4/28 - 5/2

This week, I continued working on the project I started the week before break. Since Mother's Day is next weekend, I decided to make my mom a gift. I remembered that, when I made my lightbox earlier in the year, she had said she wanted one. I wanted the box to be round, so I planned on just 3D printing the entire box and paint it afterwards. I made a small flat area on the back of it so that I could screw the panel mount in.

On Monday, I finished the design, code, and acrylic piece of the box. The code is pretty simple. It's just a yellow-orange color that stays solid all the time. I didn't want anything crazy because the acrylic piece that I designed in inkscape is the main focus.

At the end of the day on Monday, I started 3D printing the LEDMount for the box. It took me a while because the printer I was using failed to print three times. The filament wasn't sticking to the plate, so I asked Mr. L about it and he told me to wash it off with soap and water because it was probably just oily from people's hands touching it. After I washed it, Mr. L helped me print it again and it was still printing when school ended. I wasn't in class on Tuesday because I was on a field trip, so I was unable to check if my LEDMount printed correctly. When I came in on Wednesday, I found that the LEDMount did print correctly, however, I mixed up the measurements a little bit, so the LED strip that I soldered was too large to fit in the mount. On Thursday, I fixed the measurements.

Next week, I'll finish 3D printing the parts of the box. There's only 2 parts left to print out - the top and the base - so it shouldn't take too long. I'll also solder my LED strip onto a pro micro controller. I'll probably order the panel mount this weekend so that it definitely comes in time. Next week, I'll also cut out the acrylic piece with the lasercutter and spray paint the box. I might paint a design on the box as well, but I'm not sure yet. Maybe if I have some extra time after I finish.