Introduction
Hello Everyone!
This is my first guide and (hopefully) the first one in a series of guides on my quest to create an open-source RGB-LED visual poi. To keep it simple first, this is going to result in a simple led-poi featuring remote control via IR and all kinds of colour-change-animations.
Keep in mind: This kind of poi (without IR-remote) can be bought for around 20$ on Amazon, so this is not worth the effort financially – DIY for the experience, not the result.
I hope people will contribute animations to the GitHub of this project resulting in a great variety of animations for you to choose from and therefore giving this version some more value compared to the over-the-counter ones.
Disclaimer
First of all a few safety warnings. Only attempt this build if you know what you are doing. I am not an electrical engineer, I am not to be held liable if something goes wrong. A few dangerous steps/materials are involved and you should be aware of them:
Lipos might be dangerous. Especially soldering, shorting and storing LiPos comes with a variety of dangers. Even if the build goes well, wires might come loose, the cells might get damaged or one of the no-name Chinese components might fail and cause a short. Don’t let them charge unattended, best use an external charger to charge them up, remove the lipo for storage & transport (best is to store them in one of those „lipo bags“ I believe).
The pois are subject to some significant forces when performing with them. If you hit someone or something with them or a print fails & parts fly around people might get hurt.
Use common sense, be aware of the dangers, read up on your own if you are unsure. You get the idea.
If I haven’t spooked you, enjoy the build & have fun with them.
Step 1: Material & Tools
Bill of Materials
First lets take a look at what we need for this build. I recommend to buy most of the stuff at AliExpress if you have the time to wait. I only found the lipos at HobbyKing though.
Step 2: 3D Printing
Since this takes the longest time, we’re going to start by printing all parts for this build twice with support placement „everywhere”.
Head over to Thingiverse, download the STL files and slice with your favourite slicer.
I used clear PLA at 0.28 resolution which worked fine but if you can, you might want to use a stronger material to be on the safe side and prevent any malfunctions during spinning.
The result is more opaque than transparent which is good for us since the poi acts as a diffusor and lights up nicely without single LEDs visible. After the prints are done, leave the support material on and screw & unscrew the two halves a bunch of times. The support material provides a better grip and once they fit well together, you can remove all supports.
Read more: DIY RGB-LED Glow Poi With Remote Control