LED Throwie Ball
thingiverse
Daniel Spangler, one of our Make Labs interns, constructed a DIY trebuchet kit at 10PM and wanted to illuminate its launched items in the dark. He attached LEDs and a coin cell battery to a tennis ball; however, I thought it could be improved by encasing those components within a transparent plastic sphere. Using AutoCAD, I designed this new ball, printed it on our Thing-O-Matic 3D printer, and inserted the LED and battery. The result was a glowing orb that I'm quite pleased with, considering it was my first attempt. Although the light is more saturated where the LED is pointed, the PLA plastic of the ball disperses it nicely. The transparent sphere requires around 1.5 hours to print and I have included the native DWG file for editing purposes. To create your own glowing orb, download the STL file, clip the leads of a 5mm LED halfway, insert it into the sphere along with a CR2032 lithium battery (ensuring correct polarity), and enjoy the illumination.
With this file you will be able to print LED Throwie Ball with your 3D printer. Click on the button and save the file on your computer to work, edit or customize your design. You can also find more 3D designs for printers on LED Throwie Ball.