Overengineerd Lithopane Lantern
Description
The moment I saw the lantern designed by FLA_Labs, I was determined I would make one for myself. However, there are a couple of technical objections I have against the original design: 1. The use of wooden dowels. Who wants to make a trip to the hardware store? 2. The positioning of the dowel holes. They are placed so they weaken the structure. 3. The unneccecary waste of filament for supports. 4. Fixating everything with glue. 5. LED-strip on batteries. I went to work and made the following improvements: 1. I remodelled the parts of the lantern for custom dowels. They not only support the construction, they also align the parts perfectly to each other. Too big or too small? Simply print them at a lower or higher percentage. The long dowels are for the bottom parts, the short ones for the upper parts. 2. I placed the holes/pockets so that they rather strengthen the structure instead of weakening it. 3. I've cut the model into parts. For the whole model, the only supports needed are on the center of the base, around the hole for the lamp and maby for the PCB mount. This saves a huge amount of filament. 4. I've modelled the "light" so that 2 M6 nuts can be inserted. Just pause the print at the correct height, insert a nut, and resume. The base and top are remodelled to take a M6x25 nut with a small washer on top and a large washer at the bottom. A longer bolt is possible, the 6.2 hole/pocket extends the complete length of the lamp, improving it's stability. This together with the custom dowels make for a super sturdy construction! Only handtightening the bolts is enough! 5. I've made a custom 4x6cm PCB, with a ESP8266/Wemos D1 mini microcontroller, a BC337 transistor, mounted on a strip of aluminium for heat dissapation. Between pin D1 and the transistor's base, there is a 330 Ohm transistor. It feeds a 5V LED strip which already has resistors, so the strip is connected to the transistor directly. All electronics are from the known Chinese webshops. I have flashed it with ESPHome and imported it into Home Assistant, so it can be lit together with the rest of the lights in our house. A 5V phone charger is enough to power it. For mobile solutions a powerbank can be connected. The screw-on top had no room for improvement and can be used from the original. NOTE: The lithopanes I printed had different settings to make them fit better: Base Length: 100 Base Width: 8.2 Base Height: 7.5 Overhang Angle: 45 Maximum Thickness: 3.0 Minimum Thickness: 0.6 Height: 150 Please drop me a message if you are using this remix. And kind regards to FLA_Labs for sharing the original! p.s. Yes, you still have to make a trip to the hardware store, but a box of nuts and bolts can be used for other models and can be handy around the house. :) Happy printing!
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