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

April 10, 2008
Solar Pendulum of DOOOM blogged on MAKE

I love MAKE magazine. I always enjoy reading (then trying) the projects in each magazine. I was a bit disappointed in their last issue where they didn't cover the complete process to make gunpowder, but that's a minor complaint. I just noticed on their blog that they're talking about our Solar Pendulum kit and Christopher […]

November 14, 2014
Friday New Products: Microphone Accessor...

New product for your attention: Electret Microphone Breakout $7.95 Audio sensors & mics have to be amplified just right for best response. Here's a tidy unit engineered by Sparkfun to make adding an electret mic to your project easy. MEMS microphone board $9.95 Newer MEMS microphones give much better response than older style electret mics, […]

April 16, 2014
Wednesday Links: Helical Springs, Electr...

Did you see the lunar eclipse on Monday night? I wish they had it rescheduled for Sunday afternoon, so all of us night-owls-who-have-to-get-up-early could watch that. But noooOOoOO. But at least the internet will save us. At least from information deficit. Laser Cut Helical Springs I wonder if zigzag helical springs can still travel down […]

April 25, 2011
Looking for additions to our own IT Crow...

(Thanks for the interest - welcome Chris to the team!) Our IT task at Solarbotics have grown beyond "Did you try turning it off and then on again?", so we're in the hiring market for an IT Guru & website manager. Please, we're only interested in applicants that can work here, in Calgary, Alberta. Sorry, […]

1 44 45 46 47 48 253
Solarbotics Ltd Logo
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.