I guess this isn’t technically a ZenXY – but it was inspired by the project. I actually printed all the parts for ZenXY and started designing a table before realizing I really wanted to convert this lift-top coffee table instead (which needed a much more space-efficient CoreXY system).
Anyways, as you can see, I have some basic LED strips around the edges of the sand area (which is on a thin piece of annealed glass). So far this is okay. I will be adding dimming and a switch to it. However, I do see a lot of people using RGB LED strips, and I have the following questions:
(A) Do people are typically running dynamically-changing lighting or just using a static color sequence. And if it’s dynamic, how it is controlled?
(B) Is this compatible and controllable in some way with the TMC2209 pen/laser controller? If it matters, my current array uses about 0.5A @ 24V (I think, I did measure it, but it was a while ago).
(C) I’m considering adding a Raspberry Pi and using the TMC2209 pen/laser as a GRBL controller. That should open up options for me, all around.
On Amazon, there are SOOO many different RGB LED strips, which have a variety of pin/wire layouts. Most of them also advertise all sorts of fun control features, but I assume that’s just a separate controller that comes with the strips, that are pre-programmed to trigger the correct pins on the end of the strips.
I don’t have a ZenXY but I do have LEDs on my LR3 and pen plotter, both using WLED. I’m still recovering from falling down that rabbit hole.
WLED is super interesting. There are a bunch of controllers out there and are all ESP32 (or the older ESP8266) based. There are a stupid amount of options for what you can do with it. You can setup a bunch of different presets. If you have a controller with a microphone, some are even sound reactive. It serves a webpage that you can use to configure it. I usually configure through a nice Android app.
I have one of the pen/laser controllers that I’m using for an eggbot. So, since you’re using FluidNC…
For my LR3, I wrote a usermod for FluidNC that allows my WLED controller (QuinLED Dig2Go) to wirelessly connect to the Jackpot via telnet (leaving the websocket connection open for the WebUI or a wireless pendant). That is powered with 5v via USB using WS2812 LEDs. What my usermod does is it changes the preset based on the FluidNC state (Idle, Run, Alarm, Home, etc). The LEDs run under the gantry and it is setup so that it overlays white LEDs at the position where the router is.
My pen plotter is using a different controller (QuinLED Dig-Uno). I don’t have my custom WLED firmware on that. I just run it independently. This is running 24v WS2814 RGBW LEDs.
I will note that I have one of these remote controls that are setup with the WLED controller. I can use it to turn the lights on and off, change brightness, and pick between 4 presets. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091TGDS6F
I have not done this yet but I have been pondering updating my WLED usermod to support reading a variable set to a preset number. So, it would allow you to put gcode in your file like #<_wledPreset>=4 and it would change to that preset. That would allow you to use specific presets for specific files, or even change it throughout the file. Another idea I have is to support the LEDs being able to work like a progress bar. I’m not sure how useful either of these actually are.
If you do want to checkout WLED, you should also check out Ryan’s post on using it with the Jackpot. It shows how to hook up an ESP32 and configure the ability to switch between 3 presets using gcode. You should be able to do something like that with the pen/laser controller as well.
I use WLED in ny tables. It is dynamic and moves independently from the pattern. But for some reason, a lot of people think it is correlated. I just like a nice slow pattern and a nice slow LED pattern.
It helps to put the LEDs a little way back from the sand area. 2" would be about ideal. I know that space is always tough. That makes them hit the sand from a steep angle and you can’t see the lights directly.
There are several cheap and easy WLED controllers. Some of the new ones get power from USB C…
The main choices in LEDs are 5V/12V, RGB/RGBW (with a dedicated white LED for better whites), Density of pixels (60 LEDs per m is ideal IMO for tables), and waterproof level (IP67 is overkill. The rest are fine).
If you want to know more, there are a ton of YT vids on the subject. Searching WLED will hook you up to the firehose.
