LED Logo Box

In this instructable I'll show you how to create a box with your own logo with LED's inside. In the picture provided you can a plan of how it is going to look like.

What you need:
- Sandpaper
- Transparent adhesive tape
- Arduino and Arduino software
- Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator
- Lasercutter
- 3D printer
- Transparent acryl material
- Super glue
- Stanley knife or scissor
- Solder
- Adafruit Neopixel ring 12x WS2812/SK6812 RGB LED
- White paper
- Coloured paper (or small thin material of any kind)
- Plywood 3 mm

Moscow list:

Must have:
- A logo
- LED ring with arduino inside the box
- Tabbed box sides

Should have:
- Material made from transparent acryl.
- A USB port on the back side
- A hinge from the inside to make a lid for the USB port
- 3d printed support material on the corners
- Paper from the inside the give the logo a glowing effect

Could have:
- a hinge on the top side of the box
- flat 3d printed model for on the top

Won't have:
- Any other non transparent material.

Step 1: Creating the Design

You need to make a design for the box. You can either use Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. In Inkscape it is possible to use an extension called tabbed boxmaker to generate laser cutter case plans. I've tried this myself but the extension gave an error upon executing it.

There is an easier way to generate laser cutter case plans. Use the following link: http://www.makercase.com/. In the site you are able to change the width, height, depth and thickness. I have used 150x150x150 in mm with a thickness of 5 mm. As for the edge joint you can use either finger or t-slot. I'd recommend finger. When you are ready selecting the features for the box click on ''generate laser cutter plan'' and download the plans. If you would like to use my plan, download it in the link below.

Step 2: Editing Your Design

Now that you have your plan it is time to implement your logo on the front of the box. Take your logo and draw lines on where you want to cut. The lines must be red and 0,01 mm thick.

As for the engraving you have to leave it pitch black. If you need to engrave just a line, make it blue. In the pictures provided you can see an example of my YouTube logo being transformed from a PNG picture to lines. I've done that in Photoshop. You might manage to do that in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape too. If you've done it like I did, you need to convert the picture to drawing lines. I've done that in Adobe Illustrator. It is possible that some lines become duplicate when converted, so you just need to delete those duplicate lines.

In my design I've added a small rectangle to be cut. Because of this small rectangle, the Arduino cable can come through the hole from the backside of the logo box. Keep good track of size, because the cable needs to go through it. For other sides you can engrave whatever you want. I've done that on the backside. Make all the lines of the box itself red and 0,01 mm thick too.

Step 3: Assembling All Sides of the Box

So now you've cut all the pieces. There will some residue left you will have to clean up. Next you will have to glue every part but the top part together. Best to use is super glue. Don't use hot glue because it causes the thick paste to have some adjustment issues.

Before you start to glue, put a sheet of paper under the box before assembling. While glueing, you need to keep the sides at a perfect 90 degrees angle.

Step 4: Installing the Valve

Remember that we had a USB port? From the inside there is going to be a valve. To me this was the hardest part of this instructable. So basically a 3d printed hinge will be glued near the port. On the hinge you can glue any kind of thin material to it.

You will start with 3d printing the hinge. A file of the hinge is provided down below. Before printing it is recommended to scale the object to 0.8. This will match with the size of the port. Depending on the 3d printing machine you use, you may discover that the cilinder that will go in the hole of the other part can be a bit deformed. Make it straight by scrubbing it with sandpaper.

The way how the hinge is going to be placed will cause it to fall apart easily, but there is an solution for that. You need to create an enclosure. I do not have a file for this provided, because it was easy to make. That's why I made it right there on the public computer. Just create a broad U shaped object and lasercut it. measure the hinge and make sure the inner part of the object has a bit more space. Experiment with different kinds of widths of the enclosure. It is better to make it broader for more durability.

Now again use super glue and position it correctly to match with the port. Let it dry for a moment. Now it's up to you what kind of material your are going to use for the valve, as long as the material is not thick, because that will cause the valve not to be vertical anymore. Mine was made out of plain coloured paper. It's not wrong to make it bigger than the port itself.

For good blending, you can paint the hinge white and make the enclosure out of acryl too.

Step 5: LED Ring Installment

First of you need to wire of the ring. Connect a wire from 5v to 5v, gnd to gnd and data input to pin 6 (this can be changed). The the data output will not be used. Here are the links for the datasheets:
https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/WS2812.pd...

https://www.adafruit.com/images/product-files/1138...

Now you have to download the adafruit library. The link is provided below. extract all files in program files/arduino/libraries.

Open up the arduino software and click on file, then examples and then strandtest. In the arduino code change the amount of pins to 12. If you more or less leds, change the number of pins to that value. Start a strandtest to see if it works correctly. If it works correctly, you're good to go. You can also use the simple sketch for your box and change the color to which you want, it's up to you.
For the glow effect on your logo you just need to cut out a piece of white paper and stick it from the inside with transparent adhesive tape.
Now place your your ring and arduino in the box and let the cable go through the port and run the code.

Step 6: The LED Logo Box

Thank you for reading my Instructable. I hope you are able to make your own too. Feel free to leave a comment. I might be able to help you if you´re stuck. If your wondering what my YouTube channel is, it is called NewDrop.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkkzhJ8LBVnLoAO1b...
Have fun building!