I designed a mirror array that writes with sunlight — but I want your advice before I print the real thing
This is a panel of small 3D-printed pillars, each holding a mirror tilted to its own precise
angle — point it at the sun (or at a lamp) and it writes a message in dots of light on a
wall, a ceiling or the floor.
In my case it's going on my bedroom ceiling. It's a browser app: design it, press one
button, get STL tiles sized to your bed plus an assembly guide. Nothing to install.
https://giscardo1.github.io/heliograph-studio/ · code (MIT): https://github.com/Giscardo1/heliograph-studio
This expands on a project posted on r/functionalprint a few years ago — Ben Bartlett's
3D-printed mirror array (https://www.reddit.com/r/functionalprint/comments/qrxtwy/ ·
https://github.com/bencbartlett/3D-printed-mirror-array). I asked him before publishing
and he was kind enough to give it his blessing.
I'm a physician who tinkers — the physics I trust, the printing I don't. So before I commit
filament:
- Angled tops are the whole product: half a degree off moves the dot by centimetres. Fine
layers on the last 3 mm, or ironing, or something smarter?
- 200 mm flat tiles: how do you keep a corner from lifting and bending every pillar?
- PLA or PETG, if it will sit in the sun?
- Which non-expanding glue has actually held glass to plastic long-term for you?
And if anyone beats me to building one: please do, and post it. I'd love to see the idea
take shape in someone else's hands before it does in mine.
Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time — I'll take blunt criticism just as gladly
as encouragement.
