Doesn't matter if it's 3d printers, vapes or computers, if it can be customised you'll eventually attract the self righteous arsehole hipsters that appoint themselves as gatekeepers of knowledge that will berate anyone how doesn't follow their own esoteric methods for achieving "perfection"
I love the classy and politeness of everything. Even warns you even when he's turning on the light. Such an underrated channel. You could teach a bull to be gentle with the calmness of your voice. I would love to try this.
One detail I always love about your videos is the polite warning that you're turning the lights back on. It makes me feel like I'm your friend peeking over your shoulder in your workshop.
Big shoutout to you using OpenSCAD. I make all of my parametric projects in OpenSCAD so that users can easily modify things to their liking, and I think you've done an excellent job here! Would be interesting to take some of these ideas and modify them to extrude arbitrary shapes from outlines
Clive, I can recommend a fiberglass scratch pen. Really handy for when you want to clean up a contact and it's hard to get to. Also for cleaning various pots and such. Gives a more consistent clean, risks damage less.
I've watched this guy's stuff for a couple of years now and it's just getting better and better this guy in my book is golden and I just can't stop watching I love every word that comes out of mouth and that's hard to say when you're not guy. But I love you man. in enriched my life thank you sending love from Australia
I've had an Ender 3 for about 2 years, it hasn't failed on me once apart from bad bed adhesion due to not being leveled properly but as long as I occasionally check the levels and wipe the dust off it just keeps going without issues. A lot of people seemed to warn that you need to do this and that every now and then to keep it running and avoid clogs etc. but I've done barely any maintenance and can't see anything being out of the ordinary (yet) Though I can see why using one would be really problematic for someone with very little technical knowledge so the cheap hobbyist models definitely aren't ready for the masses All I can say is try to avoid those weird closed-source printers that seem to require specific brands of filaments and whatnot, the Ender 3 is a really good option because of the enormous community support and there's infinite amounts of mods and parts and all sorts of stuff available for it, and it also happens to be one of the cheapest models out there particularly with that kind of print area
I've had the Ender 3 and Ender 3 Pro for about the same amount of time. Both ran great out of the box. The biggest thing is to be careful assembling them. I ran a few rolls of filament through both before doing any mods, and they ran just fine. For the price, and the availability of many mods, they've both been fun and educational. I've modded one really heavily, and it prints nearly 24/7, the other one has a few minor mods and prints maybe 8 to 10 hrs a day. TBH, the mods didn't change much, they were more just to see what tinkering I could do (AKA for fun). The only upgrade that I'd really recommend is stiffer bed springs. I don't even touch my bed leveling after setup unless I've had the hotend apart. In the time I've ran them both, I've had 2 heater cartridges die, and one thermistor start reading funky. I'm not meticulous on keeping it clean, but I do take a moment every now and then to check the belts and roller adjustments. My problem has been what to do with all the empty filament spools! I've used as many as I can and given a bunch away. Next job will be recycling the brims and support materials into more filament! 😃
Plug-and-play equipment comes with premium price, which really sucks for beginners (or the general masses) who just want something cheap. Issue is: cheap equipment is only viable if you know how (and are willing) to squeeze out the full performance with knowhow and elbow grease - it's a hobby for a reason. Same with computers, audio equipment, hand tools, and (famously) cars/motorcycles.
@@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse I've used gluestick on mine but I only really put it just in case if my object doesn't have much surface area, it seems to stick really hard so I have to be quite careful although sometimes it just pops off once it cools down
@@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse Hairspray is an live saver. No matter if you have a heated bed or not. Get the cheapest one you can find and have fun printing :)
Yep, 3D printing youtube channels make it sound like a massively complex thing when its not! I have kept the Cura reccomended settings for my printer other than setting temp for PLA to 215c first layer then 210c and bed 60c first layer then 55c, i use that for all brands of PLA and the only setting i ever touch is adhesion as a raft is sometimes needed for large items to prevent warping. had a 3d printer for nearly 2 years and my build plate was leveled once when i built the printer and it got done again recently after needing to re adjust the build plate runner adjusters because of play, none of that obsessive messing about like the youtubers would make you think is necessary. Build, adjust and print and only mess with it again if its not working properly!
I love this neon tube. I use it so much. I’ve made signs, I’ve done my poker tables with it. I’ve put it behind some decorative glass bricks to light them up. It’s awesome to work with.
This makes me wish I had a 3D printer right now! I'd definitely make a load of these! That pink glow from the neon looks amazing and the blue casing coupled with it makes for a very Vaporwave-like effect. Love it! I wonder if for the gap after cutting, it would be possible to make some translucent pink epoxy resin and pour it in to fill the gap! Great video as always, this is like Art attack for technical people, but useful!
Wires joining in the middle is an excellent idea, I might have to get some of this strip to have a play with. Maybe the wire hole could be offset so that it cuts slightly into one wall, to make it easier to get the thicker bit with the wires in? Obviously the user would then have to choose inside/outside offset.
