Northern lights (kind of)

This is a representation of the northern lights, not a very exact one of course. I printed it with black and natural PLA (clear may be better for the fins but natural worked well too) I then inserted 14 5mm LEDs which create the lighting effect. I used a TLC5940NT to contol the LEDs, connected to an arduino UNO. This allowed the brightness of each LED to be varied individually.

There are holes in the base piece to mount the arduino and copper strip board with the TLC5940 on it. They are designed for M3 6mm long screws. Everything can be powered over USB a usb cable or using the dc jack on the arduino. None of the LEDs draw more than 20ma so power draw is not an issue.

The lights part connects to the base by clipping in. There are little dimples in the slots on one side of the base. You may need to trim these back a bit to leave the parts fit together but this is easy to do. The case bit has holes to allow light out in a star like pattern. They sort of twinkle as the lights change or you walk past it.

Naturally, it looks much better in the dark!
https://youtu.be/m-pusYmGamA

I made a small change after printing and before uploading in that the fins now have a fillet. This is just to give them a little extra strength