@jasoncoon I redesigned the spreaders at the top of the LED cube. Now they run front to back, and they're a lot easier to insert the vertical PCBs into. It takes maybe 20% as long to assemble as my previous design where I had to drop the spreader over the ends of a row of sticks.
This design is probably about ready to go up on Printables.
🧵 17/N
I've been sitting on this for a few days, because this thing is really hard to capture on video. But here's my LED cube with its new 3D printed frame and mirror acrylic panels. I like it.
Thanks to @jasoncoon for the laser cutting.
🧵 16/N
And here it is. It fits. It can be assembled. It still works.
I printed some placeholder panels in natural PLA. They're kind of a cool effect, though not what I intended. I'm planning to replace them with half-mirrored acrylic. Now that I know the dimensions are right, I can order acrylic panels.
It's hard to see when they're backlit, but the top and side frame pieces are the same silk chrome PLA as the rails in the base (see 🧵 14).
🧵 15/N
The LED cube's base came out okay. The Pixelblaze fits snugly, and the back panel looks better than it needs to. The printer is still printing the rest of the parts.
All glory to @jasoncoon for designing and manufacturing the LED cube. I'm just designing a new enclosure for it.
🧵 14/N
I've reached that point in the project where I'm pretty sure it will come together. I'm on the second iteration of the plastic parts. The first iteration gave me a good idea of how it would look and _almost_ fit. Now I just wait for the printer...
🧵 13/N
@jasoncoon Oops! These spreaders were designed to print upside down, but I forgot to flip them in the slicer. Printer didn't care.
🧵 12/N
@jasoncoon This is designed for 3mm acrylic panels. If I could find the right acrylic (half-mirrored or two-way mirrored silver) in 1mm, the edges would be a lot slimmer and probably a little harder to print.
🧵 11/N
@jasoncoon This is what I'm thinking for the new LED cube case. The acrylic panels are plain rectangles, no tabs, slots or other complications.
I think it's time to start melting plastic, just as soon as I can decide what colors to use. (Any suggestions?)
🧵 10/N
@jasoncoon A little 3D modeling update. I like the way the back panel is coming. It has a mass produced look, at least in the render. (I may apply fuzzy skin when I print it and keep the texture nubbly.)
(Yeah, I'm back in Fusion 360. This is way out of reach for me in FreeCAD.)
🧵 9/N
@jasoncoon It's always surprising when a 3D model fits perfectly on the first try. This is a little tray to hold a Pixelblaze and its sensor board. I've decided to try 3D printing a housing for my LED cube, and this is a test of the dimensions for the Pixelblaze shelf. Looks good; time to build the rest of the housing around it.
🧵 8/N
Kernel Bob 