This could be done with a (user) variable offset. Negative values shift the hole to the inside, positive values to the outside for example. Also, for circles the script could be tweaked to calculate the diameter by the number of segments -> circumference... same goes for the other shapes, the bend radius could probably be used to tweak the dimensions in a way it divides nicely by the segment lengh
There are some complex and clever ways to do this. But I don't do complex and clever. So I can recommend adding the dotSCAD library to OpenSCAD for its hollowing out function, start with this SCAD snippet, and play 🙂 use ; $fn=80; font="Comic Sans MS"; fontsize=80; text="HELLO"; shell_thickness=1; linear_extrude(5.5) text(text, font = font, size=fontsize); // base translate([0,0,5.4]) linear_extrude(10) hollow_out(shell_thickness=shell_thickness) text(text, font = font, size=fontsize);
I have found the trick to this is using constant width fonts like courier new or OCR-A. then you can use the offset(-num) command then difference it from the original text then make a base with the original shape. edit: here is my code channelWidth = 5; channelWallWidth =1.2;// increasing this or channel Width will increase font size channelHeight = 6; baseThickness = 1; pointsPerMM = 2.83465; fontType="Courier New"; fontRatio= 6.25; //ratio needs to be adjusted for every font used to get acurate channel widths //2.51 for OCRA &OCRB //6.25 for Courier New stringToShow = "Neon"; //end of custom variables fontsize = (channelWidth+channelWallWidth*2)*pointsPerMM*fontRatio; module outline2d(txt=stringToShow,sz=fontsize){ text(txt,size=sz,font=fontType,halign="center",valign="center"); } union(){ linear_extrude(channelHeight+baseThickness){ difference(){ outline2d(); offset(-channelWallWidth) outline2d(); } } linear_extrude(baseThickness) outline2d(); }
@@20thcenturygamer22 As don't have to have tight corners. If you did, you might want to treat them as separate segments and do the soldering around the back.
I have been on the fence about getting a 3D Printer, now I am definitely getting one! I have so many applications to make these neon style LEDS to then incorporate them into my epoxy resin designs. Thanks Clive, see staying up at night really does yield productivity! ( well inspiration that will eventually lead to productivity ) Glad you posted on my Facebook now. 😊
I always recommend against potting LEDs directly into resin as they will fail in the future and it pays to make it easy to change them. But a standard clear LED looks great potted in clear resin. The lens disappears and you end up with a sharp dot of light.
@@klausnielsen1537 idk y but youtube is just deleting my comment, heck i cant even write the name of the manufacturer. EDIT: tried like 4 times it just gets deleted after a few mins :(
YES I 100% agree with just getting started with 3D printing and learning as you go. It is good practice to do a little bit of research beforehand, especially regarding safety. But besides that, there's really no need to know all the nitty gritty when getting started. If you learn by doing, you'll get a much deeper and more practical understanding of it.
That was my first thought as well, though it would be interesting to see how the X shape would work with the LED neon strips, since it's not a nice "round" shape like the others, If that makes sense.
Every maker and tinkerer should have a 3D printer. They have been around for long enough, they are cheap enough and easy enough to use these days. I custom print boxes for all my projects now.
I wonder if the script could be adapted easily enough to use the measured length of strip available, rather than the dimensions of the resultant frame? I don't really have much interest in 3D printing, but these OpenSCAD videos are tempting me!
The first circle one was originally based on strip length, but it actually varies slightly between brands due to the way it goes round bends. So I changed it to outer size.
I made a big 6x7-seg clock display using these a while back using a similar way of mounting these strips. Looked quite nice with PWM to gently fade the segments on/off as the time changed :) They're really nice for this because they're already diffused, so don't need any diffusion panel mounted in front of them :)
Cheers Clive for a couple of working examples of the hull() command. Now if one of your future designs could just slip in some minkowski() commands... ;) OpenSCAD is so cool to use. All the best.
Very nice project! You probably have a lot of envious neon tube benders out here. And you don't have to be concerned about getting zapped by 12 kV AC! Thanks, Clive.
This is a very well done video, very instructive and quite clear. I also appreciate the use of OpenSCAD for the flexibility it offers, especially as you've used proper parametric code construction. I suspect that one could also create letters of the alphabet to illuminate in a similar manner. I'm fond of using Inkscape with the Path to OpenSCAD extension (works with only 0.92 and below) which would make creating letters easier than trying to create the raw code. A bit more complex soldering would be involved for crossing letters such as A, R, etc. I'm now subscribed and loaded the RSS feed into my reader as well. Thanks for sharing.
Totally agree about the 'don't watch youtube videos' when looking to buy a 3D printer. I've had some from the totally build it yourself Anet A8 to fully assembled ones, and the best way is to just get any and start playing about. Then when you have a clue, get one that matches what you really want to print (size, materials, etc) and buy a non-cheapass model that suits.
You have opened my eyes to this wonderful world of bright lights, already having basic knowledge of mechanic work, I will definitely borrow my dads hobby desk to make some interior light solutions Just stumbled upon you via the Fray Bentos algorithmicisms and I have to applaud you for the clear concise info delivery throughout all three videos I have watched till now haha That 9v battery tip was what made me realize that I could make a battery powered solution to keep the interior mood light separate from the precious wiring loom, since I won’t be using it when driving anyway So cheers for inspiring people big man, that’s me subscribed!
These are some great starter scripts for learning OpenSCAD, too. It might be worth also posting them somewhere that can do indentation correctly, like pastebin or a page on your own site. Anybody who doesn't have a 3D printer and can't afford it (in terms of money, space or time), check your local library. Many of them have one and using it is either free or very cheap. Barring that, make friends with a local nerd. Almost everybody with a 3D printer will be excited to share the hobby with you.
@@radnukespeoplesminds Thanks for the tip; CadQuery is new to me and solves one problem I've had with OpenSCAD for ages - no easy chamfer or fillet operations.
