Dear community,

I am releasing my design files for a hexagonal version of the Moodlite/Nanoleaf clone.

The project is based on the previous efforts of the Moodlite community: moodlite.co.uk

Each tile is composed of a bottom part that houses all the electronics and a top part that snaps on top to diffuse the light.
The degree of diffusion can be controlled by varying the lenght of the top part.

The tiles are interconnected with a servo cable + connnector.

In this build, I used ws2812b ledstrips. They come in different densities (30-144 LEDs per meter!)

Since I wanted to achieve a strong glow (that can always be dimmed), I went with the highest density ;)

Any other LED-density can be chosen, as the height of the diffusor part can be adjusted to be closer to the LEDs.

In this build, I used a Particle Photon running AgileNebulas's code: https://moodlite.co.uk/index.php?topic=34
However, the controller can be interchanged with a NodeMCU & the Classic Moodlite software.

I have adapted the code to include some more effects. The code is available at the end of the post.

You can add your own color combinations by adding a new block of colors

The following components are needed:
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WS2812b (I chose 4m @144 LEDs)
5V power supply (I chose 10 A)
Servo cables
Jumper wires + Breadboard
Particle photon dev board

Instructions:
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The setup is heavily based on AgileNebulas' setup that I have previosly linked.

The main difference is the routing of the cables.

The servo cables are spliced to power the 5 tiles in parallel (image 5)

The incoming power (yellow and brown) goes towards the LED strip.

The other end of the cable is then combined with the initial bit of the servo cable.

For this, I have exposed the incomming wire and resoldered the other end according to the image above.
Due to lack of shrinking wire, I have enclosed the solder with a drop of hot glue.

The data line runs from the tile's inlay straight to the LED strip. (image below)
At the end of the strip, the data line (red) is forwarded to the next tile. (image 6)

This way, each tile receives power from the plug and data from the previous LED strip.

The top part is then snapped into 1 side and slowly worked around the whole bottom part (image 7)

Possible problems:
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Diffusor may crack during mounting!

Soldered joint between cables might not be safe at certain Amps.

The diffusor is made of a single layer of white filament. You may run into errors when slicing it!
Use "detect thin features".

The design is rather new and will be adapted to house excatly half an LED strip.

When upscaling this setup, you will run into power delivery problems, especially when you choose 144 LEDs/meter.
The next version may feature a voltage regulator before each LED strip and a stronger power line interconnecting each tile (including stronger cables).

On/off doesn't work yet. For now, you can turn only turn it off by setting the brightness to 0. I am working on fixing this, it may just need a simple FastLed.clear() somewhere.

Code:

The code can be found here:
https://moodlite.co.uk/index.php?topic=134