Skip to content
Snippets Groups Projects
Select Git revision
  • main default protected
1 result
History
w4tsn's avatar
update ledrail.scad
w4tsn authored 
Add a cone for the screw heads and use actual screw parameters for
length and width.

Remove wago / 5V IN compartment and reduce complexity.

Widen the cable duct on the inside for more space of the three cables
between the esp and the strip.

Integrate the back side-plate and only use one removal for accessing the
esp and led strip.

Introduce a tolerance variable to take into account that the acryl glass
is not always exactly as thick as advertised.
7c417249
Name Last commit Last update
images
COPYING
LICENCE
README.md
ledrail.scad
ledrail.stl
ledrail_side_plate.stl
wip_ledrail2.scad
README.md

LEDrail

A parameterized 3D printed rail for controllable LED stripes and acrylglass. This repo provides files, description and learnings on the 3d printing of the rail and laser engrave process.

A set of example signs

Specs

  • 18 SK6812 LEDs (if 300mm length)
  • 570mA max draw
  • USB C
  • wled with all it*s features

Reproduction

Ingredients

  • PMMA Acrylglass
  • ESP8266 D1 Mini
  • Around 150 gramm of filament
  • WLED
  • 300mm (customizable) LED strip, best with 60 LEDs per meter
  • Two screws
  • Glue
  • Three different colored wires

Print the components

The 3D model source is written in OpenSCAD in ledrail.scad. It is exported into three STL files:

The first one is the main component which will hold everything together. The side-plate has screw holes for easy removal in case of maintenance.

It may be necessary to split the model in half if the printer is not big enough (a bit more than 30x30x300 mm). In any case support can be reduced by printing it vertically with the esp compartment facing upwards.

Engrave the PMMA acrylglass

Some general learnings:

  • Use a cutable (non-melting) protective foil, big enough to protect the working area, so hot material removed by the laser does not damage surrounding material
  • Mirror whatever you want to engrave and engrave it onto the back of the material
  • Depending on the size of the acryl glass use thicker glass for bigger parts. E.g. I found 4 suitable for 200mm height and 5mm for 300mm height.

I was fortunate and found 200mm x 300mm PMMA Plexiglas for 4€ per piece on ebay.

ESP wiring

The ESP can provide 500mA to the strip max. In addition the chip itself draws up to 70mA.

A data wire (white) is connected to GPIO2 and the strip input.

Configure wled

Install wled via serial over USB-C. You can then configure wifi access either via the serial connection over USB-C or the hotspot the esp should open up.

In the configuration screen make sure to set the following:

  • Max draw to 500mA
  • LED strip to SK6812
  • Number of LEDs to 18

A note on the OpenSCAD code

The code is pretty bad, really repetitive but does it's job. It's a simple model and there is a lot of refactoring in order. Feel free to send a merge request or meet up to discuss techniques over a cup of coffee.

You'll find two main variables at the top of the file to control the size of the acrylglas the rail is printed for.

The side-plate is "hidden" (via the "*" operator). To output stl files for the side plate(s) use the "!" operator instead.

More pictures

A set of example signs

A set of rails, freshly printed and unglued

A set of esp8266 ready to be prepared for operation in the rail

[picture of soldering process missing]

[picture of bottom and 5V connection missing]