Building Nanoleaf-Inspired Wall Panels That Look Great

January 28, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 12 Comments

Nanoleaf is well-known as being that company that makes those lovely glowing tiles that you can hang on your wall. The only thing is, they’re not cheap. So if you want a really cool layout, you have to spend a great amount of money. [Projects with Red] was inspired by the basic concept, though, and whipped up their own gem-shaped wall tiles along similar lines.

The devices can work as a big clock if you so desire.

The irregular hexagon shape of each gem has ten connection points to attach the segments together. Physical connections are made using the 3D printed housings of each segment, while connections are simply made with wires and connectors hanging out the back for flexibility.

Each segment features a black printed housing with a solid lid and a translucent acrylic sheet to act as a diffuser. An addressable LED strip is mounted to the lid for illumination, with Dupont connectors for hooking them up to power and data. An ESP32 is used to drive the addressable LED chain, running the WLED.me software for easy control of the lights and animations. The video below also explains how to configure the segments into a giant colorful 7-segment display.

It’s a neat way to build some LED wall art, with plenty of scope to reconfigure it to suit your own needs. We’ve seen some other fun LED tile projects before, too.
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3D Printed RC Kart Actually Made Entirely By Hand

January 28, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 4 Comments

If we told you somebody built a 3D printed go-kart, you’d expect to see a certain sequence of events. A bit of work in CAD, a printer montage, then some assembly. That’s not the case here. [3D Sanago] is an artist that works with 3D printing pens, creating 3D objects entirely by hand. It’s an impressive skill, all the more so when it’s used to build something functional like this gorgeous little go-kart.

Just filling in the front wing of this build took approximately four hours. Thus, [3D Sanago] used foam boards to cover much of the chassis.

The build recreates the kart from the KartRider Rush+ game. The first step was to purchase a basic RC car frame to serve as the basis for the kart. [3D Sanago] then set about building a kart skeleton over the unpainted body of the basic RC car. It starts with a wireframe and individual flat panels that are eventually fused together into 3D trusses using the 3D pen.

The trusses are then mounted to the RC car chassis underneath with some wood plates serving as a supporting structure. [3D Sanago] has been known to surface his creations by tediously filling in the wireframes with the 3D pen, but not so this time. He took the easy way out of affixing sections of foam board to create the outer skin of the kart. He also demonstrates neat techniques like forming over a pen to create long plastic pipes and other tubular features. His acrylic-and-mousepad wheel and tire package is also pretty neat.

It’s as much craft as anything else, but it’s amazing to see what can be done when a human takes on the role of a 3D printer. We’ve featured other great builds from [3D Sanago] before, like this awesome Pokemon-themed humidifier.

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Hotshot 3D Printed Hovercraft Is Devastatingly Fast

January 27, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 8 Comments

These days, it’s pretty cheap and easy to build your own little RC hovercraft. [ValRC] demonstrates just that with a hovercraft build that is surprisingly nimble, and fast to boot.

The build started with a design [ValRC] found online. It was simple enough to print and assemble, needing only a pair of a brushless motors, a speed controller, a receiver, and a servo to run the show. The design uses a plastic bag as a skirt, assembled around a 3D printed frame. That proved to be the hardest part of the build, as hot glue didn’t want to play nice with the thin garbage bag.

Even despite the challenges, once assembled, the hovercraft performed well. It readily slid around on a cushion of air, drifting across asphalt with abandon. Upgrades included a better rudder and a skirt made of thicker and more resilient plastic. The final craft looked mesmerizing as it glided over the smooth concrete of a parking garage with ease.

A hovercraft is, honestly, one of the cooler printable projects for beginners. All you need is a simple design, some powerful motors, and you’re good to go.

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A Look At 3D Printed Professional LED Signage

January 27, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 30 Comments

Customer perception is everything when you’re running a business, particularly in retail. High-quality signage can go a long way into creating a good impression in this respect. [king process] decided to show us how professional-grade LED signage is made in a Korean shop that specializes in the work.

The signs we’re shown are custom builds that are matched to the shape of a company’s logo. No rectangular printed lightboxes here, this is fully custom stuff. To that end, a 3D printer is the perfect tool for the job, as it lets the shop produce signs in any shape desired with no need for custom tooling.

