EA'S Dream - 3D Printed Kinetic Lantern

EA's Dream, is a kinetic lantern driven by a small DC motor.

Entirely designed by me for the little EA (it's a little girl's name, cute huh?).

It started with these beautiful animals and plants drawn by hand by the artist: Gaëlle De Laveleye, I wanted to do something for her little girl who suffered a slight burn on her hands, EA was a little sad (mostly scared ) and I wanted to do something to comfort her.

The project started like that: I designed the model with Blender, I was an architect before becoming an artist, so I'm quite used to playing with Blender and building mechanical stuff. I imported the drawings in SVG then extruded the blank panels I had modeled in 3D. I did make a small preview in Blender and added a virtual lamp in the model to see if it would work.
Well it did, so I kept going. And here is the final model for you today, so you too can build your own dancing pack of animals.

You'll need:

Access to a 3D printer

You will need a DC motor I used This kind: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/4000991539443.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2fra

A 3 volts power supply with correcsponding connector for it, (8mm in diameter)

A Yellow LED ideally 3v, I used this one: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/4000896062123.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.184.1b155e5bdZqbwT&gatewayAdapt=glo2fra

Some electric cable and some solder to connect everything & of course a welding iron

You might want to add a resistor to protect the Led, it will depend on the LED you choose.

8 cm of tube diameter 8mm.

2 M3 screws to secure the motor

An K08 flange bearing with pillow block bearing. Like this one: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/32362773396.html

If you've gathered all the supply & if they are similar in dimension of the one I used, you won't have to adapt the 3D files, so >>> It's 3D printing Time!

You might have to adapt the files if you found another model of motor, see it htis way: it's a beautiful occasion to start learning Blender! >>> https://www.blender.org/

Printing:

Height: 0.3mm

Infill: 15%

I used PETG, I believe you can use any rigid filament.

This step is pretty straight forward, assemble the 3D prints. Ideally starting with the gearded base, add the pannels and finish with the top.

Becarefull the gear must be facing down.

1. Add the dc motor to the base, secure it with to M3 wood screws
2. Solder two cables to the wires coming from the LED, 12cm of cable should be enough. I suggest you use different collors for the wires to remember the positive and the negative. Longuest wire coming out of the LED is Positive.
3. Insert your 8mm tube to the 3D printed base.
4. Slide the bearing around the tube, ideally with the locking flange facing down, so you can adjust the height later.
5. Insert the LED with the cable in the 3D printed support for the LED, and slide the support on top of the 8mm tube. Wires should pass all the way through the tube and exit from the base so you can connect them to the power.
6. Place the connector in the opening provided in the 3D printed base. The opening is 8mm
7. Solder the ground of the power connector to the ground of the motor AND the ground of the LED.
8. Solder the positive of the power connector to the positive of the motor AND the positive of the LED, you might want to add a resistor to the LED so it doesn't draw too much current.

You are almost good to go!

1. Insert the 3D printed gear in the shaft of the motor.
2. Assemble both parts, the lantern and the base containing the motor.

You should be able to adjust the height of the bearing so the gear of the motor doesn't touch the base.

Then you secure the final position in locking the bearing with the small screws located on the flange.

Connect your 3v power supply to the connector in the base.

Your lantern shoud lit and start to rotate slowly.

Find a dark place to enjoy the animals and vegetal come to life.

Always work with an adult when playing with electricity and solder, ideally try to find a responsible version of adult

Never let you lantern function unatended, always power it with the company of a responsible adult.

If you enjoyed this instructables, drop me a message.

All is free of use under: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Check my other works: http://zurstrassenkinetics.com/

& my youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@zurstrassenkinetics

or other crazy artworks and builds: http://mathieuzurstrassen.com/

Aaaaaaaand but not least >>> the amazing drawings used here: https://gaelledelaveleye.com/