(Continued from previous numbered post) I took the tower and my ideas to my husband so we could talk out wiring possibilities. He likes to make it complicated and I like the KISS principle so we often find an interesting, workable middle ground. The tower is upside down to temporarily power it. Also, priming/painting the whole tower in and out really matters.
I've had a cold around the holidays so I was in bed watching YouTube. After a while, I searched for laser cutting and found this video with links to free laser and CNC cutting files. I am there for free and only one of the links didn't work. I don't vouch for any of these downloads or sites so proceed with caution. I use a Linux based computer with all the blocking possible. I spent the most time at 3axis.co and downloaded a couple of files I wanted to try. The actual download filename is not descriptive. I suggest downloading each into a named folder with a screenshot of the project or just changing the filename.
(Pictures from site)
Time to make another lighted dice tower. This is for my brother-in-law so I wanted a simple safe power supply. I chose a 3 AAA battery box with a built in switch. One less component I have to solder in. I tried a 3 AA battery box also but it did not fit well.
I got some simple SMD break out boards from Amazon to solder my LEDs and resistors to. The board is made for 0805(2012) sized SMD chips and mine were 1206(3216). I played around with placement and soldered a set on a board. I then noticed my SMD resistor was 330 ohm.
I discovered https://festi.info/boxes.py this summer when I searched online for .svg files for laser cut boxes. This is a free website, scripted in Python, that generates all types of boxes and other projects and parts. Photos of most boxes are shown on the home page. The Menu button lists the boxes by name instead of photo. Each box page has fields that can be filled in with your required dimensions. They are populated with good working default values that you can use to generate an .svg file, other formats are available in the drop down menu, to cut a sample box. This is helpful if you're a hands on person or want to test the burn thickness value, also known as kerf, which determines how tight the joints fit together. I use most of the default values but change the inner-corners value to corner, loop is for drill type cutters. The Generate button opens a new tab with the SVG drawing that you right click and save. The Download button puts the file directly to your download folder but it takes a minute to finish.
For this electronics project, I chose the Integrated Hinge Box
I was building an ATX bench top power supply recently, until I blew up the power supply. I'll post that project in the future when it can be completed. One facet of the build was incorporating a voltage and current display. When I purchased it from Amazon, it came in a three pack with a max of 100 V/ 10A. I was sure I'd find a use for the others. (Screencap from Amazon)
My sister gave me this pretty large paperweight as a gift. It has an iridescent translucent coating on the underside that made it perfect to shine some color changing LEDs through. Its heavy and needed a box to hold the LEDs. I talked about the electronics as part of the Humble Electronics #002 post.
This project was inspired by JohnAudioTech on YouTube. It has been on my mind for years. I had previously bread boarded it and was genuinely surprised it actually worked. Go to his video here and get the schematic from him.
It is his design and his work and I lay no claim on it. I finally got to soldering this circuit together this summer and tested it.
I became interested in making a pretty "Supercomputer" prop as I explained in this post on the electronics. The electronics needed a box to hold them and define the lighted areas and the laser cutter helped me construct it.
This was my first laser cutter design from scratch. I designed it in Inkscape after I determined the size of prototype PCB board I was going to use. As I explained in the above linked post, I was going to make it a square grid but changed it to elongated hexagons instead. This design change made it more appealing to me and worked to great effect in the end. I designed a grid of interlocking sections to isolate the light from each LED. The LEDs vary non-uniformly and begin to light different colors in less than a minute. I just chose a random depth not knowing exactly how the light would play in each cell.
Again I have Big Clive on YouTube for this project but it went in a silly direction. He has showcased how rechargeable Lithium batteries are being thrown away in disposable vapes and that you can carefully harvest the batteries for personal fun and 5V power. Here's a link to one of many videos he's done on the subject. You can also harvest old cell phone batteries to run your 5V lights longer.
His suggestion is to use a TP4056 single cell lithium charger that contains an over/under voltage and current protection module to safely use and recharge the lithium cell.