Maker/hackerspaces are also an excellent option for access to the kit - and the chances are there will always be someone else around with a decent amount of knowledge to troubleshoot due to the nature of the space!
Toronto Public Library has 3D printers at eight different locations and they charge $0.10 per gram of filament... The only problem is I have no idea if that is a reasonable price or not!
@@booblla A 1kg roll of filament is typically around $20-$25, so like $0.02 per gram. But that's of no use to you if you don't have a printer. On the flip side, one of these neon shapes is only going to be a few grams, depending on slicing options, so 50 cents or a dollar per print is nothing compared to the cost of buying your own printer.
If you have difficulty getting a really neat join, you could cut the holder / mould to give it a bit of springiness to help close the join. A little bit of CA can then be used to reinforce it afterwards. Very nice effects
Got to playing with this stuff to make displays in store (I work retail). I used a frame like the department of villainy and managed to win some money for the store social fund. Going to have to unpack the printer and give this a shot.
We use it a lot on PCB's to clean copper or golden pads etc but you have to clean with another brush the shards, a pain in the ass to remove if you get them in your hands. But it's the best for this job
@@ronnetgrazer362 no not really, it doesn't stay suspended and immediately falls on the table, in fact most of the times you get it in your hands is from tables or surfaces. I am using it for over 15 years.
Hi Clive I love your channel, it's always very considerate when you say watch your eyes when turning the lights back on but I'd like to challenge you, see if you can make a very smooth dimmer function so when you turn the light back on it comes up slowly on its own automatically. Cheers from Tennessee :-)
I find that this stuff works well enough even at 9v, with a much softer glow that I think is still suitable for indoor signage. Useful because you can run them from a decent 9v power supply if you can find one, rather than trying to run from 12v and tone it down with extra components.
A couple of things: - My 3D printer "just works", only fail so far has been the filament breaking, had a close call from it getting a minor jam (easy to fix) - Wouldn't it be possible to create a script that has n sides? Just use some geometry for it?
I played around with a round tray that accepted a flat spiral of 2-3 wraps to use as a ringlight a couple months ago. Didn't perform anywhere near like a ringlight with front-facing LEDs does sadly, and I didn't consider printing other shapes for decoration. Now I kinda want to try to vector out a Dark Souls bonfire to hang on the wall with addressable RGBs doing the ember effect.
Makes me think of Simon Whistler's unfortunately dead neon logo in his studio-office, that could be replicated with these LED strips, that or the neon sign itself repaired, but he's out in Prague so not the simplest place to get to for someone to repair it... :P
Yay! More Clive scripts to play with! Spot on with the 3D printer suggestions. When one is ready to progress to the next level, some of the best tips I've got were from Thomas Sandlander & Naomi "SexyCyborg" Wu.
An excellent video. I’d like to make a sign with my house number on as a first project. I’ve had a 3D printer a while but always felt a bit overwhelmed and never used it much. Must make a determined effort. Thank you!
At least you have used yours. Bought one 18 months ago. It’s still in its box. Tried several times to purchase filament only to have orders cancelled with excuses like bad production quality control or the filament is damp. So must order some filament. Lol
@@patomahony9747 hi Pat. I had it bought as a birthday present. Managed to assemble it and do a couple of things I downloaded but that’s as far as I got. Need to learn the design package but takes time! My nephew has one and does great things! I don’t think the filament supply is such an issue now. Good luck!
I don't have a 3D printer but I'm working on something similiar using a narrow chisel to create an inlay in a piece of wood. Still at the design stage as it's not as simple a shape and practicing carving MDF rather than mess up a piece of mahogany but it's a work in progress. Taking a hiatus as my workshop is the big one with the open roof and the heating is still on the fritz at this time of year 😁
A fibre glass pen for cleaning contacts is a useful tool to have to clean the brass and /or copper tracks. Oh boy, Clive has just told us he has a Big Pink Ring... LOL.
The protective coating you speak of at times, would be a really thin layer of conformal coating (at least I think) or it could be a thin coat of varnish... usually burnable with a soldering iron and some flux.
The PlayStation logo and/or associated symbols are considered too basic to be protected under copyright. They are likely covered under trademark law, but the stipulations are surprisingly different. This may or may not be an issue, and it depends on a lot of different things. Playing it safe is fine, but trademarks can typically be used in artwork without issue. Look at Andy Warhol, for example.
These are awesome scripts - BigClive is the OpenSCAD wizard. Very nice indeed. And that LED strip material is quite impressive too. It would be great if somehow it would be possible to make letters and symbols as well with OpenSCAD.
As a long time coder I have learned to be excessively clear in names and comments and got instantly upset when BC mixed up different meanings for height and width (those words are a pair, like x and y).
Thanks Clive I really enjoyed that, I've been looking for something unique to illuminate my cars interior with and this REALLY FITS THE BILL !!!!!!! THANKS AGAIN!!!
Excellent project: Simple 3D print, yet so effective! I only wish you could put the scripts in a Github Gist, so people can comment and improve on the them(and the indentation wouldn't get lost).
I like to use a scotch brite pad or red pencil eraser to clean contacts to solder. I tend to do too much damage with a knife. Why don't you add a bit of flux? Have you tried adding a bit of flexible glue or RTV where the wires come out for stain relief?
I've seen LED neon used commercially in shop signs, so I'm guessing this is how they made them. With a little more complex 3D modelling you could make just about any shape or spell out the shop name or whatever. You'd just need to use some hot glue or epoxy to seal the electrical connections and ends, and secure the LED neon so it's not easy to pull out. Or if it's gong to be in the window of a shop with access to the rear, it might be better to just built it into an acrylic box to stop people from fiddling with it.
