3D Printed LED Energy Sword

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N8TEBB

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So I actually made this sword a while ago, (I think around May 2020, Its currently September) but I figured I'd try to figure out how to use the 405th because forums and threads are completely new to me.

I recommend watching this video I made:
I believe it's easier to understand what I'm doing in the video than in this thread. I'm not that great at explaining things through writing. But of you like reading, than here it is: How I made an Energy sword

Ever since I played Halo 2 for the first time I've wanted an energy sword. I wanted mine to light up, and to be able to have different colour patterns.

So one day I found this video on YouTube:
Upon seeing this video I need to try making an energy sword for myself. for myself. I have absolutely no experience with electricity, coding LED's or making something like this in general, but the tutorial made it seem easy enough. What could go wrong?

The First thing I had to do is get all of the components. The sword is going to light up using 2 LED strips. I got all of the components directly from the adafruit site. I'm using the Afafruit feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE. Here's a list of all the stuff I bought:
list of stuff 4 sword.PNG

I also got clear PLA from amazon, and some slide switches. It took a while for the things from Adafuit to come in because I live in Canada, and this was during peak covid. My package was held up a bit at the border, but it eventually made it.

Adafruit has a lovely circuit diagram that I used to wire up the micro controller. I just copied what I saw exactly, or what I thought was exactly. The battery gets connected to the Arduino with a slide switch, LEDs share voltage, data, and ground with a Y-cable.
circuit diagram fixed.jpg
sword cap 2.PNG

Now I had to get this thing coded. This is a bit of a longer process, so If you want to do it yourself, just follow what I did. Keep in mind I am completely new to all of this stuff. There is a lot of sarcasm in my explanation:


Alright so I finally managed to get it to work. It took a lot longer than I expected, but that's just because of all the mistakes I made. One of the things I changed from the code that Adafruit provides is how the colour picker changes the lights. It used to change them all at once, but I changed it to do a colour wipe.

sword 4.PNG


Basically when the code runs it activates a signal that my phone can connect to to control the colour and pattern of the lights.
With that all out of the way i could move on to printing. The Adafuit guide provides STLs that I sliced in cura and printed on my CR-10. I printed the handle in black PLA and I printed the blades in clear PLA.

sword 5.PNG
sowrd 6.PNG
sword 7.PNG

So my bed wasn't completely level, which resulted in a print fail. I spent a lot of time clearing out the nozzle, but eventually got it up and running again.
But of course with my luck a huge hail storm came and caused a power outage. This also helped a print failure. After realizing that these failures may not be the bed, I decided to replace the nozzle. Whether this was the actual problem or not, I do think it was a good idea to give my printer a fresh nozzle. After this, I had no print failures.

sword 8.PNG
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sword 11.PNG


Now it was time to do a bit of paint! I used a few coats of filler primer on the handle and sanded it down in between coats. A applied a grey base coat, and painted on some black details. I spray painted the caps gold, and gave the edges a blue highlight. I know this is not what the sword looks like in the game, but I thought this looked cool. I coated the handle with a clear gloss coat to protect it.

sword 12.PNG
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Now all I had to do was glue the electronics to the inside and turn it on! But somewhere in the assembly process I killed my battery. The board I have is supposed to have built in charging, but I believe the problem is my battery, not the board. I ordered a replacement battery from adafruit and chucked it in the handle. My new battery is able to charge directly from the board. With that, the sword was complete!

sword 17.PNG


GOPR5185.JPGGOPR5189.JPGGOPR5195.JPGGOPR5199.JPGGOPR5202.JPGGOPR5207.JPGGOPR5209.JPGGOPR5213.JPGGOPR6953.JPGGOPR6963.JPG
If this thread was hard to follow, please watch the video I put up at the top. It's easier to understand when I explain things with video. This is also my first time posting on the 405th, so I hope I did everything like I was supposed to.

I had a lot of fun making this project, and I also learned a lot. I hope to make more projects like this in the future!
 

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Nice build! Good to see something that impressive can be made with no experience in electronics or coding.

That is one dirty nozzle. My nozzle often gets clogged after a power outage. I replaced my fair share of nozzles and bowden tubes on my Anycubic Chiron. Even tried cleaning them with a needle and lighter to no avail. That's why I bought a pack of .4mm nozzles on amazon. If you extrude filament in the air and it doesn't go straight down then you know the nozzle or area between it and the bowden tube has a problem.
 
Nice build! Good to see something that impressive can be made with no experience in electronics or coding.

That is one dirty nozzle. My nozzle often gets clogged after a power outage. I replaced my fair share of nozzles and bowden tubes on my Anycubic Chiron. Even tried cleaning them with a needle and lighter to no avail. That's why I bought a pack of .4mm nozzles on amazon. If you extrude filament in the air and it doesn't go straight down then you know the nozzle or area between it and the bowden tube has a problem.

sword 18.PNG


This little bit of help that someone shared with me on reddit has helped with my nozzle issue. I haven't had a nozzle clog since I made the sword, so this definitely helped.
 
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Let me know when this is going to hit the market!!!! Knowing me, I'll never get around to getting a 3D printer....and I would be like a neanderthal with fire when it comes to electronics. Great job and welcome to the 405th.
 
Let me know when this is going to hit the market!!!! Knowing me, I'll never get around to getting a 3D printer....and I would be like a neanderthal with fire when it comes to electronics. Great job and welcome to the 405th.
Not really sure what the market is, but if it just means selling it or giving it away then I won't be doing that. Again, I'm super new so if I completely don't understand what the market is please tell me. :)
 
Not really sure what the market is, but if it just means selling it or giving it away then I won't be doing that. Again, I'm super new so if I completely don't understand what the market is please tell me. :)
It was a joke......I know this isn’t going to be on the market for mass sales......but it would be nice. You should get in touch with a toy company/manufacturer and pitch your Build. Who knows. Maybe you are sitting on a small goldmine
 
It was a joke......I know this isn’t going to be on the market for mass sales......but it would be nice. You should get in touch with a toy company/manufacturer and pitch your Build. Who knows. Maybe you are sitting on a small goldmine
LOL
 
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