This great blog post has organic-looking 3d printing AND negative-feedback constant-current high brightness LED drivers, what’s not to love? From Nervous System:
I really, really like LEDs. I’ve spent countless hours building LED controllers, programming them, and incorporating them into my projects. So, naturally, I’ll jump at the opportunity to integrate LEDs into almost anything. Such an opportunity came up when Jesse and Jessica were invited to an innovation event by Nooka and were asked to bring a piece with them. We wanted our piece to be both representative of our normal work, but also a bit more dynamic and eye-catching. So we did the obvious thing: take one of our previously 3d printed pieces, and add some LEDs to it.
The implementation was rather simple. We used 3 Watt ultrabright LEDs with a MOSFET to control them (‘CTRL’ in the schematic) and a series resistor to regulate the current.
The control signal was created with a Leaflabs Maple microcontroller (we used this instead of an Arduino because it has 16-bit PWM outputs rather than Arduino’s 8-bit PWM, meaning that the lights fade much more smoothly), and we programmed about a half-dozen different patterns into the box….
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!