Introduction: DIY Wood Nanoleaf Tiles

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I've always wanted to make my own Nanoleaf tiles because the real ones are so overpriced. My A level product design was the perfect excuse to make one and I ended up getting an A* for my work. Because of this, I had to design it to be a sleep product and add lots of other features so I had more to ramble about in the coursework. In the end, the product pulsed blue light using the 4,7,8 breathing, a speaker to play white noise, a digital clock, and a sunrise alarm clock that played nature noises to wake up to. All of this was powered by a raspberry pi connected by Bluetooth to an app I made to change all of the settings and modes.

Now being allowed to take the product home from school, I stripped all of the unnecessary features out and I can now show you how you can make your own. I designed to be easy to manufacture so this project is actually fairly simple and doesn't require too many materials.

I had to make a main hexagon hub so I could explain that the product had multiple design iterations, but you can make it with just triangles and use fewer materials. I will be explaining how I made mine but you can just use this Instructable as inspiration for your own project.

Step 1: Materials

This is a list of the most basic things to make the project:

  • 30x15mm pine strips
  • 3mm clear acrylic- I used some plastic diffuser from a drop ceiling light.
  • 3mm hardboard
  • RGB WS2812B LED strip- You have to have this type so you can individually address the RGB's. 30 is a great amount so you have 10 tiles, 3 lights in each tile are plenty.
  • Any Raspberry Pi or other microcontroller- I have attached my code written in python but linked is someone's code so you can use a cheap Arduino.
  • Long USB cable

That's it, as I said, this is a very low cost and simple project.

Step 2: Cutting the Pine

You will first need to cut the grooves for the front and back panels to slide into. The easiest way is to route the entire strips but if you don't have a router you can cut the strips into smaller sections and make the grooves with a saw and chisel. You could also use a Dremel with the correct router bits and jig. I printed this jig for another project and it works great.

These channels need to be 5mm deep with the bottom channel fully open so the backplate can slide in.

Real Nanoleaf tiles have a side length of 250mm but you can change that if you like. Measure out and cut your sections with a 60-degree cut. Sand them all with a belt sander so they are all the exact length.

Step 3: Cutting the Plates

You now need to cut the front and back plates. It is quickest done with a laser cutter but can be easily cut by hand, the edges will be hidden so there is no worry to be tidy. Remember that these triangles will need to be smaller to fit into the groves.

A hole will need to be drilled into the backplates for easy wall mounting later. You will also need to brush the plastic plates to diffuse the light. It is best to use an orbital sander for a better finish but be careful not to dig into the plastic else you'll end up with ugly scratches shown above.

Step 4: Assembly

With all the pieces cut you are now ready for assembly using a jig. As you can see, I nailed in scrap strips to a piece of MDF to hold the triangular shape then made some 60-degree jigs to tighten the top edges.

Perform a dry fit first.

  1. Nail in two scraps at the correct angles to the board
  2. Add 2 side pieces
  3. Slide the diffuser plate in
  4. Attach the final side then nail the final scrap strip in place so the parts are tight
  5. Attach elastic bands and your angle jigs.

Make sure you know what to do before applying glue. Clean the excess glue to avoid a mess later.

Step 5: Mahogany Keys

To make the product look nicer and prevent it from breaking if dropped, I added a keyed mitre joint with mahogany to stand out. This is really easy to do so definitely worth the time.

Mark out the cuts with a marking gauge and rule then cut the corners out to the correct depth. Leave space for sanding a nice fit. With your alternate material, cut out some oversized triangles for the keys. sand down the wood so they fit snug then use glue. Finally cut off the excess key and sand flush.

Step 6: Assemble the Tile Layout

Unless you want to try and improve on the Nanoleaf by designing easy to rearrange connectors using strong magnets and these pogo pins, it is a lot quicker to just choose a design and screw the tiles together. You can find lots of Nanoleaf layout inspiration on Pinterest.

For the tiles to light up in individual colours they need to be wired in a way so that the addressable RGB's are in series. The microcontroller can be installed onto a backplate with screws or hot glue and will be located at the start of your layout.

With a tile arrangement in mind, drill a 10mm hole between the tiles to thread the cable through. I just used some regular wood screws to connect the tiles together.

The RGB's have sticky backs so they are easy to install. you can then begin the task of soldering all of the lights together. I used RPI wires for the start so I could easily connect the Pi to the lights.

Use thin wire and try to make the wires tight so their shadows do not show when the lights are on. Use plenty of hot glue to hold the wires in place and flush to the edges.

Step 7: Finishing

I left the step of sanding to the end because the pine scratches easily. Sand to a high grit, then clean the dust before applying a boiled linseed oil finish.

Step 8: Programming

You can now begin to program the microcontroller to test out your RGB's and make sure they are all wired correctly.

If you used under 30 RGB's you should be fine to plug it directly into the 5v power pin as shown above.

Use this tutorial to get started on the Raspberry Pi and get everything updated properly for the lights.

Use this Adafruit tutorial to understand how you can easily program the lights.

Attached is my basic code for the Raspberry Pi in Python. It randomly chooses a tile and fades the tile between 2 different colours that you can set yourself. I've added notes so it should be easy to understand. This alternate code works great and has loads of features so you should this for your own.

Finally, there are several ways to get the pi to run the code when it powers on. I like this method because it just works and is easy to do, but there are lots of other ways to do it.

Attachments

Step 9: Finish

Double-check that the Pi is working and all of the lights still work. Then use some small nails to hold the backplates onto the tiles. Finally, you can mount it to the wall with nails.

I hope you enjoyed this Instructable, and it gave you some inspiration for your next project. I just wanted to share this thing I worked so hard on so I hope you like it. I didn't think I should have written this too detailed because this project is fairly basic and there are so many ways you can make your own with different materials and better methods. Just search on Youtube "DIY Nanoleaf tiles" and you'll find tons of resources and ideas.

Thanks for following along.