Seriously, Clive, you don't need to warn people when "the light is coming back". We're watching screens, there's only so much brightness they can produce. I can assure you we can all safety stare straight into the Sun via these screens and no harm will be done. :-)
I literally just bought two Ender 3's from a seller on ebay. $69.00 each and free shipping. They are returned and possibly missing small minor parts (ie screws , tools, manuals) one of them was missing 2 screws and the ($8.oo) pei build sheet. The other was missing nothing. :) Both work perfectly! If they are still available I plan on two more..... UPDATE: they're gone....
Clive, you need to check out and maybe do a review on knife and anvil type cutters, or multi cutters as they are sometimes called. They make cutting things like your neon leds and tubing straight and square as easy as pie.
I want to play with LED neon to make some designs. I just wish they would make "tubes" of it that were rigid that you could bend with a heat gun instead of having to make frames for it. I suppose one could use the plastic tubing similar to what the hardline watercooling guys use but it would be a bit of a pain for something that seems so obvious.
If someone wanted to do a bigger or sturdier design, I've made something similar for a local café using 1/4" aluminium channel (they can usually be found at a fair price in hardware stores, often in the windows/glass doors department). You could also find slightly larger channels to just cover the straight lines of your 3D printed design. And the aluminum adds a bit of heat dissipation (it's true that they can get quite warm at full intensity 24/7! I'm still curious about how long these light strip will last...).
I have a problem Clive I have ADHD and dont have a clue how to learn how to make the printer do what I want it to do, this has caused me to not buy a printer, and I would love to buy one, where can I learn to do it help please.
The best thing to do is buy a cheap standard 3D printer and play. It's the only way to learn. Quick summary:- Set up printer as per instructions and load some PLA filament. Choose a suitable small item from thingiverse and load the STL file into software like Cura to convert it to your printer's format.
I started with an ender 3 during lock down. Built in 20 mins printing in 25 mins and a test file perfectly printed in a couple of hours. Don't look to deeply into 3d print settings as Clive said it's a rabbit hole
The first 90 secs of this video contains more useful 3d printer tips, than any dedicated 3d printer tip video I have seen so far! 👍
So true; I spent many hours watching 3D print videos, and it put me off buying one for years as it seemed so complicated.
🤦♂️
@@MrJozza65 Now we need to know what printer Clive has and than start watching hours of pro e cons about it before buying one ;-)
You're watching the wrong videos. And yes 3d printing can be easy and can be hard
Doesn't matter if it's 3d printers, vapes or computers, if it can be customised you'll eventually attract the self righteous arsehole hipsters that appoint themselves as gatekeepers of knowledge that will berate anyone how doesn't follow their own esoteric methods for achieving "perfection"
I love the classy and politeness of everything. Even warns you even when he's turning on the light.
Such an underrated channel. You could teach a bull to be gentle with the calmness of your voice.
I would love to try this.
One detail I always love about your videos is the polite warning that you're turning the lights back on. It makes me feel like I'm your friend peeking over your shoulder in your workshop.
Heh yes its such a classy move. I come to hear him just talk at times as its so pleasant.
Big shoutout to you using OpenSCAD. I make all of my parametric projects in OpenSCAD so that users can easily modify things to their liking, and I think you've done an excellent job here! Would be interesting to take some of these ideas and modify them to extrude arbitrary shapes from outlines
I think OpenSCAD also recently added SVG support so what you suggest is even easier. I've use it for making cookie cutters.
I hope you noticed, he included the 3 scripts in the video description.
Clive, I can recommend a fiberglass scratch pen. Really handy for when you want to clean up a contact and it's hard to get to. Also for cleaning various pots and such. Gives a more consistent clean, risks damage less.
I have one, but it's better suited to more open pads.
Those shapes could be printed with clear filament, which should make for an interesting effect... Cool stuff!
I've watched this guy's stuff for a couple of years now and it's just getting better and better this guy in my book is golden and I just can't stop watching I love every word that comes out of mouth and that's hard to say when you're not guy. But I love you man. in enriched my life thank you sending love from Australia
Prevert.
I've had an Ender 3 for about 2 years, it hasn't failed on me once apart from bad bed adhesion due to not being leveled properly but as long as I occasionally check the levels and wipe the dust off it just keeps going without issues. A lot of people seemed to warn that you need to do this and that every now and then to keep it running and avoid clogs etc. but I've done barely any maintenance and can't see anything being out of the ordinary (yet)
Though I can see why using one would be really problematic for someone with very little technical knowledge so the cheap hobbyist models definitely aren't ready for the masses
All I can say is try to avoid those weird closed-source printers that seem to require specific brands of filaments and whatnot, the Ender 3 is a really good option because of the enormous community support and there's infinite amounts of mods and parts and all sorts of stuff available for it, and it also happens to be one of the cheapest models out there particularly with that kind of print area
I've had the Ender 3 and Ender 3 Pro for about the same amount of time. Both ran great out of the box. The biggest thing is to be careful assembling them. I ran a few rolls of filament through both before doing any mods, and they ran just fine. For the price, and the availability of many mods, they've both been fun and educational.
