The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Glass Tiles: Single Test Cell

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A single glass tile rests on the ridge around the pyramidal interior:

Glass Tile Frame - pyramid cell
Glass Tile Frame – pyramid cell

The bottom has a cutout for the WS2812 PCB, with some in-the-model support for simplicity:

Glass Tile Frame - pyramid cell - bottom
Glass Tile Frame – pyramid cell – bottom

Which becomes this in real life:

Glass Tile - 1x1 cell test - pyramid PETG strings
Glass Tile – 1×1 cell test – pyramid PETG strings

There’s plenty of PETG hair inside the opening, which seems like a Bad Thing all around.

Cleaning out the worst of the fur, taping a WS2812 LED into the opening, and dropping a white-ish tile in place:

Glass Tile - 1x1 cell test - purple phase
Glass Tile – 1×1 cell test – purple phase

Obviously, JPG compression wasn’t built with a finely textured granular surface in mind:

Glass Tile - 1x1 cell test - blue phase
Glass Tile – 1×1 cell test – blue phase

But it looks really nice in a dim room!

With a physical object in hand, it’s obvious the pyramidal interior adds exactly zero value:

  • Direct rays in the beam from the WS2812 don’t hit the walls
  • Light outside the beam doesn’t contribute much after hitting those irregular walls

So the next pass should be just a hollow box with tweaked tile & PCB measurement: rapid prototyping in full effect!

Comments

One response to “Glass Tiles: Single Test Cell”

  1. Glass Tiles: 2×2 Matrix – The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning Avatar
    Glass Tiles: 2×2 Matrix – The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

    […] with a single cell holding a glass tile over a WS2812 RGB […]