Negative "X"

A gobo is a stencil you drop in front of a stage light to shape the beam. I wanted the pixel equivalent. So instead of an open cell over each LED, I modeled 256 cells with a solid X standing in the middle of every one. Off, the piece is a plain square. On, the X blocks the center of each light and a single square pixel becomes four arrows converging on a point. Run a fluid pattern across it and all those identical obstructions go fuzzy and ripply at once.

It is the piece that fights me. The first print failed when the nozzle dragged across the X pattern and shifted the layers. Printing the face against the build plate helped but never made it reliable. Even on the X1C, the wall thickness inside the X shapes still catches the print head on some runs. When one does finish, a one-millimeter PLA face gives enough diffusion without bleeding between cells, and a current cap in the controller keeps the all-plastic frame from warping under its own heat.

A good copy hung at Glow Lounge for several months.