For our Warnemünde section, which includes a water area, we also need a lighthouse so that our ships can travel safely.

Since Warnemünde has two Mole Beacon Lights (one green and one red), I decided to recreate the green beacon light. I did some research and found some good reference images for this project.

First, I replicated the building in OnShape. This was not as easy as I initially thought, but in the end, I was successful.

The more interesting part was the electronics. I used an ESP32 as the controller and decided to connect it to the System Control with my generic BLE system. Then, I tested if I could replicate the beacon signal (2 seconds on and 2 seconds off). It was the first time I had used hardware timers and interrupts for the LEDs. The beacon's LED will illuminate transparent PLA, making the light visible.

A more challenging part will be the outdoor lights, as the building has two of them. I will try to use 0402 3V LEDs and hope that I can print a miniature enclosure to mimic the real lamps.

The physical design of the beacon model was a straightforward process, using a high-resolution image of the actual object as a blueprint to ensure accuracy.

The more significant engineering challenge lay in the internal electronics, which required the design of two custom Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). A primary constraint was fitting all necessary components within the limited volume of the 3D-printed housing. The core of the illumination system is a WS2812B addressable LED. This component was specifically chosen to illuminate the beacon's main body, which is printed from a transparent material like PLA or PETG. The design intent is for the filament itself to act as a light diffuser, creating an even, vibrant glow throughout the structure.

The modell was created in OnShape. More about that later.

The two PCBs are created within KiCad. The rendering of the main (LED) pcb could be seen here. It's as everything else a work in progress.

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