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Patternflow Case

3D-printable enclosure for the Patternflow LED synthesizer. Folders are named by printer bed size — find the folder that fits your printer.

These cases fit the v3 board — both v3.9 and v3.0. The two revisions share an identical outline and mounting-hole pattern (v3.9 only removed the USB-C footprint), so either drops into the same enclosure. If you built (or are building) a v2.x board, use legacy_v2/ — the v3 board is a different size and the two generations are not interchangeable.

🖨️ Bambu printer? One-click path: the case is on MakerWorld with tuned print profiles — open in Bambu Studio and print. The same project ships in this repo as patternflow_v3.3mf (4 pre-arranged plates, settings included). The STLs below are for everyone else.

Which folder do I print?

Your printer bed Print Design Status
256 mm (Bambu P1S / X1C / A1 class) bed_256mm/encloser.stl The snap-fit design split for a 256 mm bed — body frame (LED-panel mounting tabs built in), back panels and covers in one STL ✅ Standard option, ~10 h total
~330 mm+ (Bambu H2S-class) bed_330mm/encloser.stl The one-piece original — body (LED-panel mounting tabs built in) and closing part in one STL, no bonding at all. Also has a USB pass-through to the DevKit and a cable exit slot (data only — see below) ✅ Main design (#113)

Whichever body you print, also print knobs/knobs_20mm.stl — required for every build. Knobs go in black, everything else in white; run the knob plate as its own print job. (15 mm-shaft encoders → knobs_15mm.stl; 15 mm and 20 mm shafts are functionally identical, and the BOM's reference part, PEC11R-4220F-S0024, is 20 mm.)

bed_330mm/ — one-piece snap-fit

The original mass-production-oriented design: a single-piece body plus a snap-fit closing part, wall-mount hanger hole included. No bonding step at all. Does not fit a 256 mm bed.

encloser.stl — everything in one STL (body with its LED-panel mounting tabs, closing part), all white PLA; knobs from knobs/ in black. Same design as the print-&-assembly-verified 256 mm version, just uncut.

Wired access to the DevKit (330 mm only). Two openings the 256 mm variant doesn't have yet: a pass-through between the power-bank bay and the ESP32, so a USB-C lead reaches the DevKit's own port with the case shut — that's for a wired feature, USB MIDI (the MIDI bundle; OSC and network MIDI go over Wi-Fi and need no cable), and for flashing — and a cable exit slot below the battery compartment, so a cable leaves the enclosure instead of being pinched under the back panel.

⚠️ The DevKit port is for data, not power. Power enters at J4, the screw terminal, on every build — see BUILD_GUIDE §2. Never run the panel's supply through the DevKit's USB port.

bed_256mm/ — the standard build

patternflow_v3.3mf is the Bambu Studio project for this print — four pre-arranged plates with the print settings below, the same file the MakerWorld listing serves. Open it and print; the STL is for every other slicer.

encloser.stl puts the whole body in one file: frame halves (the LED panel's mounting tabs are part of them), back-panel halves and covers, all in white PLA. ~10 hours total on a P1S. Print the knobs separately from knobs/, in black. The tabs are placed for the panel linked in the BOM. Print & assembly verified — the assembly video builds from this exact file.

Design perks: two wall-mount holes, a snap-fit back panel, and recesses for the LED matrix's alignment bumps — no more nipper-trimming the panel back (the old #19 workaround).

for_other_panels/ — using a different LED panel?

divided_v3_part1..5.stl is an adjustable-mount variant whose LED-panel mounting part adapts to varying bolt-hole positions — panel suppliers drill them in different places. Print this instead of encloser.stl only if your panel is not the BOM-linked one. Print & assembly verified with a v3.0 board in #169, including USB-C port alignment.

⚠️ Adjustable ≠ universal: if your panel's hole layout differs a lot, even this version may not fit. Check the mounting part against your panel before committing to the full print.

Assembly notes (both 256 mm variants)

The full photo sequence lives in the build guide — §4 (bond the printed halves right after printing) and §6 (panel in from the front with HUB-75E IN toward the top → screws into the frame's tabs from behind → board in, encoder nuts from the front). Two watch-outs: the panel insertion is very tight (near-zero clearance) — work it in slowly — and bonded seams can show a hairline gap, fillable with putty or baking soda + CA.

legacy_v2/ — v2.x boards only

Everything that fits the v2.x board generation, kept for existing builds. None of these fit the v3 board. Follow the v2 build guide.

File What
encloser_v2.1.stl ✅ Recommended v2 print — the snap-fit design cut for the v2.1 board, every part in one STL (knobs included). Print & assembly verified. No body gluing, snap-fit back panel, two wall-mount holes, and no LED-matrix bump trimming (#19 recesses built in). Assemble per the sequence in the v3 guide §6.
plate_main.stl + plate_dividers.stl Classic split plates (256 mm bed, glued) — the path the v2 guide documents with full photos
oneshot_v2_part1/2.stl One-piece snap-fit for the v2.x board (330 mm+ bed)

(An easyfit plate variant existed briefly but was retired over a fit defect — #154. It remains browsable at the v2.1.0 tag.)

Print settings

  • Printer: Bambu P1S (default profile works as-is)
  • Nozzle: 0.4 mm
  • Layer height: 0.2 mm (default)
  • Supports: Standard (regular) — not tree supports
  • Brim: Off
  • Aux fan: ~20%

source/

  • patternflow_case.blend — Blender source for every printed part. Saved with Blender 5.2 LTS; older Blender releases will not open it.

Note — downloading the .blend. The Blender source is stored in Git LFS, so GitHub's Code → Download ZIP gives you a small pointer file instead of the real ~52 MB file. Download it from the latest release assets instead. The STL files are regular files and download fine either way.

To re-export STLs after editing:

  1. Open the .blend in Blender.
  2. Select the entire collection for one part.
  3. File → Export → Stl (.stl), with Selection Only checked.
  4. Save with the matching filename in the bed-size folder.

legacy_lasercut/

patternflow_v1.svg / patternflow_v2.svg — the v1-era laser-cut acrylic case drawings, from before the printed enclosure. Kept for the record; nothing current is built from them. See legacy_lasercut/README.md. A laser-cut case for the v3 board exists as a remix: remixes/simonepda-lasercut/.

remixes/ — sharing a variant

Three are there so far, each with its own README that stands in for the build guide's printing and case-assembly sections:

Folder What By
simonepda-lasercut/ One flat sheet, laser cut in 3 mm acrylic or 2.8 mm MDF; the board under a finger-jointed box beside the panel Simone Majocchi (SimonePDA)
besoiobiy-printed/ Printed in two long glued pieces, closed by four screwed-on covers, with the panel bolted through the case into its own M3 sockets — check your panel first Besoiobiy
mbchars-horizontal-desktop-printed/ The panel lying the long way on two stands, controls on the right; no power-bank bay — a separate 5 V trigger module feeds J4 Mykyta Bilous (mbchars)

Built a different enclosure — acrylic, wood, a wall plate, a case for another panel? It goes in remixes/, one folder per remix with a README that carries the author, the license and what it is based on (STL and DXF files cannot carry a header, so the README is the header). The official folders above are not edited by a remix; a remix sits beside them. Work in progress is for Discord; a folder here is something that has been built at least once.