Glass Pokeball Friendship Lamp

Recently the top of my Filimin Friendship Lamp broke off and I was able to see what was inside. As it turned out, the entire lamp is driven by a single board with built-in wifi and LEDs. This got me thinking, “can I make something better than the stock design”? As it so happens, with but a 3D printer and a glass Pokeball, you can! This design is heavily inspired by the Pokeball Plus Charging Stand made by Nintendo. It’s worth noting that unlike the original Filimin lamp where you tap the top, you touch a spot on the underside of this lamp to make it change color. The new lamp, excluding the Pokeball, stands a 10cm tall and 13cm in diameter.

If you aren't familiar with Filimin Friendship Lamps, then I'll briefly explain what they are. Filimin Lamps are wifi-connected lamps created by the company; Filimin. They can be connected to one another anywhere in the world through the internet. When one of the lamps is touched, it lights up, and any other lamps connected to it light up the same color at the same time. One of my good friends and I have had these lamps for around three years now, which has been nice since we live several states away from each other. The biggest issue with the lamps is that they cost $85 a piece. This instructable will require you to break off the top of your lamp, so it’s reasonable if you'd rather not continue.

If on the other hand you're ready for some constructive destruction, then you'll need a few extra things before we begin. A quick warning; this instructable is going to be pretty wordy. This whole process isn't very complicated, I just want to make sure it's detailed enough for anyone to follow.

Tools:

• T10 Torx screwdriver (The kind that looks like a 6 point star.)
• Super Glue or Hot Glue
• A 3D Printer with a build volume of at least [120 x 120 x 120 mm] or 4.7 inches cubed
• Heat Gun or Hairdryer (Only necessary if you want to preserve the original top of your lamp)
• Hobby Knife or Scissors (Scissors work better for cutting aluminum foil)
• Tape (Scotch tape or painters tape will work)
• Ruler or tape measure
• Optional - Label Maker or a Sharpie

Materials:

• Filimin Lamp (Either the Classic or Modern design. Not the Mid-Century or Friendship Frame.)
• 80mm or 40mm diameter laser engraved glass Pokeball (I will be using an 80mm. You can find them for sale on Amazon, Etsy, and several other places online.)
• Aluminum foil or any other thin sheet of conductive material such as tinfoil
• Filament for the 3D printer (I used white PLA but something like ABS would work too.)
• Spray Paint that bonds to plastic in whatever colors you want (The original Pokeball Plus Charging Stand is white and grey, so those are the colors I’ll be using.)
• Optional - Some kind of clear filament for the 3d printer (I used clear PETG)
• Optional - A piece of printer paper (This can be used instead of the clear filament)

First we need to take the Filimin Lamp apart and double-check that the control board in your lamp looks like mine, or is at least the same dimensions. I purchased my lamp over three years ago, so I'm not sure what changes, if any, they have made to the control board since then.
Picture of the Filimin Lamp completely assembled

First unplug your Filimin from the wall if you have not done so already.

What you need to do is remove the top of the lamp. The white top is connected to the black base with glue on all four sides. If you want the best bet of removing the top without damaging it, then you should heat the four sides to loosen the glue then attempt to pull it off. You can use a hair dryer, heat gun, or anything else to heat it. We won't need the original top anymore, so if you do ruin it in the process, it's not the end of the world.

However, if you don't mind destroying the top of your lamp, then you can get it off in any way you see fit. Smash it with a hammer, cut it off with a saw, or do whatever else you want. If this is your approach then please be careful not to damage the control board underneath. If you damage that board then your Filimin will no longer work for this tutorial and you've just wasted $85. The board sits directly on the black base so do all of your damage to the top at least one and a half inches above the base.

Once the top is off, you should be able to see the control board screwed into the black base. The bottom right of my control board says "Filimin v1.20". If yours says the same thing then it should work for this project. If it says something different then we will have to check its dimensions to make sure it will fit. The control boards length and width should be 70mm and the distance between the center of two screws along the same edge should be about 57mm. As long as those two dimensions are correct then your control board will work.

