This isn’t the part 10 that you weren’t looking for… This is just a “work in progress” type of blog post.

As I mentioned in passing, I recently bought my own 3D printer. I started working on a 3D-printer version of the Widow’s Bites and the model looks a lot better than the shrink tube version in my old ones. The windows are a bit smaller, so lighting them up evenly and brightly is even more difficult than with the old version though. Despite the difficulties, I still seem to be pushing on to finish the new version.

CR2032 batteries are OK for the bracers and knowing that I get over 10 hours with the old design, I can probably make a slightly brighter version and still get OK battery life. I tested a breadboard version with blue and white LEDs and the 3.3V trinket and also powered it up with a Hubsan LiPo battery pack. 500mAh would be a huge upgrade. It worked great. I want something I can travel with though and airline regulations are getting tighter and tighter. Even tiny LiPo battery packs might just be too much.

However, I realised that the 3.3V Trinket is perfectly happy with a 6V supply. In fact, the BAT connector is both reverse-polarity protected (no worries if you connect the batteries backwards) and it takes up to 16V and regulates it down to 3.3V. Going with the 3.3V trinket this time just changes the resistor values and allows me to the LiPo packs when it’s convenient and CR2032 when they are more convenient. Best of both worlds…

3D-printed Widow’s Bite module mounted on the breadboard prototype.