Multiboard LED Border

A channel for a LED strip (8mm width) integrated into the snaps used in creating a Multiboard. Based on the 8x8 tile.
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updated December 13, 2024

Description

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I wanted a way to illuminate the border of my Multiboard without taking up precious connections. So I integrated a channel to hold an LED strip into the “Part B” snaps used when mounting/creating a Multiboard. The channel length assumes you're using 8x8 tiles which makes each channel 200mm long (100mm on either side of the snap) and is integrated into the “Standard Fit” version of the snap. The channel is designed for 8mm LED strips and is angled at 30 degrees to allow more light to hit the wall. This angle also allows the strip to fit into the corner pieces easier. You print this just like you'd print the snaps, no supports required and in the orientation given in the STL. 

There are there are 2 varieties of the corner piece (single snaps). Without the second variety you'd have to rotate the “Part A” snap 90 degrees on two of the corners (assuming a square Multiboard), which would compromise the strength of the mount. 

I uploaded 2 different versions of the strips. One has the exact 200mm spacing needed between segments. The other has an extra 0.15mm on each end of the channel, to allow sanding back the touching faces of the channels to get a really close fit. The standard version should work fine but the sharp corners at the ends of the channel result in the faces not being perfectly flat out of the printer. 

Finally, there is a special feature in the corner piece that allows the strip to make the 90 degree turn without having to fold the LED strip too drastically, all the while keeping the LED strip from popping up above the channel. It takes a bit of finessing but you should end up with something like this: 

I'm not sure if this feature will work well for strips that use larger LEDs. 

If you use the inside-corner piece (triple snap) there isn't much to be done to get it to turn without cutting the strip. This is where I start/stopped the strip for my Multiboard. I then soldered the power leads to other 24V pads towards the bottom corner. 

Installation is… tricky. I ended up going one section at a time with the board install on the wall, being held up by unmodified snaps before I swapped in this version. I gave considerable thought on how I'd install the LEDs into the channels before putting them all up on the board but I couldn't come up with a reasonable method. The straight pieces were easy enough to get the strip into the channel, a bit away from its final position, and then sliding the channel until I could snap it in. The corners I ended up marking when the bends in the strip would need to be and doing some pre-bending before first installing the channel on the Multiboard and then blindly getting the strip into the channel. 

Tags



Model origin

The author remixed this model.

Differences of the remix compared to the original

Added an LED strip channel to the edge of the single/double/triple snaps. 

License