Since I was doing the pillars anyway, I decided to make torch pillars too. They use LEDs to make flickering torches. Versions are available for 1 side, L, across from each other, tee and all 4 sides. Instructions included on how to do the electronics.
The torch wall now uses a standardized connector, making assembly dramatically easier.
The torches are removable, so you can switch colors, or use the connector for future electrification projects
Print the pillar you want
A base (For wall on tile, use the electronics base: plain#base+square,electronics.2x2.openlock,magnetic+topless,flex.stl or equivalent for the connection system you wish to use.)
The torch. There's two torch versions, the textured one is better on a resin printer. If you have only FDM, both can work, but the older, untextured torch is easier to print on FDM.
Take one of the 2 pin dupont cables and cut it in half. Feed it through the hole. When the wire is out of the other side, pull it snug to get the connector fully into the wall. You will always want the cable to have the red and black wires the same on every tile you make. With the wall facing you, put the red (power) on the left, and black (ground) on the right.
Strip some insulator off the end of the cable, long enough that you can feed it through the holes in the lily pad battery holder. Red goes to +, Black to -. Strip off about an inch so that you can feed the wire through and then wrap it/tie it to make it secure.
Test the LED in the socket. The longer of the two wires should go in the red side of the connector. Once that's tested and it works, feed the LED through the torch body, test it again, and glue it down. It can be a good idea to use a file or another tool to scuff up the plastic top of the LED to make it better at diffusion. Finally it looks great to put hot glue on the LED and shape that into a bit of a flame.
Test it in the socket again.
Once it all works, you can start trimming the wire from the LED so it sits snug against the wall. Remember, you can't cut something to be longer, so trim it a little at a time and test until the torch can sit snug against the wall.
Remove the battery holder, and then glue the wall into place on the tile, ensuring the wire makes it inside the middle of the base.
Now, you can choose to feed it out through one of the clip holes, or trim it down and re-attach the battery holder.
Finally, if you have any problems, come chat in the [OpenForge Discord](https://discord.gg/J3YjDxXC) and we should be able to help you out.
Here's the set of gear I recommend:
Flickering LEDs (You can do 3mm or 5mm, on net 3mm is probably better, but I did 5)
Lilypad CR2032 Battery Holder (cabled interior in normal 2x2 floor, no soldering required)
or CR2032 Battery Holder (cabled exterior, or in a 2x4 floor, soldering required)
Also useful
Hot Glue Gun (Used to cover LED and sculpt flame)
Mini Files (For scraping up the LED surface for better diffusion)
A lot of the design on this was done in collaboration with one of my patrons, Schadow. Schadow came up with the dupont connector idea, and has even come up with a multi-tile wiring scheme that works with the new torch wall. Thanks Schadow!
Grab the Files
Attached here
In the OpenForge Dropbox under OpenForge/tiles/cut-stone/misc/full_pillar#torch
Changelog
2025-01-02: uploaded a fix to make the wire channels wider. Also, the files might not have even been attached, whoops.
John Meade
2025-04-04 21:00:40 +0000 UTCDarren Black
2025-01-03 04:22:20 +0000 UTC