This post-top obelisk was inspired by the asteroid deflector in the Star Trek TOS episode “The Paradise Syndrome.” I designed the physical structure in TinkerCAD, sliced it with Cura, and printed it on my Creality3D printer. It’s especially cool at night (see the video at the bottom of the page) because the base illuminates in constantly-changing colors!
If you want to print one for yourself, you can access my TinkerCAD files using the links below.
For the main obelisk: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/g9dQsrFxvqF-obelisk
For the pedestal base: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/lEIhUgcgNZs-obelisk-pedestal
The first time I printed this obelisk, the “fin” sections were too thin and my infill percentage was too low. In the sunlight, they quickly warped. I changed the design to thicken the fins, and also increased the infill to 50%. This has been outside in the Florida summer for several months now and has not deformed at all.
The top is printed using an iridescent PLA filament, so it glistens almost metallically as you look at it from different angles. The base is printed with transparent PLA filament, and contains compartments for a circuit board, a lithium battery, and four color-changing LEDs.
Inside, the circuit board is my new NanoSlot high-efficiency energy harvester based on a STMicro SPV1040 chip. I designed the board using Altium and had the PCB manufactured by PCBWay. I purchased batteries, solar cells, and all other components from Digi-Key.
