Introduction: Christmas Tree 3D Printed and Arduino Leds Controled

Christmas tree 3d printed in three colors with a single extruder with animated Christmas lights with an arduino Nano v3.0.

Visit: Brico3D

Download: 3D Files

Arduino Sketch



Colours filament PLA.

1x Arduino mini or other.

9x Leds from led strip.

1x Three AA battery support.

3x AA battery.


Step 1: How Print 3 Colours With One Extruder?

1. After designing the figure it is saved in .STL and opened with Cura or another rolling program, saving the .gcode file on our computer.

2. Open the .gcode file with the text editor. Note: With some slicing programs, we can modify the code directly as in the case of Repetier.

3. We look for the transition layer between colors in the slicing program. If we are going to make a green-white impression, we should find the last layer that we want to be green.

In this case, the first layer that will be white is 19, so the last green layer is 18.

4. Modify the gcode file. Open the file with the text editor of Windows or any other and look for the layer, in this case as we have commented is the 18.

And we write just below the line; LAYER: 18 the command M600 (more information).

5. We will do this in each of the transitions we want our design to have. In this test I make the change in layers 18 and 20 as the white thickness will be 0.4mm (with layer height of 0.2mm). We save the file and import it to our printer.

6. When the printer reaches this line of code, it pauses and goes to home with z higher than the current layer. At this time the LCD will show the steps to follow to make the filament change. In the video you can see the step by step.

In the case of the Christmas tree, I made 22 changes of filament. It is also possible to make the printing in a single filament color. :P

Step 2: Electronics

Taking advantage of the fact that the white color is more translucent and that its layer is 0.4 millimeters, you can see the light passing through those circumferences like Christmas balls.

I use nine leds of a strip of LEDs that can be bought in any store at very low cost. The circuit has four channels to combine lights. In the following scheme has not added the resistors since in the strip already come. With a little patience let's stick the pieces of the LED strip with its adhesive on the back cover of the tree and let's welding. The result is as follows:

As always I include the download links of the print files and the arduino sketch. Include the file in .gcode already modified.