Just a small modification of a Wattuino Nanite: For a youth camp of Aktion Mensch we thought about modification of the Openlights of MadeForMyWheelchair, a project supported by Light Cares Initiative of the german ministry of Education and Science.

Here we used a simplified 3D-printed housing, to insert engraved and freeform lasercut acrylic sheets, with a WS2812 strip inside. Our modified Nanite (PCBs assembled by Watterott) is shrinked into a 10 mm wide pcb, which can directly soldered onto the LED strip (with VCC, GND and Data pads at the one side, and Micro-USB for programming and Power supply at the other, and a button for mode switch in between).

For programming the bootloader (either a modified variant of the Nanites code, and Adafruits Trinket bootloader would also work) there are, with the 3 already mentioned pins, a ISP pinout to programm the StripNanites either with pogo pins or soldered wires

Step 1: Design Sheets, Assembly

With the spirit of Opensource hardware (modifying the original Nanites opern source design as well as beeing supported within the Open Innovation track of the same ministry) the design files for the PCBs can be found here, also the 3D-printable housing. This consists of three parts, one for the PCB, the second as a sort of endstop and the part inbetween, where 3mm acrylic sheets can be inserted. This allows modifications of the length of the middle part, as well as stick multiple into each other for longer designs.

Furthermore, the dents on the transitions between the 3 parts can be used to mount the design with cable ties.

As a result, one has only to solder three points to connect the pcb with a common LED strip, which can be then easily programmed via USB. Afterwards the strip, housing and acrylic can be easily stuck together.

Of course, one could also use this Nanite variant for all kind of use cases where WS2812 strips are used.