I've modded one really heavily, and it prints nearly 24/7, the other one has a few minor mods and prints maybe 8 to 10 hrs a day. TBH, the mods didn't change much, they were more just to see what tinkering I could do (AKA for fun). The only upgrade that I'd really recommend is stiffer bed springs. I don't even touch my bed leveling after setup unless I've had the hotend apart. In the time I've ran them both, I've had 2 heater cartridges die, and one thermistor start reading funky. I'm not meticulous on keeping it clean, but I do take a moment every now and then to check the belts and roller adjustments. My problem has been what to do with all the empty filament spools! I've used as many as I can and given a bunch away.
Next job will be recycling the brims and support materials into more filament! 😃
I found the use of hair spray keeps the object down and allows a clean breakaway when finished
Plug-and-play equipment comes with premium price, which really sucks for beginners (or the general masses) who just want something cheap. Issue is: cheap equipment is only viable if you know how (and are willing) to squeeze out the full performance with knowhow and elbow grease - it's a hobby for a reason. Same with computers, audio equipment, hand tools, and (famously) cars/motorcycles.
@@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse I've used gluestick on mine but I only really put it just in case if my object doesn't have much surface area, it seems to stick really hard so I have to be quite careful although sometimes it just pops off once it cools down
@@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse Hairspray is an live saver.
No matter if you have a heated bed or not.
Get the cheapest one you can find and have fun printing :)
Yep, 3D printing youtube channels make it sound like a massively complex thing when its not! I have kept the Cura reccomended settings for my printer other than setting temp for PLA to 215c first layer then 210c and bed 60c first layer then 55c, i use that for all brands of PLA and the only setting i ever touch is adhesion as a raft is sometimes needed for large items to prevent warping. had a 3d printer for nearly 2 years and my build plate was leveled once when i built the printer and it got done again recently after needing to re adjust the build plate runner adjusters because of play, none of that obsessive messing about like the youtubers would make you think is necessary. Build, adjust and print and only mess with it again if its not working properly!
I like the fact that you just put the OpenScad file in the description. Thanks.
I love this neon tube. I use it so much. I’ve made signs, I’ve done my poker tables with it. I’ve put it behind some decorative glass bricks to light them up. It’s awesome to work with.
Good advice Clive always keep your tip shiny and clean.
Love this led strip I have used it several times for undercabinet lighting....LOVE IT! Thanks for the inspiration Clive
This makes me wish I had a 3D printer right now! I'd definitely make a load of these! That pink glow from the neon looks amazing and the blue casing coupled with it makes for a very Vaporwave-like effect. Love it! I wonder if for the gap after cutting, it would be possible to make some translucent pink epoxy resin and pour it in to fill the gap! Great video as always, this is like Art attack for technical people, but useful!
Wires joining in the middle is an excellent idea, I might have to get some of this strip to have a play with. Maybe the wire hole could be offset so that it cuts slightly into one wall, to make it easier to get the thicker bit with the wires in? Obviously the user would then have to choose inside/outside offset.
This could be done with a (user) variable offset. Negative values shift the hole to the inside, positive values to the outside for example.
Also, for circles the script could be tweaked to calculate the diameter by the number of segments -> circumference... same goes for the other shapes, the bend radius could probably be used to tweak the dimensions in a way it divides nicely by the segment lengh
I was just thinking that! Place the hole directly beneath where the wires come "down".
YES we need a way to make letters like this... that would be so great!
There are some complex and clever ways to do this. But I don't do complex and clever. So I can recommend adding the dotSCAD library to OpenSCAD for its hollowing out function, start with this SCAD snippet, and play 🙂
use ;
$fn=80;
font="Comic Sans MS";
fontsize=80;
text="HELLO";
shell_thickness=1;
linear_extrude(5.5) text(text, font = font, size=fontsize); // base
translate([0,0,5.4])
linear_extrude(10)
hollow_out(shell_thickness=shell_thickness)
text(text, font = font, size=fontsize);
I'd guess you'd need to solder wires in to get around the tight corners the the top of an A
I have found the trick to this is using constant width fonts like courier new or OCR-A. then you can use the offset(-num) command then difference it from the original text then make a base with the original shape. edit: here is my code
channelWidth = 5;
channelWallWidth =1.2;// increasing this or channel Width will increase font size
channelHeight = 6;
baseThickness = 1;
pointsPerMM = 2.83465;
fontType="Courier New";
fontRatio= 6.25; //ratio needs to be adjusted for every font used to get acurate channel widths
//2.51 for OCRA &OCRB
//6.25 for Courier New
stringToShow = "Neon";
//end of custom variables
fontsize = (channelWidth+channelWallWidth*2)*pointsPerMM*fontRatio;
module outline2d(txt=stringToShow,sz=fontsize){
text(txt,size=sz,font=fontType,halign="center",valign="center");
}
union(){
linear_extrude(channelHeight+baseThickness){
difference(){
outline2d();
offset(-channelWallWidth) outline2d();
}
}
linear_extrude(baseThickness) outline2d();
}
@@20thcenturygamer22 As don't have to have tight corners. If you did, you might want to treat them as separate segments and do the soldering around the back.
By far the most passionate, informative and straight forward video i've seen on this. Extremely usefull, exactly what i needed, thank you so much!
One of the few times a short led me someplace. Let alone a blast from the past.
Sick video.
So these are the 3D printed, LED neons you referenced. Quite nice, Clive!
I have been on the fence about getting a 3D Printer, now I am definitely getting one!
I have so many applications to make these neon style LEDS to then incorporate them into my epoxy resin designs.
