Introduction: Wanhao Duplicator I3 Plus LED Light Upgrade

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This is a little upgrade for the Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus 3d printer.

When the printer is working in the basement i had to leave the room light on to monitor the printing progress via a webcam. With this mod a Led strip is added to the printer and connected to the printers power supply so it lights up as soon as the printer is turned on. Now you can turn of the room lights and still have enough light to see what the printer is doing.

Parts needed for the upgrade:

  • 24V Volt LED Strip
  • some wire

or if you have some 12v led strips on hand like i did:

  • 12V Led Strip
  • Step Down Regulator
  • some wire

Step 1: The Build

First solder a piece of wire to the led strip which is long enough to go down the side of the printer and then inside the electronics compartment. Now stick the led strip to the top L bracket of the frame as seen in the picture and route the wire down the side.


Make sure you unplug the mains AC Wire from the printer or the wall outlet before opening the printer !

Then unscrew the 6 screws of the bottom plate and take the plate of. Route the led strip wire to the power supply.

If you have a 24 V Led strip you can now directly connect the positive wire to the free +V port of the power supply and the negative wire to the free -V port of the power supply.

If you have a 12V strip you first need to set up the step down regulator.

Connect the regulators input to a 14 - 25V power supply or battery (e.g. two 9V block batteries connected in series) and set the output of the regulator to 12V by turning the potentiometer.

Then solder the led srip wires to the output of the step down regulator, put a drop of hot glue on the potentiometer and insulate the regulator with shrink tube or some electrical tape.

Now you can connect the input wires of the regulator to the printers power supply like already described above (connect the positive wire to the free +V port of the power supply and the negative wire to the free -V port of the power supply)

Make sure all cables are routed good and don't scrub on the y-axis belt and put the bottom plate of the printer back on.

Now you can plug the mains power cable back in and turn the printer on to see if the light works.

Thanks for reading and Happy Printing ;)