Lighthouse v3 with light fittings

prusaprinters

Some simple add-ons for using some LEDs to simulate the sweeping light of a lighthouse. Not specifically a remix, but a bit of an enhancement, with a nod to the creator of the model I started with. I wanted to have a sweeping light effect for the lighthouse, so I've experimented with two options. In the course of doing this, developed some simple part add-ons that can be used to mount them. Both of these designs are premised on a translucent housing. I did this by simply printing the "9b clear" part with clear filament in "vase/spiral contour" mode (depends on your slicer) with a 2mm base and 0.6mm wall. Even with a 0.4mm nozzle, it's more than sturdy enough. The first uses a 20cm strip of programmable LEDs (WS2812 or similar), sometimes branded as Neopixels (Adafruit). I used a short strip of 60 LEDs/m, which meant I ended up with 12 LEDs. I used some with adhesive backing tape and wrapped them around a simple tube with a matching groove to hold them. I soldered 3 short wires to the strip and ran them through a small hole I cut out in the grove, just between where the two ends of the strip meet. The strip was connected to an Adafruit Flora board that is programmable via USB using the Arduino IDE. The Flora board also has a built-in battery connection for a small LiPo single cell battery which easily drives the board and the LEDs. The resulting effect isn't too bad, but could be improved with higher density strips. Being programmable means you could easily make it do all sorts of funky effects, if desired. The strip holder is simply glued to the clear 9b part and inserted with the base at the bottom. However, I wanted to see what it would look like with brighter LEDs, and I had some lying around, as well as an Adafruit LED driver board with 24 channels. The wiring is a bit more fiddly, but not especially complicated. I printed up a ring with 20 holes, each about 5mm in diameter. I actually used a 5mm drill to clean them up after printing and the LEDs are a nice easy press fit. I arranged them so the "+" lead (anode) all faced the middle and the "-" lead (cathode) bent upwards for me to solder a wire to. Generously applied solder to all the leads in the centre, since the LED driver board expects that. Soldered each of the 20 cathodes to the corresponding port on the controller and another simple Arduino program tells them what to do. Each LED can have an individual brightness with 16-bit precision. To mount the ring, I designed a small roof mount with a little bit of an organic feel to it to save on filament. Here, you turn 9b upside down and glue the ring to the holder and then the holder to the roof. Refer to video for how it looks! https://youtu.be/2lGbvocIaIs Print Settings Printer Brand: Creality Printer: Ender 3 Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: .32 Infill: 5 Filament: eSun PLA+ Varied Notes: I didn't use any supports. This can cause some inner parts to look weird, but they're not visible from the outside. Also, I printed 9b in vase/spiral contour mode. Note that the layer height is very coarse at .32mm, but I was trying to get this done as quickly as possible :-) Category: Buildings & Structures