DIY Batsignal With 3D Printed Parts As a Gift

Today is my brother's birthday and I wanted to do something special for him. He is a Batman fan and I saw on Instagram an action figure of Batman posing with the BatSignal and I thought "hey, this could be a very neat thing to give Daniel (my brother)." Recently I was able to bought my first 3D printer so I came with the idea of doing myself the action figure that I saw, save some money (I'm currently a student and I don't have a job LOL) and start improving my skills with the 3D printer. The 3D model that you will found was made by myself.

This is nothing new, many people has created this project and probably they did a better job than me. I'm writing this for fun, and I wanted to start documenting my projects so I can see my own progress and share it with people. If someone is reading this I would appreciate feedback in this project. And let me know if you use my 3D model, that would be really nice to hear.So lets get started.

• 3 watts led light
• 7.5 ohms resistor
• One switch
• 9V battery
• Wire (I didn't notice the diameter)
• Soldering tin & iron
• 3D printer
• Black and white PLA
• Super bonder
• Any transparent material such as vinil or even maskin tape
• 3 M4 x 3 screws (optional)

Software:

• AutoDesk Inventor (only if you want to modify the design).
• Any slicer program to 3D print (I used Cura).

The very first thing that I did was to design the circuit. I used a 3 Watt LED with its heatsink that operates between 3.2 and 3.8 Volts and 800 mA. I didn't wanted to use regular LEDS because I wanted something brighter, but maybe you could do some experiments with diferrent lights such as a NeoPixel, for exaple. As the current source I selected a 9V battery that I had. With this information and some basic knowledge of electronics I found that I needed a 7.33 ohms resistor (or a 7.5 ohms resistor wich is easier to found on any electronics store). Also I wanted to add a switch so the light could be turn on and off at any time.

I bought the materials that I needed and start welding some wire on the LED's positive and negative entrances and joining the battery clip and the resistor. This will be enough for now. We will weld the rest of the circuit once we have the 3D printed parts.

Pd: I saw on internet that some people used a driver for the LED instead the resistor. I couldn't understand why, so I would appreciate if someone would explain this to me.

As I stablished on the Introduction, the 3D model available was made by myself using AutoDesk Inventor. I knew that the size of the batsignal has to be small enough so every part could be printed on my Creality Ender 3 SE that has a bed size of 220 x 220 x 250 [mm]. I wanted a base that was also a box where I could keep off sight the battery, the resistor and the wires. Also it must be a hole where we could fit the switch that has a size of 1.2 x 1.8 [cm]. I know that the battery and specially the resistor emits heat. Considering the small size of this components it is unlikely that overheat will be an issue but I wanted to be sure so I added some rectangular holes that will help air to flow and dissipate heat. Also I did the same for the LED. This component won't be on the box, it will be on a cylinder that will be the BatSignal so I added a circular pattern on the back side of the body of the BatSignal to allow air to flow and release heat.

The rest of the design doesn't need a great explanation. I designed an outer shape for the BatSignal that I found aesthetically attractive. One thing that I would change is the wall thickness of the main body of the BatSignal. I designed it with a thickness of 2 cm and now I thing this is excesive and caused that its printing time was of 12 hours. You can found the ipt and stl files so you can make any changes that you think convenient.

The shape of the Bat was based on the Arkham's videogames (which my brother loves).

At first every component was gonna be able to assemble and disassemble with nuts and bolts. But as I said, I'm new with the 3D printer so I was afraid that this features would end not fitting or looking all wrong. I wanted to have my final design before my brother's birthday so I didn't had time to experiment with my 3D printer tolerances, so I decided that every component would be joint with super bonder, except the base and the rest of the box. These were joint using hot glue so its adherance would't be permanent in case that it requires a battery change. And the BatSignal and the supports were jointed with only two 4M nut so it was able to rotate. I didn't add any thread on this hole, but due its small size the nut created its own thread by destroying material while I was joining it with an Allen wrench.

As I said, this is a gift for my brother so I wanted to customize this lamp for him. I added his name "Daniel" and two "20"'s that is how many years he is turning. I won't include this on the files but I will show you how to do it.

There are two ways to do it. You can add the message directly on the top surface of the base or you can print it as a different part. I recommend you the second way because it is easier to print and you wont need to add supports on the slicer programm that increases the printing time. Maybe if you have more experience and a 3D printer that has a dual extrusor you would preffer to do it on the first way. This is your decision.

On Inventor you are gonna create a new sketch over the surface where you want to put your message. Then, in the Sketch section you will find an option that says "text". Here is where you can write whatever you want and change many things such as the font, the size or the style of your text. Once you are finish you probably will need to move it or rotate it with the tools with the very same name. Once you stablish the ideal position you are gonna use the fix constrait so your sketch is full constraint. Once you are donne you are gonna use the extrusion tool so the "draw" or text that you created is converted into a 3D figure.

On this part you can be as creative as you want.

This step is very easy to do. The hard thing is that you need acces to a 3D printer. In case you don't have one there are places that can print the pieces for you. I used a creality ender 3 SE, the typical 0.4 mm nuzzle and Cura as my slicer program.

Now itis time to continue with the assemble. First you're gonna fit the switch on its respective place. Probably you will have to sand the hole, so be careful to not overdo it. Then you are gonna weld the resistor to the switch. This position was very unconfortable so I unfit the switch from the hole and then passed the resistor through the hole so I could weld this components. Still with the components outside the box I welded the cable that is connected to the positive entry of the led to the output of the switch. Then I put the welded switch back in its place. To close the circuit I welded the negative entry of the LED to the negative of the battery. Then I decided to fix the battery and the resistor to the box and added some insulation tape to avoid a dead short.

Then I glued the 3D printed components as it is shown in the photo attached in this step. Don't forget that you need to add your transparent material. As I said, I used some glued plastic foil that I had. This is something I would definitely change because this material ended up looking very cheap and soft.

This was an idea that I came up with. I tought that due its black color the brightness of the LED light wouldn't be as powerful as it could. So I decided to cover the inside of the lamp with aluminum foil so it would look brighter. Honestly, I'm not sure if it worked or if I could have done something else. Here is another step where you can do your own experiments. For your interest, I'm satisfied with the results that this procedure gave me, so I would recommend you to do it this way in case you only want to craft this design without doing any experiments.

Congratulations! You have finished your own Batsignal. Now you only have to test that the pieces are correctly stuck together. Through this instructables I mentioned some recomendations on how I would've improved the design and here they are:

• Use a different transparent material as glass or vinil.
• Modify the design so every component can be assembled with non permanent joints as nuts and bolts.
• Reduce the thickness of the body of the lamp.