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LED Lights

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by dbvanhorn, Mar 5, 2015.

  1. dbvanhorn

    dbvanhorn Active Member

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    Ergonomically, I think the most annoying feature of the Robo3D is those blue lights..
    Bright enough to stop down your pupil so that when you're looking at the area where the print is, on the black bed, where the lights don't shine, you can't see a thing.

    I was getting some bits for the car today, and I ran across some interesting LED spotlights:
    UPC 0849027714686 Alpena Spotlite at AutoZone.
    http://www.autozone.com/lighting-led-and-neon/led-lighting/alpena-led-spot-lite/111799_0_0/
    A set of two high power LED spots.
    These are plenty bright, and give full brightness at 6V Each puck has a switching regulator in it, the current decreases as the voltage increases. :)

    I'm going to install these on the base, reflecting up off the case. Just setting them in there, it's an almost shadowless illumination of the whole printer area.

    The blue looks nice, but the white works nice.
     
  2. James Harry

    James Harry Active Member

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    I bought these LEDs (Amazon Link) for my RepRap printer and only used about half. I wired power off the R1 power supply's 3rd rail and ran the lights up one side of the case, across the top, down the other side, looped around and back again across the top and down (so I got both sides of the case). The included controller makes it difficult to get "full white", or maybe the lights themselves. Either way, it provides nice additional overall lighting for the printer.
     
  3. Zen

    Zen Member

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    I used a single section of 5050 smd white led strip light and tied into the power for the hot end fan. Then mounted to the underside of the hot end holder. This does two things. It lights up the actual printing area very well, and if My hot end fan ever fails I will know it because the lights aren't on.
     

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  4. James Harry

    James Harry Active Member

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    I like that a lot. I contemplated using (this)[http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:655450, and I like your simpler use, but didn't want to futz with tying into the hot end quite yet. So far the whole case lighting is nice, but direct light on the print would be a nice add as well.
     
  5. ClaudKLyons

    ClaudKLyons New Member

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    According to my opinion in this situation you can do it is to get LED strips/tapes and stick a few lines of them on top of the fixture. Then connect them to a 12v power supply and to mains.
     
  6. DjAnnexAlpha

    DjAnnexAlpha Member

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    I installed two 5630 white LED strips into the cover to light it all up...
    [​IMG]
     
  7. gravityisweak

    gravityisweak Member

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    Whats the voltage to those blue lights? I'd like to just snip the wires and do a direct replacement.
     
  8. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Standard LED strip lights are all 12V, be careful adding too many lights as it will draw more power than the measly 6 blue LEDS that Robo includes.
     
  9. DjAnnexAlpha

    DjAnnexAlpha Member

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    True and yes, my strips are 8 inches long and I spliced them into the original wiring for the blue LEDs. Simple mod, only thing to take into consideration is the fact that the LED strips come with crap tape, definitely get 3M double sided tape to mount them into place. I am also gonna wire a switch to the lights once my enclosure comes in so I can print at night without the blinding light shinning into my face.

    url
     
  10. Simonpackman1

    Simonpackman1 Member

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    I added a strip of about 20 white bright leds. Look up led taps on amazon. Its the same voltage and may require soldering. I would not snip the wires. Instead open the bottom up and unplug them. Then solder a red and black wire to your led tape and plug that in. I believe it is screws that hold those wires in. I soldered my led tape into three sections. Right side middle and left so i could easily adhere them to the enclosure. You only need it to plug in from one end that way. It is the best mod and i think i had that going with a week of getting my robo and it makes a huge difference.


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  11. Simonpackman1

    Simonpackman1 Member

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    Also its true the adhesive is not too good. I boot legged it and put a small dab of gorilla glue on opposite end of the tape. It doesn't stick well to plastic, but it does on painted surfaces and raw wood.


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  12. Simonpackman1

    Simonpackman1 Member

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    Also i installed a switch and connecters so i can easily remove the hood and turn off the leds when they are necessary or annoying me at night when im done watching the first couple layers


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