Hello All,
Every year as a company, Digi-Key has a float that we bring to parades around the area. Here is a mini representation for the parade float that we used for 2019.
This is a little more detailed description of a project I showed in a previous post.
With the use of some time, a 3D printer, some parts from your favorite electronics distributor, and some toys you can take out of your own stash or borrow some from your kids you can make your own.
After I was done making the other multi-color projects that I needed to get done, I was looking at the Buggy that I had at my desk and thought, I could make body panels for that and make it look more like a car. Once I made the body panels I was like, “What else can I do?” That’s when my imagination took over and I thought, I should make the parade float and pull it with the Buggy. So I got to designing the float. The first few designs were horrible and made me question the entire project. Then I had a breakthrough. I realized that I could add a battery and microcontroller to the trailer and I didn’t have to power and control everything with the Buggy.
I also used a motor, a slip ring and a Neopixel to get the trailer to do what I wanted it to do.
I printed all the boxes with a wood infused filament to get the cardboard look. The globe was printed with a translucent blue to allow some light to show through.
Modeling Software:
Onshape
3D Printer:
LulzBot TAZ 6 (KT-PR0041NA)
Filament:
Translucent Blue 0.112" PLA (RM-PL0132)
Green 0.112" PLA (RM-PL0123)
Black 0.112" PLA (PLA30BK1)
White 0.112" PLA (PLA30WH1)
Red 0.112" PLA (RM-PL0127)
Wood 0.112" PLA (WOOD30W1)
Associated Parts:
Buggy (MIKROE-1828)
Metro Mini (2590)
LI-ION Charger (1905)
Battery (PRT-13854)
Slip Ring (ROB-1253-ND)
NeoPixel (2226)
Motor (3058)
Files:
Onshape User File
(Float Pieces)
(Box)
(Globe Piece)
(Pulley)
(Buggy Body)
(Bucket for Minifig)
Here are some close up pictures so you can see how it is all put together.
Here is a video of it in action.
Future Modifications:
- It is set up with a line following sensor so that we can make it drive around a table or something, but I haven’t programmed that function yet. (It still just works off the phone app)
STL Files:
Globe Part 1.stl (8.6 KB)
Globe Part 2.stl (7.9 KB)
Globe Part 3.stl (372.1 KB)
Globe Part 4.stl (17.5 KB)
Globe Part 5.stl (16.8 KB)
Globe Part 6.stl (6.3 KB)
Globe Part 7.stl (283.3 KB)
Trailer Frame.stl (740.3 KB)
Trailer Base.stl (822.2 KB)
Trailel Skirt.stl (453.2 KB)
Big Box.stl (802.4 KB)
Spacer.stl (281.9 KB)
Globe Pulley.stl (3.1 MB)
Motor Pulley.stl (3.0 MB)
Small Box.stl (2.2 KB)
Buggy Body Part 1.stl (234.7 KB)
Buggy Body Part 2.stl (234.7 KB)
Buggy Body Part 3.stl (2.4 MB)
Buggy Body Part 4.stl (224.9 KB)
Buggy Body Part 5.stl (43.9 KB)
Buggy Body Part 6.stl (101.4 KB)
Buggy Body Part 7.stl (1.9 MB)
Buggy Body Part 8.stl (58.5 KB)
Buggy Body Part 9.stl (126.6 KB)