I made a video. Here's the birthday tower in action, working firmware but no wood yet.

https://makertube.net/w/dCigionmHVjiZFjMUUqBmr

21/∞

Here we go. Black light Neopixels and some UV-reactive objects. You can definitely see _something_ on the objects.

Thanks to @harris for the lovely model and to PolyMaker and MatterHackers for the filaments.

CC @attie @peturdainn @emeb

Sooo … I ditched the logic analyzer and pulled out my scope and … I'm afraid I have to peel off that label again.

Because I don't know if that looks like #WS2812 to you, but it sure doesn't to me. Apparently there's a short pulse, followed by a another pulse that's either short or long. I guess that's the binary encoding.

I'm open to suggestions which #LED protocol that is.

Alt text has some more details and timings.

@3dprinting That test pattern uses golden ratio colors to generate apparently random but pleasing color sequences. It's a pretty cool technique which I just re-learned about. This 'blog post describes it pretty well.

https://martin.ankerl.com/2009/12/09/how-to-create-random-colors-programmatically/

@3dprinting Here's a test pattern, viewed from the back. From the front and sides, you can't see the LEDs directly.

@3dprinting The LED controller and light bars are installed into the enclosure. FInally. Hooray!

I am very pleased with the way they came out, though I worry that the top bar is fragile. There's no strain relief on the cable; it's just hanging on by its solder joints.

I might tack the wires up to the underside of the table later, but for now, they're staying in place just by their own stiffness.

@3dprinting And here it is with the lid on. It looks remarkably unremarkable, just another power supply thing.

@3dprinting I never posted photos of the LED power supply after wiring. Here are some photos of the LED power supply after wiring.

Everything unplugs or unscrews except the wires on the power inlet module.

@3dprinting The cable tie will be inside the hole in the table when this is in place. There's room, because this assembly is smaller than the connector on the cable end.

I printed tall jaws for the StickVise to hold the aluminum channel, of course.

@3dprinting The next challenge was attaching leads to the LED strips. I glued this 144/meter RGBW strip into this aluminum channel. I'd printed end caps with embedded magnets (the aquamarine parts). I'd drilled holes through the table to run the leads down to the power supply (previous post). But the solder tabs on the strip are tiny, and I'd made no provision for strain relief.

This is what I came up with. I've assembled one, and it seems to be okay.

@3dprinting Everything fits perfectly. The top half is printing now.

(Yes, that's a 3D printed stand-in for the controller board. Adafruit published an STL. It has 0402 components, and they came out more 0402-shaped than blob-shaped. But the connectors cracked when I removed the supports.)

I'm running out of ways to procrastinate crimping the cables. I do not enjoy crimping.