Lighted Hotend Upgrade

I wanted more light, especially to see those first few layers at the print head. I have another lighting project that works great to improve the entire print, but to view right at the hotend, you need lights closer to the hotend. I created a new duct with mounting for a strip of LEDs. If you made my ACE Pro lighting upgrade, you’ll already have the LEDs needed. There are plenty of ways you can do this project, so feel free to do something different. Parts List New Fan Duct  LED Cover M2.3 x 5mm flat head self-tapping screw – I bought this kit of screws for various projects LED 24V COB strip 20mm long x 5 mm wide, 4000K (cut at the marks on the strip). WARNING: If Amazon is out of the product, it may switch to 5V or something else! Package of 2-pin JST ZH 1.5mm connectors (male and female), with 150 mm wires Package of 2-pin JST GH 1.25 mm connectors (male and female), with 80 mm wires 2mm diameter heat shrink tubing Printing Parts Print the new duct in PTEG or ABS. We used transparent blue PETG. PLA is not recommended as it will deform under heat. If you use very high temperatures, you may need to use a different filament designed to resist higher temperatures. We did tests at 15% and 30% fill (very little difference) and tests at 0.12 mm layers and 0.20 mm layers, and again, there was very little difference in quality. Note that the tree supports were a pain to remove, and worse with 0.12 mm layers. We did some tweaking of the support settings, but didn’t find a great fix. Final print was 15% @ .20 mm layers, tree supports. Print the LED cover. We used clear PETG, with 100% Infill, 0.20 mm layer height, and normal supports. White PETG will likely work as well if you don’t have clear. When working with transparent filaments, you typically get the best results at the higher end of the recommended temperatures and running at a slower printing speed. Printer Preparation If the bed is not lowered about halfway already, on the Printer, go to Settings -> Move. Select Home