70 inches of daylight balanced LED's installed on printer for under $17

[phototec]

This has been discussed before however I just wanted to share how cheap and easy this is to do and it has made a big difference on my printer.

The adhesive strip of water proof daylight LED's are on sale for 50% off at $9.99, it came with the soldered-on connector and the 12V power supply is on sale 37% off for $6.27, and if your total purchase is at least $35 you get FREE shipping. So I ordered some other items I needed for my Harley to get the FREE shipping.

LE Lampux 12V Flexible LED Strip Lights, LED Tape, Daylight White, Waterproof, 300 Units 3528 LEDs, Light Strips, Pack of 16.4ft/5m
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HSF66JO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

JACKYLED New DC 12V 2A 2.0A Switching Power Supply Adapter For 110V- 240V AC 50/60Hz 2.1mm
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006NTNGN0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So for the cost of $16.26 I was able to add daylight LED's to my Roland SP-540V, I could never see the printing area very well when it was printing, the print head area was back a ways under the top cover, now the LED's shine brightly all the way across the print carriage area.

The 3M adhesive backed LED strip was 16.4 feet long and I only needed 70" so I have still have over 10' of LED's left over for another project. The way the LED strip is made, you can cut the LED strip anywhere you want between every 3 LED's, and it worked out perfect for my printer to cut it at 70".

I removed the left cover and there is about a 6" wide cavity on the left side of the printer, so I started applying the LED strip from the left side and stuck it to the bottom of the front/top cover (on the back side of the Roland logo), that way the light shines more towards the back. The pigtail connector goes into the cavity area and that's were I connected it to the mating connector of the power supply (wall-wart).

There are two round holes in the metal panel, right behind the left side plastic cover, so I feed the wire from the wall-wart into the hole on the left and then it connects to the pigtail connector on the LED strip. There is enough clearance so you can re-install the left side cover and it does not crimp the wire. Then you plug in the wall-wart and bingo you have a full width daylight balanced LED strip all the way across your printer.

Pretty sure this can be made to work with just about any printer for $16.26.

 

[FatCat]

Very nice! I've been wanting to do this to my Mutohs - thank you for the link, ordering now...

 

[SightLine]

Nice job! Yep, one of the best easy mods you can do on your printer. Did ours a couple of years ago. It does take quite a bit more effort but I also tied the power into the printers power so I would not have any extra cords hanging out and added an inline on/off switch to the front control panel for the lights on our Mimaki. You do need a multimeter and whatnot to do it this way. Since the Mimaki has 24V dc output on its power supply I went with a 24v strip for ours but different machines and brands might have different voltages available. You would also tie in to the 120v AC power coming into the printer and just hide the power brick for the LEDs under one of the machines covers as well.

 

[31legen]

lights

Just ordered mine as well. You cant beat it for 16.26. Im a prime member so I got free 2 day shipping. Thanks for the heads up on this.

 

[phototec]

Very nice! I've been wanting to do this to my Mutohs - thank you for the link, ordering now...

Yea, someone else posted about doing this a while back and I wanted to do it then but the LED's I found were only available in warm white and the cost was over $20, they were NOT water proof, and the 12v power supply sold by the LED company was another $16 I believe.

So, when I saw these are DAYLIGHT balanced LEDS (better for viewing the color correctly) and they were half price at $9.99, and these are the water proof version covered with the clear flexible coating which protects the LEDS, you can just wipe across them with a cloth and not hurt the individual LED's, I just had to get them.

The best part was the installation, it literally took 10 minutes to install on my printer, I only had to remove two small screws and take off the left side cover, lift up the clear front cover, used an alcohol soaked paper towel to clean the area where I was going to install the LED light strip, cut the light strip at the designated cutting mark (about 70" long), peel back the release backing and stick the light strip in place starting on the left side of the printer.

Then run the power supply wire through the hole in the part that is located behind the left cover, plug the two connectors together, plug the power supply into an outlet, DONE - It works.......

 

[DonutSlinger]

That is awesome! I'm purchasing one now too. Thanks for the solution!

 

[phototec]

That is awesome! I'm purchasing one now too. Thanks for the solution!

The photos don't do justice to how even and bright the LED light is in the platen area now, and I love the daylight balanced light, not warm white, not blue light, just pure daylight as that is the best for judging color accuracy. It was always so hard to see the printed image as it was printing, always had to print test patterns and then feed the media out from under the cover to see the test pattern, now I can see it as soon as its printing - Amazing...

I just wish I would have done this YEARS ago.

I can't believe Roland and other printers don't come this way, surely if I did it for less than $17, they could do this at the factory for like $10 or less.

 

[Techman]

A creat find. The price of strips are falling so fast. And In fact I need some white LED strips for a project here.


Since the length of the LED strip is so short. I use 1A 12vdc wall wart to power the strips in my CNC. Total cost for a 12 v wall wart is ~ $3.00. And most likely FREE if you have one laying around the shop. I have about 6 of them laying around unused.

How much lower in cost can one go?
here is a strip for $14 bux in comparison.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LE-Lampux-1...ing_Parts_and_Accessories&hash=item43cf75b18a

 

[phototec]

A creat find. The price of strips are falling so fast. And In fact I need some white LED strips for a project here.


