Tulipa X RGB Edition
Introduction: Tulipa X RGB Edition
Hey guys whazzup!
So this is Tulipa x, a minimal RGB EDITION of the Darwin Hybrid Tulips which are some of the tallest tulips in the world. (spoilers, my setup isn't that tall)
Original idea was to grow some actual tulips but I have no clue how to do that, all I know is to make RGB Related stuff so I made my version of these Darwin Hybrid Tulips with 3D Printed parts and custom PCBs.
The brain of this project is an Attiny85 and it's controlling 49 WS2812B LEDs each soldered on their Breakout board which I made.
My goal here is to make a nice wall decorative light that looks like a tulip, I made this shape by molding a tulip doodle I found online.
In this Instructables, I'm gonna show you guys how I made this Flower shaped lamp in few easy steps.
Let's get started!
Supplies
3D Printed parts
* Leaf base x1
* Leaf Cover x1
* Stalk base x1
* Stalk Cover x1
* Petal Base x1
* Petal Cover x1
Electronics
* RGB LEDs WS2812B LEDs x49
* Custom PCBs x 49 (provided by PCBWAY)
* 100nf Cap 0603 x49
* Solder paste
* Silver Copper wire
* Solder paste Dispenser
* Attiny85
* IN5399
* PERF BOARD
* DC Barrel Jack 5mm
* 5V 1A Charger
Step 1: BASIC IDEA
SO this was the image that started this whole project, I saw this image and I was completely blown away by its simplicity and minimalistic layout.
Step 2: CAD DESIGN
Next, I modeled the Tulip in Fusion360 by importing the above Image as a canvas and then marking its outline with Splines.
I Modeled the whole flower in three different parts.
* Petal
* Stalk
* Leaf
Each of the parts contains a base body and a lid which is a diffuser for LEDs. After Modeling the Parts, I exported their 3MF files and then printed them on my ender 3.
Step 3: 3D Printed Parts
For 3D Printing the Parts, I used Black and RED PLA for the Base and Transparent PLA for the diffuser part. However, the stalk lid is printed with Black PLA as the stalk won't contain any LEDs.
As for my Printer settings, I used a 0.5mm Nozzle with 0.2mm Layer height at 20% infill. I'm using Cura slicer here.
After 3D Printing the parts, I prepared the LED Breakout board.
Step 4: PCB Design
As for the PCB required for this project, I used a simple Attiny85 driven circuit in this project. 492
Attiny85 D0 Pin will drive 23 LEDs in the Petal base and D1 will drive 26 LEDs in the Leaf area.
Generally, for such a project, two PCBs can be designed. one for petal base and one for leaf base.
But I Didn't make these two PCBs, because of cost reasons.
This flower is huge, 180mm x 150 mm is just for the petal and 100mm x 200mm for the leaf. If I made these two boards, the overall cost of PCB would be more so to cut the cost of this project, I designed a small polygon-shaped PCB for a single WS2812B LED which contains just the LED connected with a 100nf Capacitor.
Step 5: PIXIE Board
This is the PIXIE Board, it's a WS2812B Breakout Board that is shaped like a polygon.
My idea is to lay out this PIXIE board inside the Petal and Leaf base, then with the help of silver copper wire, I connected each board's VCC and GND together along with Din and Dout Sequence.
This was the plan, A simple plan.
Step 6: Schematic of PIXIE
I first prepared a schematic for this PIXIE Board and then converted it into a Board file, then I prepared the basic shape of a polygon which was 14mm x 7mm long.
At the center of Polygon, I placed WS2812B LED along with the 100nF Cap and then arrange the VCC, GND, Din, and Dout Pads in the right way. After finalizing the PCB, I exported its Gerber data and send it to PCBWAY for samples.
Step 7: Getting the Board From PCBWAY
I used PCBWAY PCB Service for this project. I uploaded the Gerber file of this project on PCBWAY's quote page. 472