Cement and Neopixel Lamp

In this project, we will use cement casting and neopixel LEDs to create a funky bedside lamp. It utilizes the WLED firmware in an 8266 so you can connect it to your DMX system or maybe sync it with your PC RGB light setup. If that is not enough why not ask Google assistant to turn it on? Do you have home assistant? WLED is good to go with MQTT as well. The extensibility allows many other features such as sound reaction.

The unfinished cement and floating shade give this lamp an industrial high-tech look with literally millions of colors.

All the wiring is hidden within this contemporary design for a nice clean finish and a modern upgrade to a major award.

This guide should be used with the build video. There will be time-stamped links in each step.

More about parts here: Parts list

Parts

3D prints PLA colour of your choice and clear

20 Single neopixels

1kg General purpose cement

3M Single core wire

An old cellphone charging lead.

600 ml of water

6 x 2x6 mm self-tapping screws

2 x 3x16 mm counter sunk self-tapping screws

1 x ESP-01 (flashed with WLED) and LED driver board.

Tools

Solder iron and solder

Blue-tack

Philips screwdriver

Bucket

Mixing stick for cement

Spring clamps (optional)

Spray cooking oil

This project relies heavily on 3D-printed parts. Review the settings below for the best and quickest result. The settings used are for Cura.

Lamp shade

The lampshade should be printed with clear PLA for the best effect. When printing use the low-quality setting and turn off retraction and have no supports. This will reduce the print time from over a day to around 11 hours. Probably even quicker with Klipper.

Upper and lower led holder, lamp holder and upper blank.

20% infill is fine and low quality as they will not be seen in general.

The molds

The higher the quality the better. I just printed standard quality and the result is perfectly fine. The cement will reveal layers lines if you have had a good pour.

All other parts

Standard Quality.

Assemble the mold

For more details see here: Assemble mold video

Place the top blank into one of the casting molds (shown in red).

Use blue-tack to fix it in place then place the lamp bracket (shown in blue) on top of this also retain this with blue-tack.

Insert the wire tube and board holder. Don't worry too much about its position at the moment. We can move this around later on.

Assemble the rest of the mold around these parts. Push the mold into the lower ring to align all four molds. Then add the top locking manifold.

To make it easier to demold you can spray cooking oil into the mold.

Mix the cement according to the instructions on your packaging. See how I did it here

Twist your wiring tube and board holder into a position so that it is not near the sides of the mold.

Pour the cement into the mold a little bit at a time regularly tapping the mold on your work surface to release any air bubbles.

Keep your finger on the top of the board holder to prevent it from popping out while tapping. Fill the cement halfway up the manifold. Keep topping up the mold for another 15-20 mins as it will shrink down.

For more details see here

The mod should take about 24 hours before you can take it out of the mold and a couple of days to fully cure. For details on removing the casting see here.

Insert the neopixels into the light rings. Make sure the arrow on the neopixels all point in the same direction. Solder (tin) each connector to prepare it for a wire. Don't add any wire yet.

We will use the solid core wire around the lamp ring. Strip 6 x 350mm copper wire and insert this in all the galleries of the lamp.

Solder all the connectors and wires together. The data wire (middle connector) should not contact each other. The power can be one solid wire.

Insert the ESP-01 in the bottom of the statue and run the old cellphone cable up the wire tube. Run the power and data line to the lower lamp. Then run another wire from the last neopixel on the lower lamp up to the upper lamp with the power.

Screw the LED holder rings into the lamp shade holders.

For more details see here.

The top and bottom lamp holders will screw into the top of the statue. make sure all your LEDs work first. Place the lampshade between the lamp holders and screw the lampshade holders into the top of the statue.

Place the statue in the stand. Power the lamp using a cellphone charger.

More details here.

Once you have finished check out this video to tune WLED further.