X1C Adjustable Lighting Unit Riser

If you are like many X1 Carbon printer owners, you are dissatisfied with the internal lighting of the printer.  I find it hard to see whatever is on the print plate through the tinted glass of the printer case.  I understand that there is an issue with too much lighting interfering with the lidar sensor, but the lidar is only used for a discrete period of time at the print set up stage.  Beyond the print set up stage, there are no printing constraints in using a brighter light.

My solution to the case lighting dilemma is to mount additional lighting strips above the normal print case, embedded in a riser.  The riser sits on top of the printer, elevating the top glass plate and contains the lighting strips.  This new lighting can be manually turned on or off and the lighting brightness is also under manual control.  The manual controls are easily accessible via a switch and knob mount adjacent to the X1C LCD display.

Additional lighting also improves the picture quality of the X1 internal camera, helping the picture to look less grainy.  Note, too much lighting can interfere with the X1 camera picture, too causing the picture to look washed out.  The manual lighting adjustment knob will allow you to find that brightness sweet spot.

Assembly
The riser design consists of multiple parts, including electronic components and 3D printed parts.  To complete this project, the builder must be comfortable in electrical soldering and low voltage electrical wiring.  If you interested in duplicating my work, I strongly suggest that you follow the build guide.

All the electrical parts are commonly available and can be sourced from multiple suppliers through Amazon, eBay and a host of other sources.  The electrical parts are inexpensive and should amount to maybe around USD$10.

My print is made in 1.75mm eSUN PLA+ Silver and Black filaments, with 0.2mm layer height and 15% infill on a Bambu X1 Carbon printer.

I hope that you can find this print useful, too.

Remember to leave me some feedback or even a tip to keep me enthused to make more of these drawings.

For my latest models, see my main uploads site at MakerWorld as “Wiseone”.