SeedSphere - A large sphere of seed pixels

Update 25 March 25:
Some have asked for slightly larger seed holes. Apparently the newer seed pixels with 20-AWG wires are a struggle, or will not fit. So I have added an alternative Sector for the larger seed pixels. This will take pixels 11.5x5.9mm with a wire width of 4.75mm. So I have published an alternative sphere element. you need to print 5 of these to make a sphere. All other elements (top/bottom mounts etc..) are the same.

This is 250mm sphere that looks like a tree bauble and takes 200 seed/pebble pixels. It has 20 sections each of 10 pixels (can be treated as a 20x10 matrix).

This is an update and totally revised version on my Spikey Sphere and StellaStar but takes the cheaper and widely available seed pixels.

If you didn't know, seed pixels are programable LED lights that require a controller but there are numerous ways to control them. I have use WLED running on a small Arduino ESP32 as the controller, and can easily configure the sphere as a 2D matrix. There are many other controller you can use and the sphere can also easily be modelled in XLights if that's what you use to control sequences. I used 5 Volt seed pixels (you can use 12V if desired) with a 100mm (4 inches) spacing. Smaller spacing of lights would be maker it almost impossible to install them. Given the number of lights (its a 20 meter, 66ft single strand) you will probably find that you need to provide power to the end and center of the run of LEDs (ie power balancing). Running the sphere at full brightness would be far too much at night and, although I used a fairly large power supply, at a sensible brightness I found that the whole sphere (200 seed pixels) was only drawing about 1.75Amp from the 5V suppply. You may wish to check this yourself and ensure your controller is providing enough power. All wiring is easily accommodated inside the sphere.

The lights I used were very cheap from AliExpress (for example https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007272123397.html ) and they came with a small USB controller and remote remote, which was sufficient for testing. They were ok, but there are better quality ones available. In UK/Europe I recommend that you look at https://buildalightshow.com/ for the lights (and lots of other home lighting stuff).

The video and pictures of the prototype shows a sphere of the same size, but has just 160 pixels (16 sections). The STL files provided are for 200 pixels. I have increased the number of pixels to 200, and this is the one in the STL files. The pixels are installed from the rear (inside of sphere), and the design holds the seed pixel flat to the sphere. To install pixels fold the cable over the pixel, slide this through the center holes of the light mount, spread out the cable to either end (without twists in cable), and gently push the pixel to lay flat making sure the pixel light is facing the right way (more "bulbous" side pointing outwards. Solder wires for power balancing ( ie just connect the power cables at mid and end of string) and all the cabling is easily fitted in the sphere, with the power and data cable bought out through the top.

There is still some work to do on the top and bottom mounts. They will work as is, but after building a complete sphere I feel they can be improved on and will publish slightly modified one in due course. For example, the bottom inner mount is probably not necessary to install, and it could be a push fit or glued in.

Printing and Putting it together
Bottom mount : has built in dowels to mate with the holes in each segments and inner bottom mount, a single bolt (8mm) could be put in the centre hole. I found I didnt need this bolt, and the hole is just a drain hole for water. I actually found you didnt really need the inner mount, but is included for completeness. To fit in the final segment you may have to remove one of the "dowels" from the print, I havent altered the Mount yet.

Top Mount : has holes for 6mm bolts, which mate with each segment and the inner top mount. Just push and glue some 6mm nut on the inner top mount. I found that you can just used 6mm dowels instead of nut and bolts. There is a 20mm printed "bolt and nut" as the centre. This gives the option to use a 20mm electrical conduit hook or use the printed bolt and a 8mm eyebolt (or plain bolt) can be fitted in the centre hole of hanging purposes. Alternatively you could feed a long eyebolt through both top and bottom mounts. 8mm eyelet6 bolts of this legth are sometimes difficult to obtain, so threade rod through the centra can be used, and then use an Eye Nut for hanging.

Sphere : The Sphere is split into 5 identical Segments and edges have holes for 4mm dowels (dowels can be printed if you wish) for alignment. The segments can be glued together but I have found it not necessary.
I printed this on a Bambu P1S, with a bed size of 256x256 but it can fit on the smaller beds as well, I believe it will fit on a Creality Ender 3 Pro. If it doesnt please me as I can, relatively easily, alter the design to smaller diameter, without affecting the number of Pixels. Each segment is printed on its edge, and for added stability and bed adhesion i used a 5mm brim. I suggest you use PETG or ABS filament as I am not certain how PLA would hold up to the outside weather. I used a standard print profile of 0.2mm layers, 4 walls loops (maybe 2 will be enough) and 15% infill. Tree s were used on critical areas only, which tend to be the areas surrounding the pixel holes. It may print without any s but I havent tried this yet. Each segment will take just over 6 hours to print (on a bambu P1S). You can use a finer layer print but I didnt find any real benefit. As you can see I printed it in white, the choice is yours but I allow the lights to set the colour but many other like different colours which makes it look good during the day as well.