3D Printed Glowing Tie

Why this project exists?

Because after learning a lot more times how to make a perfect knot of a tie, I failed every single time and I was not interested at all in wasting time in learning that. Also those cloth ties are so boring. So, I made this tie which is fulfills all my needs and tech hunger to go in public with something techie on my body which is visible and attractive.

COMPONENTS USED:

1. Arduino Pro mini 5V
2. TP4056 charging module
3. 18650 Li ion cell
4. 16 LEDs (10 Red and 6 white)
5. Push button
6. Slide switch
7. Thin wires (must be thin)
8. 5 pin female header(optional, just to extend the programming header for your convenience)

TOOLS REQUIRED:

1. 3D Printer
2. filaments(Red, blue and black)
3. Soldering iron, soldering wire and flux(optional)
4. Hot glue gun
5. Super glue

OTHER REQUIREMENTS:

1. Patience
2. Dedication
3. No give up

So, first of all I have to make a 3D model for which I used Fusion360 because according to my research there is no such project available till now. It took me 8 hours straight to design the whole model.

For slicing of my 3D files I used CURA, but you can use any other slicing software of your choice. And here are all the stl files for you.

After slicing all the 3D model according to the color of print and dimensions of 3D printer. I started 3D printing and here are some of the images of final prints. And while printing I had a great luck because none of printed failed and also the quality of prints is fabulous.

Here is some information which might help you while printing yours:

1. 3D printer: creality Ender 3 V2
2. Modifications: Bed springs and flipped to plane glass bed side
3. Filament: PLA+(Black, blue and red)
4. Nozzle temp: 210C
5. Bed temp: 60C
6. Supports: only for body
7. Ironing: No
8. Printing speed: 100%(default)

This is personally my favourite section because I love to mess with electronics more than anything. And to be honest there is nothing special in this section. According to my design I need 16 LEDs out of which 6 are blue and rest are red. So, I picked up red LEDs for red hexagons and white LEDs for blue hexagons(because I don't have blue LEDs in my Lab). And then I connected a 220ohm resistor to each LED and also used a push button for future improvement. After this I have written a few lines of code in Arduino IDE for just one effect.

And push button is there so that if I want to add new LED effects and want to change them them, I can do so without any hard coding.

Download the code and your effects. I would love to see yours too :)

I know you would love to see this section but due to the messiness of the project I was unable to shoot a video and I apologize for that. You can have a look at its messiness in the image. Although assembling this project need a little more experience of soldering and a bit of hot glue for make the assembly process a lot faster and easier.

Steps you can follow for assembly are:

1. Trim the edges of all hexagons a little bit if needed and start pushing them into their position according to your desire or design
2. Connect the knot part which I call the body with tie/bottom part.
3. Take all the 16 LEDs and bend both the legs 90 degree from where they are joined to the LED and then cut the positive leg according to your requirement and solder the resistor.
4. Flip the 3D printed part and place a bit of hot glue in the hexagons one by one followed by the placement of LEDs facing their legs towards the body part so that it will be easier for you to solder wires.
5. start connecting all the ground wires with each other and then with arduino board
6. connect all the LEDs to arduino board according to the circuit diagram
7. connect the battery with charging module and switch.
8. Also don't forget to connect the push button wires and placed it upsidedown in the enclosure with the help of super glue.
9. As I wanted to make it as compact as possible so to add arduino board, charging board, push button and slide switch.You will have to have some patience

After a lot of work, this section will make your day more happier than ever as of mine. Enjoy the working!!

Thanks for watching!!

To see some more interesting projects in future, following links are for you:

Instructables: https://www.instructables.com/member/Electroboffi...

Hackaday: https://www.hackaday.io/electroboffin

Hackster: https://www.hackster.io/electroboffin

Github: https://github.com/Electroboffin

For updates related to this project and lots of upcoming cool project,

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