This is a nightlight-lightball i made with 3D printed hexagons and pentagons. For the light effect i use a ESP8266 microcontroller and a small strip of WS2812b LEDs.

Step 1: Creating the Parts

First i created a hexagon and pentagon with joints on each side in a 3D software and printed 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons on my Anycubic Kossel. Afterwards i searched for some stencils on the web and printed them on a regular inkjet printer on white paper. I decided to make a ball in a Star Wars theme and put the printed pictures/stencils and 3D printed parts with thin double sided tape together. Its a adhesive tape i had left over from some screenreplacements i done in the past.

Step 2: Assembling

The next step was to assemble the ball. A football is a good reference, you have to put 5 hexagons around each pentagon and form the ball. I used some wires to get everything together. My first try was to use some joints for the connection between the parts, but they wasnt necessary. So i used only the wire.

Step 3: Electronics and Coding

After the ball was finished i made a simple microcontroller circuid to light it up. I used a ESP8266 and a small strip of WS2812b LEDs with the Arduino IDE. There are alot of lighteffects for this strip on the web, so even a newbie in programming can do some great effects. :)

A power bank is adequate enough to power it up.

To do my own thing i used a VL53L0X (ToF ranging distance sensor) and logic level converter to control the color and brightnes. My goal is to combine it with the effects and change them depending on the distance of the swipe-gesture or/and the time i hold my hand above the sensor. So it looks like i use the force. :)