Snap on Hotend LED Mod for Prusa i3 MK3S+ (Revo compatible)

You always want some more light on our first layer so I looked for some extruder LED mods. I liked Mazhives minimalistic approach of a simple bracket but wanted it to be a snap on design like Der Painers fan guard so I combined both ideas. BaGooNs models were used as references for some parts of the extruder.

Features

• snapable: no screws or disassembling of the extruder/fan/duct required
• the LED mount is tilted by 45°: the light will be pointed to the area directly beneath the nozzle and will reveal any differences in texture on the printed surface while being very bright
• cooling slots behind the LEDs: to keep them… well… cool
• side cover: to prevent the LEDs from blinding you
• strain relief: to reduce motion stress on the cable

What you need

1. a piece of standard 5050 smd LED strip with 10mm width (they actually are a bit narrower around 9.6mm) or 12mm* width.
2. some soldering skills (almost none) and equipment
3. some cable of sufficient length with the right amount of wires for your type of LEDs

Assembly

1. print the model with supports.
2. remove the supports and check if you can slide the LED strip in. You might want to remove the liner or even the double sided tape (with some IPA) to make them fit.
3. remove the the strip and cut it to the right length.
4. solder the wires to the corresponding copper patches of the strip.
5. slide the LEDs back into the LED mount and lay the cable into the strain relief on the upper side.
6. snap the LED mount on your hotend fan and check if everything fits tight.
7. you can route the cables along the textile cable sleeve of the  extruder.
8. connect your specific power source assembly and (as always) triple check if everything is wired up correctly before testing.

Check out my relay casing I use to connect it all to a 12V power supply and the raspberry pi that controls it.

If you've got any suggestions to improve the design please let me know.
 

*I added a model by request  of kartoffelopa but had no LED strips to test it though.

changelog:

2023-02-08: added a 12mm width variant by request and renamed 10mm variant accordingly.