Since the length of the LED strip is so short. I use 1A 12vdc wall wart to power the strips in my CNC. Total cost for a 12 v wall wart is ~ $3.00. And most likely FREE if you have one laying around the shop. I have about 6 of them laying around unused.

How much lower in cost can one go?
here is a strip for $14 bux in comparison.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LE-Lampux-1...ing_Parts_and_Accessories&hash=item43cf75b18a

That LED strip you posted from ebay is the EXACT one (brand & size) I got from Amazon, and if I didn't have the $35 (FREE SHIPPING) order with other items then with shipping it would be about the same price (yours is still a bargain).

After cutting off the 70" I needed for my printer, I sill have 120" left over and they supplied another snap-on power connector, so I just need a another 12v wall-wart to make another LED strip.

Now to figure out another project that needs light?

Maybe I could stick it under the hood of my Jeep with a mercury switch so when I open the hood the light will come on? Off to ebay to look for a switch...

 

[Techman]

ebay has pages of connectors, shunts, pins whatever one would need to assemble LED strips.

 

[TDFcustomSL]

That LED strip you posted from ebay is the EXACT one (brand & size) I got from Amazon, and if I didn't have the $35 (FREE SHIPPING) order with other items then with shipping it would be about the same price (yours is still a bargain).

After cutting off the 70" I needed for my printer, I sill have 120" left over and they supplied another snap-on power connector, so I just need a another 12v wall-wart to make another LED strip.

Now to figure out another project that needs light?

Maybe I could stick it under the hood of my Jeep with a mercury switch so when I open the hood the light will come on? Off to ebay to look for a switch...

Ive installed tons of these under kitchen cabinets, and under bars. Also used smaller strips under the back end of a dirt car so when making changes in the pits all we have to do is flip a switch and the whole underside is well it to see what we are doing. I love LED strip lights, there is so much you can use them for. The color changing ones are always fun too and now you can get color changing with daylight or warm white leds also. Being dual color/LED you can make pretty much any color you want for whatever application you want. The one downside to the waterproof ones is theres a little more labor and time involved in getting the solderless connectors to work. With the non waterproof the solderless connectors are super simple.

 

[phototec]

Ive installed tons of these under kitchen cabinets, and under bars. Also used smaller strips under the back end of a dirt car so when making changes in the pits all we have to do is flip a switch and the whole underside is well it to see what we are doing. I love LED strip lights, there is so much you can use them for. The color changing ones are always fun too and now you can get color changing with daylight or warm white leds also. Being dual color/LED you can make pretty much any color you want for whatever application you want. The one downside to the waterproof ones is theres a little more labor and time involved in getting the solderless connectors to work. With the non waterproof the solderless connectors are super simple.

Here is a video showing how to attach the connector to the waterproof LED strips, looks easy?

[video=youtube;11EY-5OUQ7s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11EY-5OUQ7s[/video]

 

[brycesteiner]

Very nice! I've been wanting to do this to my Mutohs - thank you for the link, ordering now...

Are you going to take the hood off? I find it hard to see through the hood. This seems like it would be a standard feature on any of these expensive printers nowadays.

 

[kheebl]

I love these led strip lights. I used to run a party bus business a few years back and ran the RGB version of these lights in all of my buses. Everyone loves how they all changed colors.

 

[Techman]

This seems like it would be a standard feature on any of these expensive printers nowadays.

These and a couple other little details should be standard on printers..

 

[rubo]

Nice job! Very first thing I do - well, maybe second or third- take the hood off the printer. cheerz!

 

[player]

Instead of soldering you could use these:

http://www.amazon.com/Connector-Sin..._sim_hg_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1YWE7QKYM3T1XKHFXYD9

Add a wireless controlled dimmer:

http://www.amazon.ca/Lighting-EVER-...d_sim_k_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=10TBGFESWYFAS49ZZS9W

This wireless controller will also turn them on and off:

http://www.amazon.ca/Wireless-Contr..._sim_k_13?ie=UTF8&refRID=10TBGFESWYFAS49ZZS9W

 

[phototec]

Instead of soldering you could use these:

http://www.amazon.com/Connector-Sin..._sim_hg_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1YWE7QKYM3T1XKHFXYD9

Yep, two of those actually came with the 16.4' reel of daylight LED's I started this post with, one was soldered onto the end of the light strip, with heat-shrink covering the connection (you can see it in one of my photos), and it also came with another clip-on same as in the link provided by Richard above.

I didn't know it was going to have the connectors, that made it nice because all I had to do was cut the strip to 70" long and plug the connector into the 12v adapter, and the light strip worked.

 

[phototec]

Instead of soldering you could use these:

http://www.amazon.com/Connector-Sin..._sim_hg_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1YWE7QKYM3T1XKHFXYD9

Add a wireless controlled dimmer:

http://www.amazon.ca/Lighting-EVER-...d_sim_k_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=10TBGFESWYFAS49ZZS9W

This wireless controller will also turn them on and off:

http://www.amazon.ca/Wireless-Contr..._sim_k_13?ie=UTF8&refRID=10TBGFESWYFAS49ZZS9W

Ok, Richard there you go you cab get the LED light strip, power supply, and wireless controller for $18 Canadian---- Did you order it yet?

 

[player]

Ok, Richard there you go you cab get the LED light strip, power supply, and wireless controller for $18 Canadian---- Did you order it yet?

Where? never mind, I got it. Yes I will order asap! Thanks Jon.