The 3D printers that build up the signs have seriously large build volumes, though more so in the X and Y dimensions rather than the Z. We see a whole fleet of printers working away to allow multiple signs to be produced quickly. The first step is to produce the outline of a sign, which serves as a base for the build. Cavities in the sign are then filled with a translucent silicone solution to act as diffuser material. Once cured, these various sections are colored by hand as required. LED strips are then installed on a backing plate to illuminate the sections of the sign.

The final result is a sign with clean, bright glowing lines. It’s vaguely reminiscent of a neon sign, but without any of the limitations of the glass tubes influencing how it looks. It’s also neat to see the techniques a professional shop uses to make things right the first time, without dinging or marring any of the parts along the way.

Indeed, it seems the classical neon sign is, these days, bested by a variety of alternative technologies.

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A Hydroelectric Dam, Built Out Of LEGO

January 27, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 10 Comments

Hydroelectric dams are usually major infrastructure projects that costs tens of millions of dollars to construct. But they don’t have to be — you can build your own at home, using LEGO, as [Build it with Bricks] demonstrates!

The build is set up in an aquarium with a pump, which serves to simulate flow through a river system. The LEGO dam is installed in the middle of the aquarium, blocking the flow. It has a sluice gate in the lower section to feed water to a turbine for power generation. The gate is moved via a rack and pinion. It’s driven by a LEGO motor on a long shaft to keep it a safe distance from the wet stuff. The dam also gets a spillway to allow for overflow to be handled elegantly. Meanwhile, a second motor acts as a generator, fitted with a fairly basic turbine.

Hilariously, the first build fails spectacularly as the hydrostatic pressure of the water destroys the LEGO wall. A wider base and some reinforcements help solve the problem. There’s a better turbine, too. It’s all pretty leaky, but LEGO was never designed to be water tight. As you might imagine, it doesn’t generate a lot of power, but it’s enough to just barely light some LEDs.

It’s a fun way to learn about hydroelectric power, even if it’s not making major amounts of electricity. Video after the break.

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Building A Cable-Driven Delta Printer

January 26, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 12 Comments

Most of us have played with a Cartesian-style 3D printer. Maybe you’ve even built a rigid delta. In this case, [Diffraction Limited] decided to a little further away from the norm with a cable-based delta design.

This delta design uses direct cable drives to control the end effector, with preloading rods effectively decoupling the preload from the drive force. Thus, the motors only have to provide enough power to move the end effector around without fighting the tension in the cables. The end effector is nice and light, because the motors remain stationary. With lightly-loaded motors and a lightweight effector, rapid accelerations are possible for faster printing. The video does a great job of explaining how the winch-based actuation system works to move the mechanism quickly and accurately. It’s a pleasure to watch the delta robot bouncing around at high speed as it executes a print.

The video notes that it was a successful build, though difficult to calibrate. The strings also wore out regularly. The truth of the matter is, delta printers are just more fun to watch at work than their less-controversial Cartesian cousins. Video after the break.

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Building A Mouse That’s Also A Computer

January 25, 2024 by Zoe Skyforest 27 Comments

Once upon a time, a computer was a big metal brick of a thing that sat on or next to your desk. Now, it’s possible to fit decent computing power into a board the size of a stick of gum. [Electo] took advantage of this to build an entire computer into a mouse form factor.

[Electo] had tried this before years ago, and built something pretty sloppy. This time, he wanted to build a version that had an actually-legible screen and fit better in the hand. He whipped up a giant 3D-printed mouse housing, and fitted the sensor board from an optical mouse inside. That was hooked up to an Intel NUC PC that fits inside the housing. A small LCD screen was then installed on a rack system that lets it pop out the front of the mouse. Data entry is via a laser keyboard mounted in the side of the mouse.

Of course, being based on an Intel NUC means the thing was the size of a couple of phonebooks. That’s not really a mouse. Starting again, he reworked the build around a tiny palm-sized computer running Windows 11. It was stripped out of its case and wedged into a compact 3D-printed housing only slightly larger than a typical mouse. It has a keyboard of a sort – really it’s just an array of buttons covering W, A, S, D, and a couple others for playing simple games. Amazingly, it’ll even run Minecraft or Fortnight if you really want to try and squint at that tiny screen.

Having a computer with a screen that moves every time you move the mouse isn’t ideal. At the same time, it’s fun to see someone explore a fun (and silly) form factor. It’s interesting to see how the project works compared to the original version from a few years ago. Video after the break.

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