Parametric Dual LED Bar

Fully parametric dual LED-strip light bar

This is a fully parametric LED bar I designed for my 3D printer enclosure. The design includes 2 parallel LED bars mounted on the same body, connected to a mounting bracket with 2 middle pieces.

The design also includes a thin bar that I printed in white to place over the LED strips. This softens the light of the LED strips, reducing over-exposure and glare on my webcam in my enclosure. The strip is not required to be printed and can also be made from other transparent materials or left out completely. If you choose to leave it out of the design, just change the height to 0.

The design itself is quite simple and proper methods were used during the design process in order to make it easier to modify and change the parameters.

Tips

• Although it is not required, I would recommend using ironing if you print the “transparent cover”. I printed mine in white ABS with a 0.4mm nozzle, because I don't get as a good top layer finish with a 0.6mm nozzle for such thin parts. I also used ironing for the final layer. It just helps to smooth the finish and really makes it look great! I think it could also possibly reduce the refraction caused by the plastic and make for a clearer and softer light to pass through the thin strip, but this is up to you and is entirely optional to the success of printing this.
• Be sure to check the middle bracket when printing it on a layer height lower than 0.24mm and on one of its wider sides. It could happen that the slicer would try to print the hole in the air. Although this might not necessary result in a failure, it degrades the print and could possibly result in a mess.

Changelog

• Version 2: 
  • Updated constraints, points, planes and axes to ensure alignment after changing parameters. Although parameter generations of V1 worked correctly, parts were misaligned because their origin points were not dependent on the parameters, only their actual measurements were
• Version 3: 
  • Added a missing chamfer on the main body of the LED bar as well as decreased the default chamfer from 2.0mm to 1.5mm. I found that with the default print settings of a 0.6mm nozzle and 0.24mm layer heights, there was a small problem on layer 4 of the main body. The angle was just too steep and sometimes resulted in failures or a small line along the print that affected the overall strength.
  • Also added an additional chamfer to the mounting bracket to improve strength and designed some of the lines and made the entire part a single body to change the chamfer to be generated differently to improve the visual appearance of the part as well as overall strength.
  • Added additional counterbores on the middle bracket and added a counterbore for a nut to be inserted. The default parameter is for a standard M5 nut with 5% tolerance.
  • Updated the parametric generation to rather use Fusion360's native hole function to generate holes and counterbores rather than doing manual extrusion. I feel this is easier to recognise and change in the timeline and also allows for easier modification and updates. This will also allow for easier maintainability in the future. I however have to say, the hole feature sometimes behaves unexpectedly with its alignment with centre points on parts. If you do advanced changes and editing, just be sure to check the alignments on the parts and that the holes are correct. This is unfortunately a sacrifice you need to make for the more advanced features.
• Version 4
  • Many slices use a factor of 1.11 of the nozzle size for the perimeter thickness (0.4mm nozzle → 0.44mm, 0.6mm nozzle → 0.66mm). Version 4 adds this factor of 1.11 to the calculations of the parameter using the nozzle size for perimeter thickness to improve printing quality.
  • Update the bracket to improve the parametric generation. A weird bug occurred due to the new wall thickness generation.
• Version 5
  • Changed the default orientation of the middle bracket in the print file
  • Changed the default layer height to 0.28mm. This improves reliability during printing, especially if you choose to print the middle bracket on one of its wider sides.
  • Changed the middle piece's channel for the wire from a Fusion360 native slot to an extruded rectangle with chamfers. This allows for easier printing in other orientations, especially printing it on one of its wider sides.

Non-version related updates

• I forgot to add the step and print files for the transparent cover in Version 1, they are available in version 2 and are recommended for the improved parametric generation.

Parameters