3D-Printed Candle-Simulating LED Lanterns

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Hi All,

I’ve been lurking around for a while and have been very impressed by all you fellow Glowforge owners. In preparation for Glowforge arrival, I’ve been trying to think in 2D a bit more for design these days. Since I’ve never worked with laser cutting, for me that means printing 2D(ish) objects on my 3D printer and exploring ways of making them fit together. Check out a video of making my lastest project:

I wanted to take advantage of the really neat infill patterns that my slicing software (Slic3r) can create. For the lantern walls I used hexagonal infill. The lantern top is 3D-printed with software generated support structures which were then removed with pliers. The microcontroller that controls the multicolor LEDs is an Adafruit Gemma, a $10 open source controller. I programmed it using code found in this guide which makes the LED flicker erratically and subtly shift between different yellows, oranges, and reds to simulate a real flame. It’s powered by a 3.7V, 500mAh rechargeable lithium polymer battery wired in a simple circuit with a switch at the bottom of the enclosure.

I’m excited to remix this design with a laser at some point soon!
Cheers and excited to hear what you all think

Max

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Very nice! :relaxed:

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Thanks!

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Very neat. I do like the edit.

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Cool video! I don’t know anything about 3D printing but I enjoyed the way you put the video together.

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Nice skill set demonstrated there. Especially the video edit. I will watch a hundred of these demo videos to one talking head. I’ve been working on a Greene and Greene inspired tea lamp. An LED version would be a perfect application.

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Thanks, cynd11, making videos is one of my favorite hobbies - although I don’t do it as often these days as I used to. Cheers

Max

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Thanks for introducing me to Greene and Greene - definitely an interesting style and I was not familiar with their work. I’m excited to see your design.

There is a range of electronics options for candle substitutes. While the one I used is definitely not the cheapest ($11 for the controller + LED), it’s the most convincing I’ve come across and cheaper than the store bought variety

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Well done! Cool project, and a great little video.

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