LED Light Strip

[jmargush]

I recently added a LED strip to the top/ceiling of my Rostock Max v2 to look at my prints while they are printing so I don't have to use a lamp separate from the printer.


I'm powering the strip off of the power supply that came in the printer kit. Using one yellow(12 volts) and one black (ground) wire. I wired it up to the negative and positive on the LEDs and it worked.
So, I soldered the wires and put everything back together and calibrated because I moved it to a work place and took an arm off.


While printing a test cube, out of my peripheral I saw the light strip flashing.

What do I need to do to keep the light from flickering?

Thanks for the help.

[Xenocrates]

wiring a capacitor would smooth things out. I assume this is the older ATX supply, since it has wires attached, so a larger ATX supply would help with that as well, by providing more stable power. I didn't add a capacitor to mine, as I have enough excess 12V rail capacity on my larger unit that it isn't causing voltage sags or similar as the heaters switch on and off, but I have done a similar thing to you.

[Eaglezsoar]

There is an electronic device that ensures constant current will be fed to the LED's.
This was first mentioned by a user named Cambo3d.
The link to the thread is http://forum.seemecnc.com/search.php?ke ... sf=msgonly

IMHO this is the best way to stop flickering led's. Here is a brief from the above listed topic:

EDIT: I'M NOTICING A LOT OF FLICKERING WHEN THE RAMBO IS DOING ITS PID ROUTINE, SO I ORDERED A BETTER VOLTAGE AND CURRENT REGULATOR TO ELIMINATE THIS PROBLEM.

problem fixed, using this regulator below. no more flickering.

current and voltage regulator from ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/5A-Constant-Cur ... 1200620645
simple setup, install and turn your led pot all the way bright, then adjust the voltage pot on the regulator till the flickering goes away. There's also a current adjustment if you need it.

[jmargush]

There is an electronic device that ensures constant current will be fed to the LED's.
This was first mentioned by a user named Cambo3d.
The link to the thread is http://forum.seemecnc.com/search.php?ke ... sf=msgonly

IMHO this is the best way to stop flickering led's. Here is a brief from the above listed topic:

EDIT: I'M NOTICING A LOT OF FLICKERING WHEN THE RAMBO IS DOING ITS PID ROUTINE, SO I ORDERED A BETTER VOLTAGE AND CURRENT REGULATOR TO ELIMINATE THIS PROBLEM.

problem fixed, using this regulator below. no more flickering.

current and voltage regulator from ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/5A-Constant-Cur ... 1200620645
simple setup, install and turn your led pot all the way bright, then adjust the voltage pot on the regulator till the flickering goes away. There's also a current adjustment if you need it.

How would I wire up the voltage regulator to the led and my power supply?

[Eaglezsoar]

Your 12V power will go into the input on the regulator and the output will connect to all the leds.
So to make it simple instead of connecting your LED's to the black and yellow wires, they would all connect to the regulator output.
Here is a picture of how it hooks up.

The Black and Yellow wires connect to IN (yellow is plus black is negative) The Led's connect to the out terminals making sure the polarity is correct.
If you had 4 strands of leds they would all connect to the out terminals.

[jmargush]

Instead of using the one you linked in your reply could I use something cheaper like this ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/5A-Constant-Cur ... 1402536376 )

or this? ( http://www.gearbest.com/development-boa ... oC6e_w_wcB )

[Eaglezsoar]

Instead of using the one you linked in your reply could I use something cheaper like this ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/5A-Constant-Cur ... 1402536376 )

or this? ( http://www.gearbest.com/development-boa ... oC6e_w_wcB )

The first one you linked to would work fine but is shipped from China so there would be about a month's delay to receive it.
The second link, the board does not have screws which means you would have to solder the wires, I do not recommend this board.