WeMos D1 Mini ESP8266 LED Bar Case

thingiverse

This is a case designed to hold a WeMos D1 Mini ESP8266 microcontroller and a strip of addressable LEDs. The ESP8266 can connect to a data source and display status on the LEDs. I use it to read out the status of my garage door and other sensors in my home. The ESP8266 connects to an MQTT message broker and receives messages to control the LEDs. I printed the body in black ABS and the lens in clear ABS. Other materials would work well. The lens doesn't have to be clear. The LEDs are very bright and will be easily visible through white material. Other colors will also work, but will filter the color of the LEDs. The WeMos D1 Mini is a self-contained ESP8266 board with the ESP-12F microcontroller, a 3.3v regulator, and built-in USB UART. They are readily available from a variety of sources. Official WeMos Store I used five WS2812b LEDs cut from a strip containing 60 LEDs per meter. These are also available all over eBay. Find WS2812b LED strips on eBay. You can also purchase WS2812b LED strips at Amazon. You can see in the photos that I added an additional SMT chip onto the microcontroller. This is a schmidt-trigger hex inverter used to convert the 3.3V output of the microcontroller to the 5V input of the LED strip. This is not necessarily needed. In most cases, the 3.3V output will drive the LEDs just fine. I just wanted to try the proper level converter to see if I could make it work. Demo video here: https://youtu.be/nMmwOEkX5Ko When you click on these links and make a purchase, it can result in commissions from eBay, Amazon, and Alibaba that help support my work. Print Settings Printer: MakerFarm Prusa i3v Rafts: Doesn't Matter Supports: Yes Resolution: .2mm Infill: 40% Notes: Supports are necessary to print the raised lip on the body pieces. Post-Printing Print Cleanup Depending on your printer and slicer, the support material may leave a rough surface on the lips of the body that fit into the lens. After printing and removing the support material, you can sand or file down the rough surfaces so the lens fits correctly. The rough surfaces will be covered by the lens and will not be visible. Gluing The Case Together I glued my case together using Testors Plastic Cement, available from Amazon. After dry-fitting everything to make sure it fit, I disassembled it and brushed liquid cement onto the mating edges of the case. I let it sit for about 30 seconds and then assembled it. I also brushed cement on the front lips of the body and the mating surfaces inside the lens and pressed the lens on. I bound the parts together using zip ties and a vise, and let the cement set for about 30 minutes. The vise I used is a Panavise Jr. I also used it to hold the parts while soldering. How I Designed This Fusion 360 Model This was designed using Fusion 360. You can get the original design files here: http://a360.co/2aiOI76 Custom Section Code Here is a NodeMCU firmware code example: ws2812.init() local buffer = ws2812.newBuffer(5,3) buffer:fill(0,0,0) tmr.alarm(0, 50, 1, function() local hue = (hue + 1) % 360 local r,g,b = hueToRgb(hue) i = i + d if( i == 5 ) then d = -1 end if( i == 1 ) then d = 1 end buffer:fade(3) buffer:set(i, r,g,b) buffer:write() end)