DIY Nanoleaf (Without Neopixels)

For a while now, I’ve been using a strip of LEDs on the back of my desk to add some flare to my otherwise bland room. But over time, this has become a bit old and doesn’t look anywhere as good when the lights are on.

However, I recently stumbled upon this product called Nanoleaf while scrolling through Reddit. But upon checking the price, they seemed more than they were worth. Then I realised: “I have a 3D printer and some LEDs, I can make my own Nanoleaf!”

And so I did

The supplies list is relatively short as this project was a simple, weekend project and I wanted it to be easily replicated. In saying that, most people don’t have a 3D but nowadays, 3D printing services are cheap which makes this step easier.

Products

1. 3m / 5m RGB Led Strip (5m gives you more leaves):
2. Smart WiFi LED controller
3. M3 Nuts and Bolts x10 (this value may change depending on how many leaves you make)
4. White and Black PLA Filament
5. Double-sided tape (Available from most hardware stores)
6. 5-12v Power Supply (I got mine from an old wifi modem)
7. Wire

Tools

1. Soldering Iron
2. Screwdriver
3. 3D Printer ( I have an Ender 3 Pro)
4. Wire Cutters
5. Wire strippers
6. Solder
7. Pen/Pencil
8. Sandpaper
9. Drill
10. Pen Knife

To start with, I loaded up Tinkercad, (Because my 5-year-old Laptop can’t run Fusion 360) and completed a basic draft of one pane. I used some reference images and measurement images to aid in my design which I will link at the end. I chose the triangle pattern out of pure preference and I've already got some hexagon lights.

Once I was happy with my initial draft, I went over the design, adding little details to improve its functionality and aesthetics of it. I did a test print to prototype the design, and somehow it worked perfectly.

Now that I had my designs ready, I moved on to the layout of the panels.

Before you even think about printing the pieces, you need to work out the layout. This will help determine how many of which pieces you need.

I used a piece of isometric grid paper to work out a good layout for my NanoLeafs. As a general rule, per 3M of LEDs, you will get about 10 panels. Which means about 3 panels per meter (about).

Using this knowledge, I drew up a pattern of 6 panels as this is already a lot of filament and once I found I design I liked, I started printing the panels I needed.

The designs are ready, and I know the layout that I want, it is now time to move on to printing the panels to house the LEDs. When working out how many of each panel you need, take your design and count how many panels there are. It's as simple as that.

I printed the bases using Proto-Pasta's Recycled Black PLA (Save the planet) and the lids in their Back-to-Basics White PLA. I experimented with different types of diffusion but I settled on white as I didn't have a roll of transparent PLA. But if you do I would highly recommend playing around with it. Let me know how it went in the comments.

Overall the parts took 30 hours give or take but the most tedious part was that my print bed only fits 3 bases at a time so I had to do the bases in 2 batches. Then I had to repeat the same process with the lids.

For the cleanup, I just drilled through the holes to make sure they were the right size. I gave the lids a bit of sand as I print on a glass bed, which makes the bases smooth, which doesn't help with the diffusion. But once that's done, the printed parts are ready.

Lay all your panels out in your chosen design, making sure the connection holes line up. Connect them with a bit of Blue-Tak, so they don't move around and begin bolting them in place.

Push the M3 screws through the holes and out the other side of the other panel. Secure these with the bolts but don't tighten them too much or else the panels will break. Repeat this until all the panels are bolted together.

Make sure you leave 2 pairs of bolts sticking out of one end on the design to bolt the electronics case to later. If you don’t, you may run into problems when it comes to bolting the electronics box in place.

Now that you have all the panels, it is time to install the LED strips. Most strips have segments of 3 LEDs where you can cut, but if yours don't, you may have to work out another solution. Overall, you need 18 LEDs per panel so now is a good time to cut your strip into segments.

You may be thinking it is wise to now test each strip individually to check for faults, but DON'T. Depending on the amperage of your power supply, the LED strip may not be able to handle all that current. You then run the risk of blowing one of the strips and letting out the Magic Smoke. You have been warned!

Start by tinning each solder pad of the strips. I stuck mine to a spare piece of wood so I could do all the ends at once. Cut the wire into 10cm segments, strip the ends and tin them also. Once everything is tinned, peel the adhesive backing of the strips off and push each strip of LEDs onto the slots on the inside of the panels. Then use a flat-head screwdriver to push each of the strips into the very corners.

Once that is done, use a soldering iron to solder the wires onto the corresponding pads on the strips. Push the wires out of the holes and into the next panel. Repeat these steps until all the LEDs are in and all the panels are connected.

The project is almost done, the last thing you need to do is print one more part to house the wifi controller. This was printed in black for the lid and the case as it doesn’t need to stand out. Choose one of the openings close to the bottom of the design and bolt it to the frame in the same way you did with the panels.

Slip the cable into the slot of the case and secure it with a bit of hot glue. Take the cable that connects the LEDs to the receiver and push it through the hole in the panels. Bring it up into the new case and connect it to the Receiver.

Depending on if your controller came with a remote, push the receiver into the hole in the lid then secure it with a bit of glue on the underside. Put the lid in place by pushing the nubs into the holes in the case, and use a dab of superglue if needed.

The final step is to add all the diffusion panels and mount the panels. Start by powering up the panel to make sure all the panels work. If they do, Great. If they don’t, go back over them and work out if there are any cold joints. Because all these panels are connected in series, once there is one faulty connection the rest of them won’t work. So don’t be alarmed when only one strip lights up.

Now that you know all the panels work, it is time to put the lids or diffusion panels on. The pins on the panels are designed to be about 5mn to long to compensate for inaccuracies or warping when printing. Cut off about 5mm of the top of the pins and they are ready to be put on the panels.

Line up the holes with the pins on the lid and push hard on them. The holes are designed to be a snug fit so that they don’t fall off but you can take them off to do repairs. You may need to push down a bit hard to get them in. Once all the panels are on, you can use some double-sided tape or Blue-Tak to mount them to the wall.

The project is now finished. Just plug the wifi co troller in, download the app and have some fun.

While this is a pretty good project, there are a few things I would improve on for next time.

1. Make the LED strip Neopixels. This will allow individual control of the panels.

2. Detachable panels. At the moment, once the panels are together you need to take off the lids, unscrew the panels and de-solder the LED strips to re-arrange the panels. While this isn’t particularly hard to do, it is a tedious and annoying process.

3. Better diffusion for the lids. Using transparent PLA would make for a better diffusion and make the panels brighter.

I plan to make a V2 for this sometime in the future where I will try to implement most of these features. If you have any more suggestions or questions then feel free to leave them down in the comments and I will try to get to as many of them as I can.

Have a great day and remember to stay creative.