Unscrew the four screws holding the board to the black base. Make sure to keep those screws! We will use them in the new lamp. Remove the white cord holder and unplug the power cord from the board. To remove the power cord from the control board just wiggle it from side to side and pull. Keep both the white cord holder and the power cord. You should hold onto the original base as well, because it has a sticker on the bottom with the Filimin ID. This ID is used to set up the Wifi, so losing it would make it extremely difficult to connect to a new wifi network for the first time. Later we will use a label maker, or some tape and a sharpie, to write this ID on the bottom of our new lamp. The Filimin Manager website does show your Filimin ID if it has been connected to wifi at least once. I blurred my Filimin ID because I’m not sure if that’s sensitive info.

On the top right of the control board you will see it says "SENSE". If you turn the board over, you will see a silver ring around the back of the same screw hole, this is what senses your touch and causes the lamp to change colors. When your finger touches this metal ring it grounds the circuit. The lamp detects that this part of the circuit has been grounded and changes color. By connecting a conductive material to it, such as aluminum foil, we can make it sense your touch anywhere along the conductive material.

Once you have the control board out and are sure that it has the right dimensions, it's time to 3D print the new body. This could take a while depending on the printer that you have. It took me around 19 hours to print all of the parts on a Monoprice Select Mini V2. I printed all of the parts individually, but if you have a larger printer there shouldn't be an issue printing multiple parts at once.
Here is the list of parts you will need to print -

• 1 Base
• 1 Wall
• 1 Top (Pick the top that is correctly sized for your Pokeball, either 40mm or 80mm)
• 2 Feet (The feet are symmetrical, so there is only one STL file for both feet)
• [1 Symbol-Outline & 1 Symbol-Insert] OR [1 Symbol-Complete]

This is where the optional clear material comes into play. I used clear PETG to print the Symbol-Outline and white PLA to print the Symbol-Insert. If you don't have any clear filament then you should print the Symbol-Complete file instead. We can glue some paper to the back of this piece later to give it a similar glowing effect.

These are my print settings for the different parts -

.2mm layer height, 15% infill, no support

• Base
• Top
• Both Feet

.2mm layer height, 15% infill, yes support

• Wall - (This is the only print that requires support)

.1mm layer height, 20% infill, no support

• Symbol-Outline - if you have clear filament
• Symbol-Complete
• Symbol-Insert

Once all the parts are printed, carefully remove the support from the wall and make sure all of the parts fit together correctly. If some of the pegs don’t fit in their slots then use the hobby knife to trim the sides of the pegs.

Now it's time to paint the body. You can paint it in whatever colors you like using whatever paint you want, but I will be using spray-paint and sticking with the stock white and grey look of the original Pokeball Plus Charging Stand. I will only be painting the Top, Wall, Base, and Symbol-Insert/Symbol-Complete grey because the other parts are already white.

This is probably the hardest part of the build; making sure this entire aluminum foil track conducts electricity.

You may have noticed the small channel in the base that you 3D-printed. This is where the aluminum foil is going to go (from here on out I’ll just refer to it as foil). You don't have to strictly follow this channel. As long as the lamp changes color when you touch it in the end then whatever you did is perfect.

First cut out four strips of foil using a hobby knife or scissors (scissors are much easier for this). Each strip should be about 4mm wide and their lengths should be 65mm, 45mm, 40mm, and 20mm. Again these don't have to be exact. Err on the side of making them narrower than 4mm and longer than the desired lengths.

The 65mm piece will be fed through the thin hole on the base so that it comes out of the bottom. It should fill most of the channel on the bottom. This is the spot on the lamp you will touch to change its color. I used some super glue to make sure it stays in place.

Next place the 45mm piece horizontally on the channel that goes from the center of the base to the right. Make sure that it and the 65mm piece are touching. You can use some tape over the connection between the foil pieces to ensure that they touch. Do not use super glue or hot glue between the pieces of foil. Both of those types of glues are insulators and will stop the lamp from detecting your touch

Place the 40mm strip vertically along the channel on the top right. Use some more tape to connect it to the 45mm strip. Fold or cut the foil so that it stays within the curved part of the channel on the top right. It may stick out of the side of the lamp if it goes outside of the channel.

Lastly place the 20mm piece on top of the top right peg and drape it down the side to touch the 40mm strip. use some more tape to ensure that they stay connected. It does not need to be secured to the top right peg because it will be held on by a screw.

Now that all of the foil is in place let's attach the control board and make sure that it works.

