Lighting a 24 volt Taz

[piercet]

So I’m finally getting around to putting lights on my TAZ, which is a 24 volt 3.2-ish unit. I’m going to tap into the case fan lead, which runs at about 7 volts. I’ve plugged a lightstrip into the fan feed inline with the fan using one of these cables: (http://koolance.com/atx-pass-through-wire( slightly modified to include two light sockets (female standard 3 pin computer fan sockets) and ran my existing AO-10x lightbar off of that. it seems to work fine and nothing caught on fire.

So, here are the initial parts if anyone wants to pring them and follow along. I’ll put pictures up and everything once I get further along.

You will need to print:
2 Endcaps, 1 set of endcap brackets. 1 light strip, and 3 TAZ brackets

You will also need, something equivelent to that cable I linked above, at least 1 3 pin fan extension (2 if you want two lightbars) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812493011

some heat shrink tubing, some solder and flux, a soldering iron, about 2-4 feet of black wire, a 12v power switch (optional) maybe some crimp barrels and a wire stripper / crimper. Oh, and the stick on LED strips. And some satin finish gift wrap tape.

Proceedure:

1. Print all the lightstrip parts. Drill out the end of the Endcap_Taz_2_0_a_RL.stl piece so that you can fit a wire through, being careful not to destroy the endcap socket tabs that fit into part endcap_r_l_Wider.stl
2. thread your wire through the hole you just made. Slip a 1 inch long piece of heat shrink tube over the wire and then strip the ends for soldering
3. Adhere a 295mm long piece of LED strip tape to the channel of your LED bar. Be careful to cut it at the cut guide points. Now strip the soldier points and place some flux on them
4. Soldier the wire ends to the contact points on the LED strip. This is a pain in the ass, and you will likely destroy a few of them in the attempt if you are anywhere the same as my soldering skill level.
   Slide the heat shrink tubing up over the soldier joint and shrink it. Now slide the whole assembly back into the endcap.
5. Place the other endcap on the other end
6. The adhesive on these LED strips is horrible, and it will come off after a day or so. I reccommend using a strip of Satin finish tape, either longways down the entire LED strip, or wrapped around at strategic intervals to keep it on.
   next insert the 18mm wide Taz light brackets into their 3 slots on the back side of the light strip.
7. at this point attach the male end of one half of the fan extension to the lightbar wire using your favorite wire joining method.
8. Attach the female end to the Koolance cable. You can attach two of them at this point if you wish to run two lightbars. The lightbars don’t draw all that much current.
9. Place the new cable assembly in line with the existing lulzbot issued Rambo board fan (NOT the fan for the hot end of your extruder)
10. optionally, insert the on off switch somewhere in your printer assembly if you want to be able to turn the lights off independently of the printer.

You should be able to turn on the printer and see movement on the fan and lights lit up. Ta da!
endcap_R_L_Wider.stl (135 KB)
Taz_Lightstrip_2_1_a.stl (109 KB)
Taz_light_bracket_1_0_a.stl (48.8 KB)
endcap_taz_2_0_a_RL.stl (86.6 KB)

[piercet]

Printed all the parts, the endcap was a bit too snug to fit. Here’s a clearanced version that should work. Will print that shortly
endcap2.stl (108 KB)

[piercet]

Pictures of the assembled lightbar. This is the non-wired test fit . Unfortunately, the TAZ badge will need to relocated. I’ll get it wired and lit up sometime in the next few days. I’ve already tested my assembled Ao-10x lightbars on the Rambo fan header so I’m not worried about that part.

Everything prints fine, the assembly itself lines up fine, I’m happy with it. Will likely throw it up on thingvers aon as I get a picture of it lit up.