Create your own customise 3D printed letters and see them light up. You can even change the colours of each letter and the speed of the colour animation as well. Perfect for a personalise gift.

The Alphabar-Lights is a great project for any Arduino fans. It is powered by an Arduino Nano which has a very small form factor.

The files for 3D printing and source code can be downloaded from IXEN Robotics Singapore website at https://ixen-robotics.com.

Step 1: Controller Schematics

Wire up the controller as per indicated in the schematic. The left part of the schematic is for the main controller and the right is for a single alphabet.

Step 2: Controller Assembly

Download the 3D printable files of the controller from the 3D Print section and assemble the controller as per indicated in the video.

The rocker switch should be placed above the Arduino-Switch-Holder and the button switches should be placed between the Controller-Base-Switch-Lock and the Controller-Base-Case. See the 3D Print section for more details.

Step 3: Alphabet Assembly

Download the 3D printable files for the alphabets that you need from the 3D Print section and assemble the alphabet as per indicated in the video.

The light pipe can be attached to the LED using a shrink tube that will be shrunk to size with a heat gun. You can then slide the light pipe out so that the LED along with the shrink tubing can go through the casing before re-attaching the light pipe back in. The video only shows you how to assemble a specific letter in the alphabet. However, the assembly of other letters in the alphabets are similar.

Step 4: Final Assembly

After assembling the controller and all the letters you want in your project. It is time to assemble all of them together.

Simply connect the main controller to one end of an alphabet assembly and connect the other end of the alphabet assembly to the next alphabet assembly. This video shows you how it is done.

Step 5: Configure Your Alphabar-Lights

To change the colours of your alphabar-lights:

Press-and-hold the upper button until the first letter blink once to enter the colour selection mode.
Press the lower button quickly each time to cycle through the various colours. There are 12 colours to choose from.
Press the upper button quickly to move on to configure the colour for the next letter and repeat step 2 above until the last letter is configured.
Press-and-hold the upper button again until the first letter blink once to exit the colour selection mode.
Press-and-hold the lower button until the first letter blink once to select the next animation speed. There are 4 animation speed to select from; not animating, fast, normal, slow.