Thanks Clive, see staying up at night really does yield productivity! ( well inspiration that will eventually lead to productivity )
Glad you posted on my Facebook now. 😊
I always recommend against potting LEDs directly into resin as they will fail in the future and it pays to make it easy to change them. But a standard clear LED looks great potted in clear resin. The lens disappears and you end up with a sharp dot of light.
These would be cool with addressable LED neon strips
Definitely!
neopixels!
they do exist, heck there are even COB versions of them they look neat, but are a bit expensive
@@ShahZahid Do you have a link? That would be soo cool 🙂
@@klausnielsen1537 idk y but youtube is just deleting my comment, heck i cant even write the name of the manufacturer.
EDIT: tried like 4 times it just gets deleted after a few mins :(
YES I 100% agree with just getting started with 3D printing and learning as you go. It is good practice to do a little bit of research beforehand, especially regarding safety. But besides that, there's really no need to know all the nitty gritty when getting started. If you learn by doing, you'll get a much deeper and more practical understanding of it.
Had a good laugh when you brought out the code, thx mate 😂
I'd love to make an LED neon Spyro and PlayStation sign with these. I will definitely have to look into it. Awesome!
The Playstation symbols were the first thing I thought of. Also the mask from Crash Bandicoot in outline form would look cool too
That was my first thought as well, though it would be interesting to see how the X shape would work with the LED neon strips, since it's not a nice "round" shape like the others, If that makes sense.
I never thought I'd ever see Clives big pink ring, but there it is in all its glory shining away.
A good tip about making the connecting in the centre, much neater!
Every maker and tinkerer should have a 3D printer. They have been around for long enough, they are cheap enough and easy enough to use these days. I custom print boxes for all my projects now.
I'm still oldschool enough to use hand tools to shape materials like wood and plastic. Then writing custom code for the electronics inside.
I wonder if the script could be adapted easily enough to use the measured length of strip available, rather than the dimensions of the resultant frame?
I don't really have much interest in 3D printing, but these OpenSCAD videos are tempting me!
The first circle one was originally based on strip length, but it actually varies slightly between brands due to the way it goes round bends. So I changed it to outer size.
I made a big 6x7-seg clock display using these a while back using a similar way of mounting these strips. Looked quite nice with PWM to gently fade the segments on/off as the time changed :) They're really nice for this because they're already diffused, so don't need any diffusion panel mounted in front of them :)
This video was the push I needed to stop procrastinating and finish my half-assembled 3d printer.
Cheers Clive for a couple of working examples of the hull() command.
Now if one of your future designs could just slip in some minkowski() commands... ;)
OpenSCAD is so cool to use. All the best.
Very nice project! You probably have a lot of envious neon tube benders out here. And you don't have to be concerned about getting zapped by 12 kV AC! Thanks, Clive.
This is a very well done video, very instructive and quite clear. I also appreciate the use of OpenSCAD for the flexibility it offers, especially as you've used proper parametric code construction.
I suspect that one could also create letters of the alphabet to illuminate in a similar manner. I'm fond of using Inkscape with the Path to OpenSCAD extension (works with only 0.92 and below) which would make creating letters easier than trying to create the raw code. A bit more complex soldering would be involved for crossing letters such as A, R, etc.
I'm now subscribed and loaded the RSS feed into my reader as well.
Thanks for sharing.
Totally agree about the 'don't watch youtube videos' when looking to buy a 3D printer. I've had some from the totally build it yourself Anet A8 to fully assembled ones, and the best way is to just get any and start playing about. Then when you have a clue, get one that matches what you really want to print (size, materials, etc) and buy a non-cheapass model that suits.
Looks like it's great to do DIY "Neon" signs that look close enough to neon that most people would think it were real.
It's getting hard to tell the difference in signage. Often the only clue is the greater detail and sharper joins.
You have opened my eyes to this wonderful world of bright lights, already having basic knowledge of mechanic work, I will definitely borrow my dads hobby desk to make some interior light solutions
Just stumbled upon you via the Fray Bentos algorithmicisms and I have to applaud you for the clear concise info delivery throughout all three videos I have watched till now haha
That 9v battery tip was what made me realize that I could make a battery powered solution to keep the interior mood light separate from the precious wiring loom, since I won’t be using it when driving anyway
So cheers for inspiring people big man, that’s me subscribed!
These are some great starter scripts for learning OpenSCAD, too. It might be worth also posting them somewhere that can do indentation correctly, like pastebin or a page on your own site.
Anybody who doesn't have a 3D printer and can't afford it (in terms of money, space or time), check your local library. Many of them have one and using it is either free or very cheap.
Barring that, make friends with a local nerd. Almost everybody with a 3D printer will be excited to share the hobby with you.
Cadhub has been my goto for sharing openscad stuff
@@radnukespeoplesminds Thanks for the tip; CadQuery is new to me and solves one problem I've had with OpenSCAD for ages - no easy chamfer or fillet operations.
Maker/hackerspaces are also an excellent option for access to the kit - and the chances are there will always be someone else around with a decent amount of knowledge to troubleshoot due to the nature of the space!
Toronto Public Library has 3D printers at eight different locations and they charge $0.10 per gram of filament... The only problem is I have no idea if that is a reasonable price or not!
@@booblla A 1kg roll of filament is typically around $20-$25, so like $0.02 per gram. But that's of no use to you if you don't have a printer. On the flip side, one of these neon shapes is only going to be a few grams, depending on slicing options, so 50 cents or a dollar per print is nothing compared to the cost of buying your own printer.
