Tree Of Life

thingiverse

I created this as a tribute to my loved ones to celebrate Día de Muertos in Mexico (November 1st). I don't own the rights to the image of the tree, but after some research, I found it was based on a 2010 tattoo drawing. So, I decided I could share it. The wreath is also based on a free image. You'll need a minimum printing area of 227x237 mm (rotating part A of the tree 45 degrees) if you want to print this with its current dimensions and in one piece. The lithophanes were created using an amazing site, and you can see the settings in this image. I used an Elegoo 2.8" TFT shield to be able to play a slideshow. The shield includes the required example and libraries to accomplish this. I used a Nano because I had some laying around and had to make an adapter for the shield, but an Uno will also fit if you power it from the VIN pin. I also added a version without "roots" so you can only have the upper side of the tree. Basically like in the first picture. I used one 6.5ft fairy LED lights strip wrapped around the spacers. The ones I actually used are these, but I could find the same product on Amazon's main site. You can even use the tree without the lithophanes or back reflecting covers and it looks great with only the lit rings... I connected the lights directly to the same 5V PSU I used for the Arduino, adding two 10 Ohms resistors in series. Be careful to make sure it's not generating too much heat for the plastic around. That's it, enjoy.