I bought a Juupine LED strip on Aliexpress for my X1C. I read the 4-5 star reviews and made the mistake of not reading the 1-star reviews. The LED strip fried the LED connection on my AP board after a few weeks. Now the LED strip provides a dim light that never turns off, but it never provides full power now. I talked to support and I can get a new AP board through them for +$150. So I think my options are:
Buy new AP board and install it (which will restore the standard LED light functionality)
Just forget about it (and buy my own LED light w/ separate power source)
I would love to get the standard light back but not sure it’s worth the cost and effort. Does anyone know of any other good options? Is there a way to repair the AP board?
Do a search for "led abnormal’ in Bambu wiki and you will get some troubleshooting steps. Check both X1 and P1 results as some of the components might be similar. Repairing may be as simple as replacing a component on the board, only concern is if one is fried you may not be able to read the print to know what it was. This forum will then be a good place to get answers. I had a complete different issue, SD card could not be read and instead of replacing the board which was the obvious answer, I replaced the SD slot.
I put 24v LEDs on the bottom of one of the AMS units. This one sits atop the printer. It came with the power supply, dimmer and 16ft of LEDs with sticky-back tape. I have it set up on a remote-control switch that turns on the X1C and the lights.
This is what the inside of the cabinet looks like. And it’s not even on full brightness.
I read about people wiring lights in the printer before but didn’t want to mess with that.
I attached this light to a shelf above the printer. It is pretty useful, I will sometimes bend the light down so it is shining in the front door when I am inspecting the model or doing maintenance in the printer.
This is the one I got and can be trimmed to size (length). COB LEDs also from Amazon. And this Connector Kit to help round the corners. If you can’t or don’t want to do any soldering, this Kit will do the corners.
For anyone looking to safely mod their X1/P1 Series to have more LEDs…
Purchase an external power supply suitable for the voltage of the LEDs you are looking to drive: 5v,12v or 24v. (12v strips are probably the cheapest and most ubiquitous)
Wire the LED output from the X1/P1 directly to the input on one of these: https://a.co/d/65IuZgu
Wire the output of the above relay in series with the power to your after market (5v,12v,or 24v) LED strip.
This will have the printer turn your new strip automagically just like it does with stock LEDs, without damaging your control board from too much current draw or mismatched voltages.
It’s quite simple and easy to do and also completely isolates the LED circuit from the printer circuitry.
This is how mine is wired.
That’s great idea but you still have to dig into the printer’s inner circuitry or wiring. I wanted to avoid that at all costs–For the reason(s) that started this thread. External lighting has no attachment to the printer at all.
Thanks for the link. I have a use for that somewhere else and didn’t want to use the clumsy SCRs I have now.
Well, the OP connected his after-market LEDs to the same wire I am advocating you connect the SSR to.
So, it’s the same amount of “digging into circuitry or wiring” in my opinion.
And to be fair you said “the printer’s inner circuitry or wiring”.
It’s already been “externalized” to the stock LED board.
I went slightly overboard but same as lexi I’m not tapping into original circuitry, just supply from the socket (so it’s really home wiring rather than printer wiring) and drive a relay (mechanical in my case rather than electronic) from the led connector. There is a lot less current draw from the relay (about 5mA) than the original led (about 150mA). Of course this only fits a P1, there is a board on the X1 where my meanwell 220V/5V sits. I wanted to make sure I would totally avoid drawing any current from my printer while still keeping the original functionnality of the led switching. My original USB 5V socket is only used to power my panda touch although I could have powered it from the meanwell 5V power supply but this way, current draw from both is well below the max output and everything stay cool.
Different connectors. FWIW P1S use a JST-GH 1.25 connector, X1C is different, mini JST may be. JST GH 1.25 is available on amazon (large expensive set) or aliexpress (cheap and smaller set of connectors).
Well, you can buy that spare board for the X1 and cut the connector. They only sell the LED board bundled with the camera for the P1 for 3 times the cost. Doesn’t seem worth it unless you need the camera anyways.
