Headphone Stand with RGB LEDs

A nice headset stand with RGB LED strips for that sweet Gamer™ look.
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updated March 25, 2023

Description

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This is my first big project involving more than 2 simple parts, with some electronics added as well. From design, prototyping to final product, it took me nearly one month. A lot of mistakes were made, a lot of filament wasted, but it's still a very special feeling to see your own creation coming to life, and after so much work I wanted to share the model in case some other people wanted to give it a try, so here it is.

The design itself has been heavily inspired from some promotional renders Intel used for their Arc GPUs.

Materials and Print Profiles

I used PolyTerra PLA for the black parts, which has a matte finish that kind of smooth the appearance of layers (they show up way more in pictures than in real life for some reason). I also used transparent PETG. (Transparent PLA would most likely work just as well). All of this is printed at 0.2mm layer thickness with the default profiles from Prusa Slicer 2.5 for my Ender 3, except for the two posts where I used 4 walls instead of 3.

For the top half of the base (file "3.Base Top Half"), you want to print it in the correct orientation which will unfortunately result in a lot of supports under it.

Required Hardware

Other than the printed parts, here's the hardware required to assemble this :

  • 2x M4 12mm-14mm Screws 
  • 10x M4 10mm Screws 
  • 12x M3 5mm Screws (4 of them can be 8mm) I used PC screws used for 2.5" drives, like SSDs.
  • 2x M3 8mm Screws
  • 2x M3 Nuts
  • Glue (I used Loctite Super Glue Gel Control)

For all screws, I recommend flat head/rounded top screws, or anything with a relatively thin head.

Assembly instructions

  1. Mount a lenght of 18 LEDs of the LED strip onto part “2.Base Bottom Half LED Ring”
  2. Attach part "2.Base Bottom Half LED Ring" to "1.Base Bottom Half" using 4x M4 10mm Screws.
  3. Mount the remaining LED strips on "5.Base Top Half LED Ring Strip Holder". I cut the strip in 3 parts : 2 x 2 LEDs for the short sides, and 1 x 6 LEDs for the front.
  4. Place "4.Base Top Half LED Ring" into "3.Base Top Half" (Don't forget to cut the tabs!) Otherwise the part won't go in). No screws, no glue.
  5. Attach "5.Base Top Half LED Ring Strip Holder" to "3.Base Top Half" using 4x M3 5mm screws. This will also secure part 4 in position.
  6. Attach the Wemos using the 3 holder parts under the top half of the base.
  7. Attach the two posts ("9.Left Post" and "10.Right Post") to "3.Base Top Half" using 2x M4 12-14mm screws. Or glue them. Or both.
  8. Insert the LED "coin" into "11.Head" and secure it with 2x M3 8mm screws + 2x M3 nuts.
  9. Attach "11.Head" on top of the two posts using 2x M4 10mm screws.
  10. Run wires from head to base for the LEDs in the head.
  11. Glue "13.Front Insert" to "15.Front LED Ring
  12. Glue "15.Front LED Ring" insead of “11.Head”
  13. Glue "14.Front Cover" on the front of the assembled head.
  14. Attach "12.Back Cover" to the back of the assembled head with 4x M4 10mm screws.
  15. Connect all the electronics.
  16. Close the base using the remaining 4x M4 10mm screws.

Electronics
For the Electronics I won't go into details on how to connect everything. There's a lot of information on the Internet about controlling Neopixels/WS281x LED strips with a Wemos D1, and they don't all say the same thing (some says to used a capacitor, others resistors, others both… some include the logic level converter, others do not…). I don't want to give bad info, so do your own reading, try your own circuit. 

That said, here's he part I ended up using :

  • 1x Wemos D1 (cheap clone) IMPORTANT NOTE : Due to not planning for clearance, I had to solder wires directly to the Wemos D1 pins. I was planning to use dupont connectors but it was too tall and wouldn't close.
  • 1x 1000 uF capacitor
  • Coin with 7 Addressable leds
  • Half a meter of WS2813 LED Strip, 10mm wide, 60 LEDs per meter (28 LEDs used)
  • Wires from a CAT6 cable.
  • Logic Level Converter 3.3V to 5V
  • Dupont connectors

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR REGARDING THE CURRENT : With the LEDs I used, at full power the LEDs alone can use about 1100 mA. (I measured 31 mA per LEDs, x 35 LEDs) I enabled the current limiting functionnality of WLED with a limit of 800 mA (which keeps 150 mA for the Wemos, and leaves 650 mA for the LEDs.) Realistacally I could probably use a lower limit since I ended up setting the brightness to 25%.

 

Change log

2023-05-25 : Updated file “3.Base Top Half.stl” to fix a thin wall I noticed while assembling my stand. It shouldn't cause any issue at all if you already printed it. (The one I built isn't fixed)

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Model origin

The author marked this model as their own original creation.

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