Battery Powered Flower Pot for Anko LED Cactus

A friend bought an Anko Cactus LED “neon” light which had an ugly AA battery pack and too-short USB cable. They asked if I could make it better, so I hammered this out in one day. You could use this for any other similar lighting project, or buy the “neon” LED strips and make your own design for the top.

In the base fits an 18650 cell which is cable tied through the pot and the bottom of the light, a cheap USB charging circuit for a single cell and a switch to allow selecting of Off, Battery or USB operation. I harvested the switch, wires and battery contacts from the existing device, with only the battery and charging circuit being purchased separately. The switch only hooks the light up to either the direct USB power or the battery through appropriate resistors - the charging circuit is otherwise always connected to the battery.

I estimate a fully charged 18650 will run it for about a day, and the minimum voltage of the LED strip should be above the minimum discharge voltage of the cell to avoid killing it. Make sure your charger circuit is correct for a single cell and knows not to over-charge them. Make sure your resistors are large enough to properly dissipate the heat for their voltage drop.

I printed in brown ASA and put in 6x3mm magnets into the base to make it removable. I used ASA because it was the only material I had in the right colour for a pot, but I would suggest PETG might be slightly safer in case of fire (look up fire tests of different printing materials if you want to question the safety  of all your household electronics!).

Printed on a Voron 2.4 with 0.2 layer height and about 20% infill.