Every year a group of my friends have an engineering Secret Santa. The rules are simple: make something cool for under $20 that requires engineering to complete. In years past we’ve seen Google cardboard VR headsets that are 6DOF, match stick rockets, 3D printed fans that explode when used, 3D printed rockets with cardboard launch […]
3D Printed Treetop Star
Solar botics
December 9, 2014
Initially inspired by the Moravian Star on Instructables and the fact that we now carry all kinds of 3D printing filament, we decided to make one of our own glowy holiday star. We have used this thing as source files to create a similar treetop decoration of our own.
After some trial and error (due to the Slicer not cooperating)...
...we printed a whole forest of perfect wintery spiky star-ends.
And, well, we just had to have someone live there for a bit. In this case, a snowman:
Our addressable 5mm LEDs were well suited to light this contraption. We drilled a hole in the bottom of each spike..
..to fit the LED's domed part:
And then wired everything up. It wasn't pretty but the WS2812 LED that we used made it much easier than a conventional RGB LED: rather than 3 separate channels, the WS2812 LED only has a data in and data out. Chain them all together and they work like a charm!
And here's the final product, ready to light up our office with wonderful glowing lights!
MORE POSTS
Red Lanterns Back in Stock
For all of you holding out to get your Valentine's Day Lantern in red, the wait is over! It's now back in stock and ready to order. You can get your HexPummer Lantern right here.
Monday New Product: Solder and Grove
Lead-free Solder Spool (100g) $9.55 Solder, without lead! Adapter, 9VDC @ 1A $6.79 This Adapter, 9V @ 1A is a economical power transformer. Grove - Universal 4 Pin 20cm Unbuckled Cable (5 PCs Pack) $3.78 Extra cables for Grove modules. Seeed Grove - 3-Axis Digital Accelerometer $35.75 The H3LIS331DL is a low power high performance […]
MakeFashion 2014
Just a quick note to say that we have survived MakeFashion, with (hopefully) positive outcomes, and if you haven't attended, the highlights of the show are available on our Flickr photostream.
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!
Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.
Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.