A Matchstick mount for the Switchwire

 

I've been getting closer and closer to completing the Ender 3 to Voron Switchwire conversion. The printer powers on, even prints, but the build isn't really finished quite yet. I was hoping to complete that last weekend by finally finishing the assembly of the enclosure. 

Part of that enclosure are little corner pieces which not only join two of the clear panels of the enclosure together using VHB tape, they also house a small LED strip to act as case lights. 

I had thought I had the right strip for the lights but...well...

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The strips I had were 30 LED/m, but the fixtures were designed for 60. I could just buy the proper strips, but finances haven't been great lately. My housemate has been requiring dental work which has been requiring frequent trips and car rentals to resolve. 

What I did have, however, was a pair of Rainbow on a Matchsticks LED PCBs which I had intended to use for the Voron Zero. It didn't work out there because of where I wanted to mount the lights. The PCBs wouldn't fit in the existing fixtures either.

But...I did have a 3D printer, spare filament, and OpenSCAD.

I really liked one key feature of the light mounts I used in the Voron Zero, they had a build-in return path for the LED strip wires. This allowed two strips of lights to be wired into a single line while hiding them from view. None of the Switchwire light fixures, including the original mounts, allowed for this. Yes, I could have used some really thin wire to snake a return line, but that would have been or result in power losses from the thin wire.

I also wanted to make the fixtures smaller so they could be printed in pieces on a small printer such as the Voron Zero. 

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I have yet to mount them in the printer themselves, but the new design meets all my goals, and even adds a small flair to what otherwise is a boring part of the printer. 

Designs are up on Printables: https://www.printables.com/model/675764-matchstick-voron-switchwire-mount