Tech Magic: The stand will dance with vibrant colors, making your desk the envy of tech geeks everywhere.
Sturdy & Stylish: Crafted to securely hold any headphone while adding a splash of futuristic flair to your setup.
Customisable : Use any color combination that YOU love with the multipiece assembly that's held together by only 2 screws and 2 threaded inserts.
WLED: The fantastic free and open-source software WLED is used under the hood to power all that RGB goodness. You can use an app from Play store/App Store to control your lights from anywhere within the house. OR if you are like me and say I don't want to constantly get my phone out to turn my lights on and off, there is a button on the Node MCU to do that aswell. AND not to mention the nearly endless combinations of effects that WLED provides.
In Order to build this, you will need:
Transparent Filament of your choice
Main Filament Color
Accent Filament Color(optional)
2x M3 threaded inserts (ruthex) or compareable.
STL included if you want to change the hole sizes in the neck
2x M3x25 allen bolts
NodeMCU ESP8266
WS2812B LED strips
Soldering iron and tin
Micro USB to USB-A cable
3 Dupont cables (or other small cables)
I used PLA for everything
Here is an overview of the parts.
Printing:
I have printed all parts using PLA, including the transparent rings for diffusion of the LEDs The neck was printed lying on its side with a brim that was cut off after the print to keep it from lifting off the bed since the surface area is small. The base seen next to it was printed right side up. The lid of the base on the right was printed upside down. The rings were printed right side up with 100% infill in order to stay somewhat transparent.
Assembly:
0. Flash the microcontroller with WLED. Chris Maher did a very good video on how to do that. Show him some love for this amazing tutorial!
After printing, the first thing I would do is to add 2x M3 threaded inserts into the base of the neck. This will hold down the whole assembly, including the rings, later.
Solder the cables to the LED strip
Solder the other ends to the NodeMCU → GND to GND, 5V to VIN and Din to D4 on the NodeMCU and screwing it into the self-tapping poles underneath. 2 screws diagonally will work fine. If you wish to add more go for it. I used 3 here.
Glue in the LED strip against the inner wall so that the lights face outwards. The more LEDs per meter you have on your LED strip, the smoother the animations. I chose mine with 30 LEDs per meter and found that to be a little bit spotty at times. I would suggest going with 60 LEDs per meter. Next, put in the Micro USB to USB-A cable and route it through the hole in the back and then place the rings on top of each other so that the groves align in the order that you prefer. You will need a total of 4 of them. BE AWARE THAT I POWER THE LED STRIPS THROUGH USB AND THEN THE VIN PIN ON THE NODEMCU. BOTH ARE VERY LIMITED IN POWER. YOU CAN AND SHOULD LIMIT THE MAX. AMPS IN THE WLED SETTINGS TO 250mA. Otherwise, you may risk burning out your USB port on your motherboard and the NodeMCU.
Put on the lid of the base and align it with the 2x M3x25 flathead screws
Lastly, screw in the neck and make sure that the whole sandwich stays aligned