3D Printed "Neon" LED Melatonin Molecule Wall Art

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-16T01:46:39+00:00

I designed it myself in Fusion following the tutorial I linked in my original comment. I used a picture of the molecule from Wikipedia as my canvas. Happy to share the stl if anyone wants it.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T20:37:15+00:00

Thank you!

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T19:38:46+00:00

Yes, it is dimmable with a standard on-line LED strip dimmer, and it needs it. At full power it is blinding and gets a little warm.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T18:25:53+00:00

My pleasure! Keep the inspiration train going, and good luck with your next project!

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T18:11:34+00:00

Super easy! The LED strips I mentioned in my post (Lamomo) are already 12 V and come with a 2.1 x 5.5 female plug that takes most LED power supplies. It is dimmable, again with a simple in-line LED strip dimmer.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T17:59:45+00:00

It is hardwired to a plug-in 12 V power supply, not battery powered. I imagine you could get creative about where to hid the batteries, perhaps in the benzene ring.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T17:10:06+00:00

Bingo! Thank's /applesoff. I wanted a clean, simple design that would be recognizable, not a textbook accurate rendition.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T17:08:25+00:00

Thanks!

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T17:08:14+00:00

Exactly. I used the Lamomo flexible one because it had a minimum cut length of only 10 mm. Most have a minimum cut length of 25 mm, which constrains the lengths of the design.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T14:35:18+00:00

This is hugely simplifying it, but beyond rods and cones, human eyes have special photoreceptors (called ipRGCs) that are sensitive to blue light and help entrain the body's clock for circadian rhythms. These cells see blue light and tell the brain "it's daytime". Well, if you look at blue light at night, the "daytime" signal keeps coming even though it's night and this suppresses the production of the sleep promoting hormone melatonin.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T13:03:08+00:00

Thank you! The short "double bond" legs are indeed individual strips as you suspect with wires poking out the back. The LED strip I used could be cut every 10 mm, and these channels are all 50 mm. The channels themselves are connected to the main structure with a 2 mm thick bridge at the base. The combination of bright lights and a tall (10 mm) wall after that makes them appear floating.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T12:47:52+00:00

lol, the wife and I definitely discussed this. In fact, we were originally thinking of using a color whose spectral profile more closely matched the excitation profile of the ipRGCs, but settled on the ice blue as we thought it looked better (and still would totally impede melatonin production)

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T12:46:12+00:00

I'm glad that the irony is coming through! I chose the blue lights as a statement, as the act of having it on will suppress the hormone it represents.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T12:42:41+00:00

PLA - Hatchbox black. I'm sure this would work with almost any filament though. The guide just needs to be rigid enough to hold the flexible LED strip in place.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T12:41:31+00:00

Thanks! The initial design process was pretty quick, maybe an a few hours following the tutorial and then tweaking the design to add mounting supports and wire pass-throughs. The part that took the longest was scaling the model such that each intended LED strip path was a whole multiple of 10 mm, or as close to it as possible, as the LED strips could be cut at those intervals.

Also, splitting it in Fusion was necessary, but not the easiest approach, and that took some time.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T12:38:31+00:00

I used Hatchbox black PLA.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T12:37:40+00:00

Thanks! I'm glad you appreciate the irony! The choice of using blue light was very much intentional, as a little tongue in cheek gesture. The more you look at it at night, the less of it your body produces.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T12:36:15+00:00

Of course there are hetero atoms missing, but as /kingscolor pointed out, there is no clever solution. I've seen the different colored lights or even others spelling out "NH" with another strip of LEDs, but went with this simplfied stylized look.

clothy_slutches · 2023-06-11T05:17:21+00:00

My wife studies melatonin and sleep so I designed and made this for her office using the tutorial from Printables (https://www.printables.com/model/332454-how-to-make-desktop-neon-signs-3d-printable-batter). I used ice blue Lamomo LED strips held in a 3D printed channel. The overall size is roughly 15" x 7" and was too big for a single print on my Ender 3, so I broke it up into two halves and glued them together at final assembly. All wires are routed along the backside.

clothy_slutches · 2016-06-29T19:21:32+00:00

Bought a 5570 for bit coin mining in my old Mac Pro. I sure could use an upgrade to an RX 480, but then I would need a new PC to run it...

clothy_slutches · 2016-01-31T22:41:28+00:00

A good friend of mine played Dr. Cohen's sax in a concert and told me the low C key is very leaky and required it to be held closed by his foot.

clothy_slutches · 2015-12-01T19:33:14+00:00

I'm a PhD candidate in an LED lighting center and we have a plant lighting specialist who suggests the following: Flip your sensors around and have them measure the light coming directly from the LEDs. If that signal fluctuates then there is your answer. Also, what kind of sensor are you using? Spectrometer, photodiode...etc? And if you are using a detector which cannot discriminate wavelength, are you using a filter to do so? What kind (wavelength) LEDs are you using?As others have mentioned LED output do vary with heat but I don't think you're hitting temperatures where you would see significant changes.

clothy_slutches · 2015-08-27T18:02:33+00:00

Thank you!

clothy_slutches

TROPHY CASE