Introduction: 3D Printed - Fancy Hot Glue Stick Holder Lamp

By @CarmelitoA
About: Born as a farmer, studied electronics ,working as a Consultant and a 3D printing enthusiast by night..

If the Hot glue gun is one of your favorite tools while putting/joining stuff together, while making!

Build your self an Fancy Hot Glue Stick Holder by following the steps below, to create an awesome diffusion effect as shown in the video above, using a NeoPixel ring and 3D Printed parts(STL's attached in step 2).

This holder is ideal to hold the mini size glue sticks.And the approximate cost to make is less that 15$, if you have a 3D printer and Soldering Iron at home .But if you don't have a 3D printer at home use a 3D printing service like 3D Hubs.

Step 1: Things You'll Need

Here are the electronic components you'll need for the build

Adafruit's Trinket

NeoPixel Ring

Wire -use the 26AWG flexible wire

Soldering Iron and Solder

Hot glue gun and sticks

Mini USB cable to program the Trinket using your Ardunio IDE on your Mac/PC

Step 2: 3D Print STL File

Download the 3D printing software that your printer supports, in my case I am using the Printrbot Simple Metal which use Repetier-Host as a software to

  • Slice the STL files attached,which basically means cutting the part into various layers
  • And send commands to the 3D printer while printing

In my case I am using the following filaments HATCHBOX 1.75mm Black PLA and HATCHBOX 1.75mm white transparent PLA.

Download the STL files attached for the base- Hotgluebase_V3.stl

  • slicing should take about a 2-3 Mins
  • and printing should take about 45- 50 mins

And then download the STL files to cover the NeoPixel ring - NeoPixelRingLid.stl

  • slicing should take about a 3-4 Seconds
  • and printing should take about 4- 5 mins

Attachments

Step 3: Solder the Circuit

Now fire up your soldering iron and solder the circuit as shown in the circuit digram above

  • Connect the +ve(5V DC power) on the NeoPixel ring to Vout on the Trinket
  • Connect the -ve(GND) to GND
  • and connect the Din(Data Input) on the NeoPixel to #1 on Trinket

Step 4: Upload to Program and Test the Circuit

To upload code attached to the Gemma you will have to download Adafruit's version of the Arduino IDE and install it on you computer.

For complete details on how to, follow this link

https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-trinket

In addition as part of the setup you will have to download the NeoPixel library from the following link https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberg...

Place the downloaded library in the /Arduino/Libraries folder and restart your IDE.

Now Download the code file attached Using the Arduino IDE Open the file (from the menu select File > Open) Next select the type of programer as show in the screenshot (Tools > Programmer > USBtinyISP)

Once your IDE is back up go to File > Examples >HotglueStickNeoPixel.ino. Also select the board you are using (Tools > Board > Adafruit Trinket 8MHz ).

Now press the button located just below the chip on the Trinket, wait for Red light to blink bright red and then upload the code to the Trinket (File > Upload)

Attachments

Step 5: Hot Glue the Trinket and NeoPixel Ring

Hot glue the Trinket to the base. And then Hot Glue the NeoPixel ring to the top notch of the 3D printed part as shown in the fourth picture above.

Press and hold the NeoPixel ring to the notch and hold for about 30 seconds.

Step 6: Hot Glue the 3D Printed Lid Carefully

Now after a the NeoPixel ring is glued to the notch , apply a small amount of super glue on the 3D printed transparent part as shown in the picture above.

Insert the transparent part into the base and press and hold for about 30 seconds.

Step 7: Plug the Trinket Into the Power Outlet

Congratulations your have successfully completed the build !

Now plug in your USB cable to the power socket and connect the other end to the 3D printed base to the Trinket. Add your super glue sticks,and in a couple of seconds you should see an awesome diffusion effect though the super glue stick.