Decoration light with transparent Top with AtomStack logo on three sides. Useful to signal a running laser engraving machine or just as decoration.

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Why

This is my entry for the AtomStack Thingiverse challenge.
Also, a red light with a logo on it seems pretty nice.

Design Details

A red light with a top that has the AtomStack logo on three sides.

Assembled, it has the dimensions of about 55x100x30mm (HxWxD). Scaling might be possible but not tested.
All parts come in small variations, depending on the parts at hand or what function is wanted. To make it easy for me to assemble the Thing I descided to use a 12V LED strip and a 24V plug-in power supply. That also gives me the option to connect it directly to a machine's control voltage if needed.

The Base of the Thing holds the electrical connector and a light switch (if needed).
A voltage converter, either a step-up or step-down converter, can be used optionally. If wanted, there's a variation of the Base without the holes for the light switch.
If screws should be used to mount the voltage converter to the Base the "screw" variation can be used. Otherwise "screwless" is recommended.
The tiny pillars in the "screw use" variation where the Voltage Converter will sit have a 2mm hole. Depending on the screws used, small hole adjustments with the Hole Expansion option in the slicer is needed.
The wall of the Base is 2mm thick. Take that into account when selecting the needed DC plug. The hole for the DC plug has 11.5mm. The nubs for Voltage Converter are made for a 16x30mm mounting hole pattern.

The Light Layer holds LEDs strips for illumination of the Top.
If no screws should be used, the "screwless" variation has additional pillars that hold the voltage converter in place.
The notch in the Light Layer has 3x5mm and should fit most cables.
Gap between Light Layer and Base is about 0.4mm but should not need any adjustment because it's not designed to be a press fit. If it is anyways, that's okay too.
When using an LED strip, be aware that maybe an additional resistor is needed, depending on the type of strip used.

The Top of the Thing has an AtomStack logo on three sides and a small text "Laser In Use". It should snap lightly into place and holds the Light Layer in place. There's also a variant without the additional text.
The gap between the Top and Base is designed with a 0.1mm. Depending on printer tolerances and personal experience, slight horizontal expansion adjustment might be needed. The Top should snap in place with a little bit of force. The text and logo can optionally be marked with a black felt pen for more contrast.

Print Instructions

Select the needed variation depending on the parts at hand or available.

Print out the Base
with supports if needed (depending on printer experience).
Lower infill possible.

If the Light Layer "screwless" (with the pillars) is used, flip the part and make the pillars go up.
No support is needed. Lower infill is possible.
Print in black filament or other color of your choice.

The Top is best printed with the opening towards the bed and with tree supports. That way, the AtomStack logo and top layer will come out nicely.
Depending on filament transparency, 100% infill can be used.
Use Red transparent color filament for maximum laser light effect. Other color is possible as well, of course.

Designed for FDM printing.

Materials Needed

• 1x DC plug 5x2.1.
• 30 to 40 cm of LED strip, self-adhesive recommended.
• Power supply with 5x2.1 DC plug.
• (optional)1x micro toggle switch.
• (optional)1x LM2596 xor 1x XL6009 voltage converter, depending on LED strip voltage an power supply voltage.
• (tools) Voltage meter.
• (tools) Tiny screwdriver.
• (tools) Soldering iron.
• Small wires.
• Solder.
• (recommended) Black felt pen.

Recommended filament colors:

• Red transparent
• Black

Assembly Instructions

I assume a Voltage Converter is used. The assembly instructions take that into account.
If no Voltage Converter is used, just solder the wires form the DC plug directly to the LED strip. Depending if a switch or no switch should be used, the instructions have some variation. Just skip the steps that don't apply to your variation.

• Print out all the parts in needed variation (screwless, without switch, etc.) and carefully remove the supports.
• (optional) With the Black Felt Pen mark the writing on the Top black to give it more contrast when light is on.
• Set the Top aside. It is finished.
• Take the DC plug and solder wires to them.
• (If Switch is used) Put DC plug into hole and solder the Ground(-) wire to the Ground connector of the Voltage Converter. Solder the VCC(+) wire to the center pin of the switch. Leave a litte bit of slack in the wire for more comfortable installation.
• (If no switch is used) Put DC plug into hole and solder the Ground(-) wire and the VCC(+) wire to the inputs of the Voltage Converter.
• (If Switch is used) To one of the outer pins of the Switch, solder a wire. Connect the other end of the wire to the VCC(+) input of the Voltage Converter.
• (If Switch is used) Insert switch into hole and fix into place.
• Solder one wire each to the VCC and Ground output of the Voltage Converter.
• Connect Power supply to DC plug and use Voltage meter to check to the correct output voltage of the Voltage Converter. Use Tiny screwdriver to adjust output voltage.
• Have you checked the output voltage with the Voltage meter?
• Disconnect Power supply if not yet done.
• Cut LED strip into small pieces of about 100cm length.
• Glue them onto the Light Layer. Make sure that the input is near the notch in the Light Layer.
• Solder the ends of the LED strip together to connect them into a line again.
• Solder the VCC wire and Ground wire from the Voltage Converter output to the inputs of the LED strips
• Connect Power supply and test the Light.
• Put all parts into the Base and fix them.
• Carefully route the wires for the LED strip through the notch in the Light Layer and put it into place.
• Put the Top into place. It should snap into place with a little bit of force.
• Switch on the Light. And enjoy.
• Done.

If you like what I'm doing you can Support me on Ko-Fi

[07 Oct 2024]

No

Yes

0.2

20%

Print with 0.4mm nozzle and default layer height of 0.2mm

Base:
Use supports.
20% infill should be enough.
Color: Black recommended.

Light Layer:
Upside-down if "screwless" (with the pillars) is used, otherwise it doesn't matter.
No support is needed.
20% infill should be enough.
Color: Black recommended.

Top:
Opening towards the bed
Use Tree supports.
100% infill can be used, depending on filament transparency.
Color: Red transparent recommended.

Designed for FDM printing.

The first ideas on how the different parts can fit together were sketched roughly on a phone with a basic draw program.
From there, the idea boiled down in my head and I selected the variation with the least printing effort. The goal was to minimize the need for supports while also keeping the part count low.

One of the challenges was to make all parts fit together without having additional nubs on the parts because these are difficult for me to design in FreeCAD.

From the rough sketch and the parts I had in boxes on my shelf, I started to lay components out on a cutting board with centimeter scale to get a rough idea of the final size.

In FreeCAD I started with the base of the thing and worked my way up with the additional parts.
Because I like some variation in the Things I make, I payed close attention to the order of parts in CAD to be able to export different variations later.

The first trys to export the logo from the AtomStack website failed with strange artifacts in the STL.
After a longer search I have found the German AtomStack website and was able to use the SVG of their logo to successfully export the logo as a STL file.

Due to problems not getting a solid object in TinkerCAD and getting some artifacts in Meshmixer, I turned to my final resort TinkerCAD to combine the logo-less top of the Lamp and the TinkerCAD logo.

Due to thinking ahead while making the 3D model in CAD I was able to easily modify the model for uses without switch and screws.

A small difficulty was to keep the assembly instructions complete for all variations but keeping them readable. Because a small amount of knowledge regarding electronics in needed to solder some things together, I decided to assume a voltage converter because, at least for me, there's never the correct voltage. Also, connecting the DC plug to a switch to the LED switch I deemed to be very easy so I described the little bit more difficult variation with a voltage converter.

If you like what I'm doing you can Support me on Ko-Fi