Use one of the four screws from the original Filimin to connect the hole by the word "SENSE" on the control board to the peg with foil covering it. You can attach more screws now if you want to but you will have to unscrew them later if the foil doesn't work. Now connect the power cord to the control board and plug it in. Wait for it to connect to Wifi. If this is your first time setting up your lamp, then you’ll need to go through the Filimin website to do so. The lamp should come with detailed instructions. If you’ve set up the lamp on the same wifi network before, then going through the website is not necessary. Once connected, the light will flash a bunch of colors like a rainbow, then turn dark. Now try touching the foil on the underside of the base. If the lamp lights up, then you've successfully set up the foil track! Take some time to test that it works reliably. Once the lamp is glued together it will be difficult to fix if the foil track breaks. If your lamp doesn't light up, then it's time for some troubleshooting.

The easiest way to troubleshoot this is to touch the foil at different points along the channel.

You can't do this when the board is fully connected, so remove all of the screws (if you put them in) except for the top right and move the control board out of the way. Now touch the foil furthest away from the control board and keep touching it closer and closer to the control board until the lamp turns on. When you find where the foil line is broken, replace it and start testing again from the foil on the underside of the base. Once it seems to be working, test it again several times. Maybe even leave it alone for 5 minutes then test it again. It's going to be hard to fix once the lamp is fully assembled, so you want to make sure that the coil connection is strong and reliable.

It's finally time to start assembling the lamp and light up your glass Pokeball! I will refer to using glue a lot in the next few steps. Feel free to use hot glue or super glue here.

Disconnect the power cord from both the wall and the lamp.

Screw in the remaining three screws to connect the control board to the base if you haven't already done so. This should be done using the screws from the original Filimin lamp. You can also use the white cable holder we saved from earlier if you want. It's not required, but you can put it on the top left screw. Put the power wire through it first before screwing it on. I chose not to do this because I found it got in the way of the Wall later.

Run the power cable through the larger hole on the base and reconnect it to the control board.

Before we go any further, let’s put our Filimin ID on the bottom of the base. This isn't required but it's a good idea in case you misplace the original lamp's base. The Filimin ID is located on the bottom of the black base of your original Filimin; the large numbers under the barcode. Using a label maker, just type the characters out and attach it to the bottom of the new base. If you don’t have a label maker, then place a piece of tape on the underside of the base and write your Filimin ID down on it with a sharpie. I would recommend you keep your original base just in case.

Your Filimin ID can also be found on the Filimin Manager website as long as you have connected your lamp to Wifi at least once before.

Put a bit of glue into the smaller holes on the bottom of the walls, then place the walls onto the base so that the round hole on the front of the walls is on the same side of the base as the foil coming out of the bottom. Another way to check that the orientation is correct is that the rear wall, without the round hole, is on the same side as the power cord coming out of the bottom of the base.

The next step will differ depending on if you printed the Symbol-Complete or the Symbol-Insert and Symbol-Outline. If you printed the Symbol-Complete please skip this step

If you printed the Symbol-Insert and Symbol-Outline, then place the Insert into the Outline. They should fit pretty snuggly together but you can put some glue between them if you want to be sure they won’t come apart. Now put some glue around the edges of the large round hole in the wall and fit the Symbol into the hole. It's easier to do by pushing it through the hole from within the walls. Instead of pushing from the outside in.

If you printed the Symbol-Insert and Symbol-Outline then you can skip this step.

If you printed the Symbol-Complete, then cut out a circle from the printer paper that is about the same size as the 3d printed part. It's better for this circle to be too large rather than too small. Glue the paper circle to the back of the Symbol-Complete part. Optionally you can leave the part without any paper on the back, it's really up to you. Now just put some glue around the edge of the large circular hole in the wall and put the Symbol-Complete into it. It is easier to push the part into the hole from inside the wall rather than outside.

You don't have to glue this one to the walls if you don't want to. Gravity should do a fine job of holding it in place. Leaving it unglued will also make it easier to fix something inside the lamp if anything goes wrong with your Filimin.

The legs are designed to slot into the walls and will stay in place without glue thanks to gravity. I suggest you still use glue though, because if you pick up the lamp by the body, then the legs will fall off.

And that's it! Plug your lamp into the wall and watch it light up! Be careful when you place your glass pokeball on the lamp. Those things are heavy. Everything supporting the pokeball is held together by gravity just in case something happens to the glue you used. As long as you don’t knock the lamp over, you can be rest assured it will stay there.

I hope you enjoy your Glass Pokeball Friendship Lamp!