Selfwatering Planter with LED light

Consists of 6 parts what are connected with small lips and grooves, they must be glued together. Tolerances were designed with PLA material in mind.

There are two watering holes between the plant pots. After printing you have to drill the holes in the bottom of the pots to let the water infill the soil.

There is a double wide groove inside the arms for two parallel LED strips.

Inside there are two walls to segregate the water from the electronics. The power cable goes into the "right" body part. You have to drill the holes to connect the cable to the LED strip where you want.

Printing and building is challenging because the parts are big and need supports and sanding. "Body" and "end" named parts need supports on build plate, "arm" parts need supports everywhere. Of course you may want to find better print orientations and support settings. While printing try to avoid warping and shrinking otherwise you will have problems connecting the big parts. Use draft shield. For me the connection of the two body halves needed some sanding and the removal of the supports in the arms was difficult. Cosmetic sanding is needed on the outside of the arm parts.

The strain relief for the power cable is optional, it was printed from flex material.

To make it watertight you have to use some thick glue and probably fill some leaks. I like to use UHU Por (or similar strong thick clear glue normally used for foam materials) with PLA.

Print instructions

Category: Containers Print Settings

Printer Brand: Prusa

Printer: i3 MK3

Rafts: No

Supports: Yes

Resolution: 0,2

Infill: 20%

Filament: Spectrum PLA PASTEL TURQUOISE (RAL 6027)
Notes:

With the usual print settings of the Prusa MK3 the whole thing required almost 1Kg material.

How I Designed This

Designed in Solidworks.