OpenForge Stone Flicker LED Torch Wall - Simplified by darkside501st

Last crawled date: 4 years, 1 month ago

I really liked the flicker LED torch walls but all the ones I found were way more complex than they needed to be. I made this torch wall as a self contained unit with three printable pieces, the 3mm flicker LED, a common CR2032 battery holder, and some tiny wire (30ga I think).
The top of the wall comes off and you can easily remove the battery to turn it off without messing with your layout. You don't have to take the tile out of your layout to get to a switch on the bottom. The switch is unnecessary since it is just as easy to slide the battery in an out. You can use this wall as a separate wall with the separate bases or you can replace the standard wall on the integrated wall/base tiles.
I would suggest printing the pieces with a brim, especially on the top of the wall since there is not a lot of surface area to contact the bed. No supports are needed even on the top of the wall. I did not need a brim when I printed the torch flame with clear PLA. Alternatively, you could use some hot glue to create a flame and dissipate the light from the LED.
Assembly is easy, the longer wire lead on the LED is the positive and the shorter lead is the negative. Simply take a 3mm flicker LED with the color of your choice and cut the leads down making sure to remember which is which. Now cut two tiny wires about 50-60mm long (28-30ga would work best). With wire this small you will most likely have to melt the plastic coating off the wire with your soldering iron. Then solder the wire on the leads using just a tiny bit of solder. After that, just slide the wire down through the holes in the torch till you can see them enter the battery compartment. Next, grab the wires with some small needle nose pliers or tweezers. Pull on the wires and push the LED down to the torch. Once the LED reaches the torch you can solder the wires to the battery holder. Then you can glue push the battery holder down into the wall.
Use some super glue if needed to hold the battery holder in the wall. Also, you may want to use a dot of glue to hold the LED on the torch. Before glueing the LED to the torch you can add the flame. I used my solder iron on the inside of the flame to get the PLA warm and pliable then pushed the LED inside and squeezed the base of the flame on to the LED. Since the battery is a coin cell there is no need for a resistor because coin cell batteries have a high internal resistance. You only need to use a resistor if you want to dim the LED so it is not as bright.