If you have difficulty getting a really neat join, you could cut the holder / mould to give it a bit of springiness to help close the join. A little bit of CA can then be used to reinforce it afterwards. Very nice effects
Got to playing with this stuff to make displays in store (I work retail). I used a frame like the department of villainy and managed to win some money for the store social fund. Going to have to unpack the printer and give this a shot.
I had no idea shorts had a description. thank you.
BigClive you are my favorite BigPhoton attractor
To clean the oxidized copper pads I tend to use a fiberglass pen. Works wonders!
My mum had one of those for cleaning tracks when I was a kid, irritating as hell when you get a strand in the finger.
We use it a lot on PCB's to clean copper or golden pads etc but you have to clean with another brush the shards, a pain in the ass to remove if you get them in your hands. But it's the best for this job
@@leosedf I imagine they can be a pain in the lungs as well.
@@ronnetgrazer362 no not really, it doesn't stay suspended and immediately falls on the table, in fact most of the times you get it in your hands is from tables or surfaces. I am using it for over 15 years.
@@leosedf how about some brasso? 😅
Hi Clive I love your channel, it's always very considerate when you say watch your eyes when turning the lights back on but I'd like to challenge you, see if you can make a very smooth dimmer function so when you turn the light back on it comes up slowly on its own automatically. Cheers from Tennessee :-)
Not totally suited to my existing lighting.
I find that this stuff works well enough even at 9v, with a much softer glow that I think is still suitable for indoor signage. Useful because you can run them from a decent 9v power supply if you can find one, rather than trying to run from 12v and tone it down with extra components.
Great little production. A good lesson for open all sorts of innovation. Thank you Clive.
9:24 it’s called scoring I believe. Good advice on attaching to the middle 💯
This looks so 80’s, love it.
Thanks Clive, another great project. The soft radii looks very 70's smutty night club, 😎😆
(or sci-fi if you prefer)
I like connecting negative on one side of the strip, and positive on the other. makes for even illumination even on the strips that are too long.
A couple of things:
- My 3D printer "just works", only fail so far has been the filament breaking, had a close call from it getting a minor jam (easy to fix)
- Wouldn't it be possible to create a script that has n sides? Just use some geometry for it?
Hi BigClive, thanks for the video and have a great Saturday.
I made a Cyberpunk 2077 neon sign using this technique a while ago. It's a super nice effect. I don't even play that game, but the logo is cool
Absolutely love your big pink ring Clive
I played around with a round tray that accepted a flat spiral of 2-3 wraps to use as a ringlight a couple months ago. Didn't perform anywhere near like a ringlight with front-facing LEDs does sadly, and I didn't consider printing other shapes for decoration. Now I kinda want to try to vector out a Dark Souls bonfire to hang on the wall with addressable RGBs doing the ember effect.
Makes me think of Simon Whistler's unfortunately dead neon logo in his studio-office, that could be replicated with these LED strips, that or the neon sign itself repaired, but he's out in Prague so not the simplest place to get to for someone to repair it... :P
I love the idea how someone who im assuming wasn't big on coding is finding code so useful for customizable models
Keep in mind I do write software for PIC microcontrollers in Assembler.
The black background really helps!
Yay! More Clive scripts to play with! Spot on with the 3D printer suggestions. When one is ready to progress to the next level, some of the best tips I've got were from Thomas Sandlander & Naomi "SexyCyborg" Wu.
An excellent video. I’d like to make a sign with my house number on as a first project. I’ve had a 3D printer a while but always felt a bit overwhelmed and never used it much. Must make a determined effort. Thank you!
At least you have used yours. Bought one 18 months ago. It’s still in its box.
Tried several times to purchase filament only to have orders cancelled with excuses like bad production quality control or the filament is damp.
So must order some filament. Lol
@@patomahony9747 hi Pat. I had it bought as a birthday present. Managed to assemble it and do a couple of things I downloaded but that’s as far as I got. Need to learn the design package but takes time! My nephew has one and does great things! I don’t think the filament supply is such an issue now. Good luck!
I will make those as gifts for friends , thank you for sharing, they look great
I love real neon and I'm really impressed with these modern diffusers for LED strips. They work really well. Very beautiful in their own right.
I don't have a 3D printer but I'm working on something similiar using a narrow chisel to create an inlay in a piece of wood. Still at the design stage as it's not as simple a shape and practicing carving MDF rather than mess up a piece of mahogany but it's a work in progress. Taking a hiatus as my workshop is the big one with the open roof and the heating is still on the fritz at this time of year 😁
A fibre glass pen for cleaning contacts is a useful tool to have to clean the brass and /or copper tracks. Oh boy, Clive has just told us he has a Big Pink Ring... LOL.
Thank you for showing us your big pink ring. Very nice.
The protective coating you speak of at times, would be a really thin layer of conformal coating (at least I think) or it could be a thin coat of varnish... usually burnable with a soldering iron and some flux.
I was already learning 3D modeling and tempted to buy a printer. This looks like a fun project for when I finally do get one!
You can play with the scripts for instant 3D visual satisfaction in openscad.
Carefully avoiding adding the _"cross"_ to miss on that PlayStation copyright strike I see. 😏
The PlayStation logo and/or associated symbols are considered too basic to be protected under copyright. They are likely covered under trademark law, but the stipulations are surprisingly different.
This may or may not be an issue, and it depends on a lot of different things. Playing it safe is fine, but trademarks can typically be used in artwork without issue. Look at Andy Warhol, for example.
