A gift I made recently by creating a lamp shaped like my dog!
Objective:
The goal for this project was to create a light shaped like my dog, I wanted it bright, dimmable, and controllable with my home automation tools (Home Assistant).
Of course I wasn’t going to find something like that off the shelf so I set out to create it myself.
Materials / Tools:
- LED light strips. I got mine from Amazon and the style of led strips is commonly referred to as “Neon” for whatever reason
- 3D Printer. Unless you plan on making the base and frame from wood, a printer is required. I have an Ender 3 V2
- Fusion 360. I use fusion 360 at home because it is free for individuals. Being familar with a CAD software would be a massive plus, but youtube university may get you close enough.
- PWM Controller. I spent weeks designing a PCB layout, soldering, and creating my own PWM controller using 555 timers, capacitors, a potentiometer, resistors etc. and in the end I was successful, but had a massive mess of wires. I ended up buying one for $15 from Amazon. Oh well.
- 12 Volt Power Supply
- Thin guage wire
- Time
Below are a few photos.
My Custom PWM Attempt. It worked, but it was ultimately more bulky than I wanted:
Bottom of Final Product, you can see how much smaller the PWM controller is when made by pros!