Getting closer to getting the UFOs out on time! >.< lol. A couple little hiccups this month with a last minute filament swap and my underestimation of packing the boxes. Who would have thought that having to tape up both sides of a box would increase packing time *facepalm*. I have boxing coming for the June UFO that are close to the old mailer boxes but without the dust flaps that I'm hoping will take less time to assemble - experimenting with what works out better with the swap from the designed boxes. So I appreciate your patience while I work on getting a new process down.
Last month I received some really great feedback on the new trading cards, so I'm happy about that! There is one small issue with the project parts included this month, be sure to read my note below in the project section.
I also want to add a special shout out and Thank You to Dave and Matt from Printed Solid and MakerBox. for those who don't know, MakerBox has been partnered with Printed Solid for many years, and I "think" MakerBox is the original/first 3D Printing filament subscription box. So being able to include Printed Solid in the UFO this month was exciting for me. Box Mountain, the parent company of MakerBox, also has subscriptions for tabletop dice and a cryptozoology/paranormal boxes. So not only matching the UFO theme this month, but also some super cool options for those who are in to more than just 3D Printing, so check them out at boxmountainllc.com!
Thank you! Josh ~Alien3D
Congrats to Josh M.
for winning the May 2021 Mothership Box!
Josh's Mothership Prize this Month is a special table top gaming 7 dice set and custom dice box! The dice were hand casted and box was designed and printed by AlkeshOne. The dice contain tiny prints of the Alien3D mascot and I thought were SUPER AWESOME! NGL, I'm jealous lol.
SWAG & CODES
- 3DX Tech Sticker
- VO3D Sticker
- Cheese Balls
Please login to view codes if you received this months UFO.

Collection Image
Month 10 of 12
On the ends of each UFO for 12 months you'll find a 1/12th piece of a puzzle. At the end of the 12 months they can be combined for a larger image.
Looking forward to your guesses =) #UFOPUZZLE

Filament Samples
All filament samples are at least 20 meters in length (actually more, I increased the length to eat up the extra filament being left behind on the rolls)
Monoprice
Light Blue - High Gloss PLA
Extrusion Temp: 200°C - 220°C
Bed Temperature: 0 - 60 °C
Printed Solid
Blood Red Light Glitter - Jessie PLA
Extrusion Temp: 200 - 240°C
Bed Temperature: 0 - 60 °C
Bonus Accessory!
18 in 1 Snowflake Multitool
NGL - totally bought this because it looked like a ninja star, and ninjas need more representation in Table Top Games lol
Slotted Screwdriver and Box Cutter, Rope Cutter, Bottle Opener, Key Hole, Phillips Screwdriver: Metric (millimeter) - 3; SAE (inch) - 1/8, Allen Wrench: Metric (millimeter) - 3-4-5-6-8-9; SAE (inch) - 1/8-5/32-3/16-1/4-11/32-6/16, Outer Hex Wrench: Metric (millimeter) - 7-8-9-10-11-13; SAE (inch) - 9/32-11/32-6/16-3/8-7/16-1/2
Bonus Project!
Digital Multi-Dice with... WiFi?
NOTE: So I totally forgot to include resistors in with the parts this month. 2 x 10k resistors are needed for the LED's on the buttons. Without them, it could damage either the LEDs or the Arduino WiFi Board. They're pretty cheap, but if anyone needs me to send them a couple, please let me know.
You can still build and use the project as intended, just skip the steps for hooking up the LED's if you don't have resistors.
Parts included in UFO:
- 1 x D1 Mini (ESP8266, WiFi capable) w/ power cord
- 1 x 0.96" I2C IIC SPI Serial 128x64 OLED screen
- 2 x LED Push Buttons (Note: Intended for there to be 1 red and 1 green lit buttons, but a couple of the trays weren't marked and I couldn't tell them apart, so some people may have gotten 2 red or 2 green)
- Jumper Wires
- Some nuts and bolts
This Electronic Die has the capability to swap between a coin and die with 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20 sides and also a double 6 sided. Useful for table top gaming, or dice games that require two 6 sided die.
@DSK001_3D did another AMAZING job at taking a project I found that inspired this project and doing all the hard work on the case design and coding.
Soooo... WHY did I include a WiFi module with this project? Welp, while the project as it is doesn't really USE the WiFi capability, I wanted there to be the POTENTIAL to use the WiFi capability to be able to communicate with the Table Top RPG websites that are out there that contain API's for dice rollers.
For those who aren't in to TTG's - it's also a cool electronic device to use for other things =)
You can find the printable parts, instruction and code by clicking the following button.
Another Dice Mod from Dustin W via Facebook! "Modifies the random number generation, adds battery and shake rolling - After a week of testing, here is my code revsion.
— Alien3D - #BeABetterHuman - #ChooseDecency (@alienslacker) May 31, 2021
Button debouncing
Fixed randomizer
Battery monitoring
Shake sensor for dice rolls" https://t.co/a9Ae1x19UG
Notes from Josh:
So I finally got the time to sit down and build the dice project and since some people were asking for further notes of how to put it together, I thought I'd leave some feedback.
Used the neo pixel strip from October UFO to spruce up the May #3DPrinting UFO project. @Dsk001_3D did an awesome job developing this project for the UFO Collective! pic.twitter.com/MjicANqhU6
— Alien3D - #BeABetterHuman - #ChooseDecency (@alienslacker) May 29, 2021
The first struggle I came to was in Arduino - after adding the URL to add additional boards, I was like... okay, well why aren't they showing up? Well, you also need to go to Boards Manager and install the library just added through the URL.
After that, the wiring was pretty much by the diagram, but first I added pins to the D1, be sure the long ends are on the side of the WiFi chip, otherwise it doesn't fit right in the case.
I also suck at soldering, so I wrote the following script that turns all of the pins high... sketch_may28a
Then, if you don't have a meter, I tossed this together... 2 wires with an LED... and put the ground in the G and touched all of the pins used in the project with the positive.
The next question I had was with the buttons... what's what? Well, if you look closely...
The + and - are for the LED and must follow the wiring diagram otherwise they don't work in reverse. The other 2 pins don't matter which one you connect to which arduino pin as it's just a break in connection to trigger a high signal on press.
After that, it's just assembly, and looking at the model it was pretty self explanatory. The OLED screen long side slides up into the case and then pushes and snaps into place. The buttons go through the holes. The D1 Mini slides into the slots in the only direction they'll go with the USB slot towards the hole, then it all snaps together.
If anyone is interested in the NeoPixel edit I made, I used a 20 LED strip (I tried 30 but it wouldn't fit lol), connected the ground to the rest of the grounds, VCC to the 5v shared with the OLED, and the signal wire to D7. You can Download the updated Arduino code here>>> Dice+NeoPixel
Community Reaction
-
Alien3D U.F.O. Filament Mystery Box - January 2019 - Chris's Basement
-
Alien3D U.F.O. Monthly Mystery Box - Jan 2019
-
Alien 3D Box Project // January 2019 // Temperature & Humidity Sensor
-
January 2019 Alien 3D UFO Box Unboxing
-
January U.F.O. Box Reveal
-
January Alien3D UFO Mystery Box!
-
Kuntry Time - Alien 3D UFO box January
-
January 2019 Alien3D UFO Monthly Subscription box review