Summary

Happy New Year too all!!

If you have ever gotten tired of holding a flashlight while printing to see the first layer then this is the thing for you!

Brief how to on using LED flashlights to make printer lights.

Instructions

This is what I did. I bought a bunch of the small 3 AAA cell LED flashlights.
Tested them for current draw and the one I liked the most was the Utilitech 65 Lumens unit.
I like this unit because it is only approximately 300ma at 3.3 volts. Also it has just one LED.
The 100 Lumens one was ok, it was approximately 350ma at 3.3 volts. I got these flashlights at Lowe's here in the US for about $3 each. But the bottom line is any of the 3 AAA cell LED flashlights will work. Just check the current on them and make sure that your power supply has the current to spare.

THESE HAVE TO HAVE A 3.3 VOLT REGULATOR!! DO NOT USE 12 VOLTS ON THEM WITHOUT A REGULATOR!

I'm not going into the wiring too much you guys can figure that out, it is just some LEDs. Just remember plus to plus and negative to negative. Again you will have to have a 3.3 volt regulator. The one I used is from
Digi-Key PN 945-1394-5-ND
Manufacture: Recom Power, PN is R-78C3.3-1.0
It is a step down converter so it is real simple to use. No capacitors or heat sink. 12 volts in on one side and ground in the middle and 3.3 volts out the other pin and that is it. But there is a price to pay for being so simple to use, the thing costs $9 US. I think it is worth it not to have to deal with heat sinks and added parts. I use them a lot in all my embed processor projects.

The hardware is just some M3 cap screws, nuts and washers.
I printed with 3 perimeter loops with a layer height of .2mm and support.
As you can see from the photos I just took apart the flashlights and cut them off and mounted them to the printed bases using some #2 sheet metal screws.

And that's it, good luck! And as they say in the movies keep moving forward!

I have included the Solidworks and 203 STEP files in the ZIP file for anyone that would like to modify it.

Geckospot Light for MendelMax 1.5