@@marsandbars (psst, buddy. it's a joke. i do appreciate the effort though)
@@DeathInTheSnow I got it 👍
@@DeathInTheSnow m.th-cam.com/video/FVikHLyW500/w-d-xo.html
These are awesome scripts - BigClive is the OpenSCAD wizard. Very nice indeed. And that LED strip material is quite impressive too. It would be great if somehow it would be possible to make letters and symbols as well with OpenSCAD.
As a long time coder I have learned to be excessively clear in names and comments and got instantly upset when BC mixed up different meanings for height and width (those words are a pair, like x and y).
That's because I was making it up as I went along and the concept changed.
Very good advice on 3d printing. Even a cheap printer like the Ender 3, needs little adjustment at first.
I really like the look of these. Thanks!
Reminds me of the Olympic rings... that would make a great project to build.
Once cosplay finds this its gonna be awesome
I love this content. Thank you Clive.
Ooh, a horizontal video. You scared me there for a moment with that atrocity. Keep up the good videos! (not the bad ones)
Came for the instructions-stayed for the great accent!
I use OpenSCAD to design layouts for synthesizer front panels. Great once you setup your basic shapes.
would be cool to see a collection of various bends that could be assembled into various shapes, words even
anyways, coolbeans
Thanks Clive I really enjoyed that, I've been looking for something unique to illuminate my cars interior with and this REALLY FITS THE BILL !!!!!!! THANKS AGAIN!!!
Excellent project: Simple 3D print, yet so effective!
I only wish you could put the scripts in a Github Gist, so people can comment and improve on the them(and the indentation wouldn't get lost).
I like keeping them with the video. People can also add mods in the comments.
15m27s... 'We should have a big pink ring'! I have just laughed so much at that bit!
Brilliant! An excuse to get a 3d printer and inspiration for Christmas decorations for my front fence!
I like to use a scotch brite pad or red pencil eraser to clean contacts to solder. I tend to do too much damage with a knife.
Why don't you add a bit of flux? Have you tried adding a bit of flexible glue or RTV where the wires come out for stain relief?
I've seen LED neon used commercially in shop signs, so I'm guessing this is how they made them. With a little more complex 3D modelling you could make just about any shape or spell out the shop name or whatever. You'd just need to use some hot glue or epoxy to seal the electrical connections and ends, and secure the LED neon so it's not easy to pull out. Or if it's gong to be in the window of a shop with access to the rear, it might be better to just built it into an acrylic box to stop people from fiddling with it.
Seriously, Clive, you don't need to warn people when "the light is coming back". We're watching screens, there's only so much brightness they can produce. I can assure you we can all safety stare straight into the Sun via these screens and no harm will be done. :-)
I literally just bought two Ender 3's from a seller on ebay. $69.00 each and free shipping. They are returned and possibly missing small minor parts (ie screws , tools, manuals) one of them was missing 2 screws and the ($8.oo) pei build sheet. The other was missing nothing. :) Both work perfectly! If they are still available I plan on two more.....
UPDATE: they're gone....
Oh nice love that kind of light Clive they looks nice
Perfect timing, I was thinking of doing something neonish for a pride display.
If you shop around you can find the full suite of colours including the elusive purple.
Clive, you need to check out and maybe do a review on knife and anvil type cutters, or multi cutters as they are sometimes called. They make cutting things like your neon leds and tubing straight and square as easy as pie.
Do you a link on where you purchase your LED neon flex?
I got it from various eBay sellers. For professional applications I recommend sign suppliers for reliability.
I want to play with LED neon to make some designs. I just wish they would make "tubes" of it that were rigid that you could bend with a heat gun instead of having to make frames for it. I suppose one could use the plastic tubing similar to what the hardline watercooling guys use but it would be a bit of a pain for something that seems so obvious.
Wow they came out well. I really must have a crack at OpenScad
Great job work on light
If someone wanted to do a bigger or sturdier design, I've made something similar for a local café using 1/4" aluminium channel (they can usually be found at a fair price in hardware stores, often in the windows/glass doors department). You could also find slightly larger channels to just cover the straight lines of your 3D printed design. And the aluminum adds a bit of heat dissipation (it's true that they can get quite warm at full intensity 24/7! I'm still curious about how long these light strip will last...).
That's all well and good, but will it carbonate?
Always entertaining content!
Very cool...thanks Clive!
Fine tuning 3D printer? I bought my Prusa mini and assembled it and just started to print. Never adjusted or fine tuned anything.
These look so awesome!
Just one shape away from having a nice PlayStation button set. I am guessing the 'X' would be more difficult than these rounded shapes.
Thank you so much, what a great project, will be trying it out,. Cheers Mate
I have a problem Clive I have ADHD and dont have a clue how to learn how to make the printer do what I want it to do, this has caused me to not buy a printer, and I would love to buy one, where can I learn to do it help please.
The best thing to do is buy a cheap standard 3D printer and play. It's the only way to learn.
Quick summary:- Set up printer as per instructions and load some PLA filament. Choose a suitable small item from thingiverse and load the STL file into software like Cura to convert it to your printer's format.
I started with an ender 3 during lock down. Built in 20 mins printing in 25 mins and a test file perfectly printed in a couple of hours. Don't look to deeply into 3d print settings as Clive said it's a rabbit hole
I wager a guess, a lot of us have ADHD, i certainly do, and are printing away quite happily.