Z Stage LED strip clip

thingiverse

This is a simple clip for LEDs which come 4 very bright white on a small PC board for $1.99 from the following source, and quite possibly others: http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G15554 4 of these bright LEDs clipped to the Z stage of a ThingOMatic on each side of the extruder provides a good view of prints, especially at the beginning when you really want to see how the plastic is sticking to the platform. These may also be useful for any other printers or devices that use 5mm plywood or material of a similar thickness. Instructions Purchase two of the above LED strips, or acquire in some other way, such as making your own ~10x40mm pc board. Remove LED pc board from case, which I did by breaking it open with pliers. Print two of the clips. Wire the two pc boards in series (they work on 5-9 volts DC, so in series connected to 12V each board gets 6 V). In layman's terms, connect the red on one board to the black on the other. The other red and black become your leads to your power. Add a cable (black/red if you have it) long enough to connect the other leads to the base of your printer. Don't forget to insulate all connections with heat shrink, Kapton tape, etc. You don't want to short out the 12V supply during a print! Wire up the far end of the cable to 12V from the PC power supply. I used a 4 pin Molex adapter that pulled out the 12V to a 3 pin fan header that I had, but there are lots of 12V sources that could be used. You could also attach these in parallel with the Extruder fan, I suppose, but I didn't try that. You could also put in a switch if you want, I didn't bother as I can just unplug the little header if need be. Put one clip on each side of the extruder nozzle with the LEDs pointing down. You may need to sand or file the notch to make it fit; I kept tolerances small so that the clips would be tight and unlikely to fall off into your print. Enjoy the nice light on your plaform!