Dimmable Dual LED Headboard Light

Simple little enclosure and dual strip light bar for 8mm strip LEDs.

The box has a mini PWM motor controller as a driver and SPDT switch to control dimming and select which LED strip is enabled. Power is provided via a 5521 jack. No glues or screws are needed for assembly, only some VHB tape to mount the bar in it's final position. Because of the shape of the bar, you don't need adhesive strips for this to work. They slot in and are retained, so they can't fall off or sag. I printed in PLA+ using two walls and 10% gyroid infill; the rods at 0.28mm height and the box at 0.2mm height.

Print the box face down with a little support for the male extension out one end. The lid should print outside face down. There are retention tabs built in that will allow the two to snap together when assembled without screws or adhesives.

Each bar is 8" (203mm) long, so figure out how many you need. In my use I made a 2' (0.6m) long bar that was made from the box, lid, two extensions, and a female end.

There is 0 tolerance in these parts, which for my printer is fine. I printed the bars upright, only using supports in the female sockets of the extensions, and cleaning the brim flashing off with a hobby knife. The fit is exact so no adhesive or screws are required.

Ain't no seam here!

I would suggest assembling the rod to measure out your strips and cutting them to length, then soldering ~3" leads to the strips. From there pass the leads through the diamond holes on the box and attach the rod to the box. With the lead wires now available, solder together the switch and screw in the wires to the dimmer. Bolt down the switch and dimmer and you're done!

I put a few chunks of VHB tape on the top of the assembly and stuck it to one of my kid's headboards, so now he has a good reading light as well as a fun blacklight for all his glow-in-the-dark toys and prints. The whole thing runs off an old salvaged Blackberry charger that I stuck a 5.5x2.1 90° plug on.