New face for Anet A8- the reactor

thingiverse

I changed my mainboard to MKS, and now Marlin can talk with Neopixel-LED's. I don't need a new hole for the display anymore, so I made one instead. Another problem on A8 is the mickey-mousing power unit, so I combined everything: -made a new front plate -integrated an arc reactor -played with neopixels Calibrate your printer! Print grid and panel in any material you want. The lens should be printed in clear or transparent. Nothing needs support, but I printed the grid with its backside up to have a nice look. If you do this too, the grid will need some support. Update 11/19 2018: _______________ I added two new parts: grid12.stl and lens12.stl. These can be used for an 12-LED-Ring, it looks better. If you want to make the 12-holes version, you don't need to print grid.stl and lens.stl. But if you want to make the 12-window version, you must print lens12, the other one won't fit. The lens.stl is only for the grid.stl. All three parts fit together, maybe with a little sanding. You can also use some glue to hold them in place while mounting. You can put a small ring of neopixels in the lens, mine was an 12led-version from Sparkfun. Cables go behind the upper (or any other) hole from the old buttons. Wire it up and enjoy the show. It's also possible to add an LED (RGB or not) in the middle of the reactor, this is the hole for the old middle button. I printed all parts with 0.1mm layer thickness, but most others should work too. The panel part can be printed with some filament changes, like I did, to have some colors on it. But it will also work in only one color. The big "A" is the highest, so you can make it another color if you want. I used three colors. It's an option to print the lens in white because the 5050 LED's are really bright. Mine was configured at brightness 16. Maybe I'll add a ring of paper between the lens and the LED's later. Don't scale anything, because there is no more space between the X-Carrier and the panel if you print higher things. Cheap demo video: https://youtu.be/KO9ifXpKXt4