A MakerBot TOM with attitude: RGB leds controlled by the status of the print process

thingiverse

This is an idea to implement a functional design into my bot using color fades to represent a status. I want to add some custom print codes so any help will be nice because I am pretty new into working with the MakerBot firmware, etc! -Begin color -> to red (heating up) -Red to Green fade (working, some extra effects maybe?, 2 or 3 steps between the print code) -Green -> Light blue/blue (cooling, like the ABP cool down) -Celebration colors now! :P and finally yellow or purple... or even XMAS mode, halloween mode, etc Here is a demo of the current hardware (leds and controller). Next step is to decode the controler signals to link the arduino, then hack the firmware :)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3imxHHYvRk (english of course is not my native language! haha, so sorry if you don't understand me) My first attempt was adding a page up/down feature to the Gen4 interface and it works great in my machine ( http://github.com/makerbot/G3Firmware/pull/76/files ), also it will be nice if I can add folder and sorting support (a complete pcless -and snappy- operation) Instructions Place the leds Wire the led controller to power and to the led stripe. I replaced the original plug and soldered the power cables to +12 and gnd in the PSU Wire the controller to the arduino ( ** Work in Progress, maybe some small cables below will work) Upload the future modified firmware ( ** Work in Progress) Modify the skeinforge parameters to add the custom M-codes ( ** need start to research this)