it to the base part. I found that a sharp knife can be used to cut the silicon cover on the LED strip above the copper pads. The silicon can be pulled away with pointy pliers to allow soldering. See the photo on how the resistor can be soldered in so it takes minimum space. Don't forget to join the -ve to -ve and +ve to +ve on each side so the LEDs on each side of the strip work. Larger resistance values cause a dimmer light, and dimmer is better,