Customizable flat field box

thingiverse

Simple flat field box particularly suited for small lenses/telescopes, but highly customizable. SCAD sources are included, just change values in `flatbox-config.scad` and then open and generate the appropriate file (you can also use the included `Makefile`). Required parts (apart from printed ones): - white acrylic/perspex round panels. Be careful to choose the white version, NOT tranparent. - white leds. I recommend adhesive led strips, so they can be attached without glue - wires: very thin wires for internal wiring, bigger wires for (external) power supply - 2.1mm jack socket (optional) for powering via 12v 2.1mm jack How to build: 25% infill, 0.2mm layer height, no supports required. How to assemble: put as many leds as you want on the base bottom (I used adhesive led strips). Wire them to a cable, or a socket if you prefer (I used 2.1mm jack socket). The cable/socket has to pass through the base hole. Now you should have printed 4 spacers, or 1 spacer and 3 diffusers. FI added the STL for the diffusers, but since I had problems getting a very flat surface, I used printed 4 spacer instead, and then glued some paper on top of 3 of them. Anyway, put first the spacer so that the cable passes through the little dent, then on top of it put the 3 diffusers (face down). As for the front part, you can have two variants: the simplest (`flatbox-lid-telescope.scad`) is just a simple lid with a hole. You put your telescope dew shield through the hole, and that's it. The other (`flatbox-lid-filter.scad`) is a special version for camera lenses. It contains a threaded slit, so you can put a step-up ring. For a much more stable setup I suggest using a bigger step-up ring glued onto the lid. For instance, if your camera lens has a 77mm filter thread, get a 77 to 82 step up ring, glue it onto the flatbox lid, so you can easily screw your flatbox onto your lens. Then finish the assembly by screwing together box and lid, inserting the acrylic panel in between. ## Please note ## In a few images the field doesn't look uniform at all. I actually included them to show the "work in progress": first there is one with only 1 paper diffuser (you can still make out pretty clearly the leds through the paper), then one with 2 diffusers (leds are still visible, but more blurred), then 3 diffusers (still not 100% uniform, but differences are very minimal). Finally there's one with the panel mounted and the acrylic glass in front of the paper diffusers, where image *should* be completely uniform. I will attach measurements later.