I have a Shapeoko 4 SL and want to add a LED light strip to the gantry. Has anyone done this to thier machine? I’m looking at a cheap USB powered strip on Amazon that can be powered by my laptop as long as I route the wire so it doesn’t interfere with the gantry travel
If you get 24V rated LED strips, they can be powered directly from the Shapeoko PSU.
I’ve got my enclosure rigged up as well as the X-gantry with 24V LED strip(natural white tone). After looking at the power draw, I installed an LED dimmer to control how much power the LED strips use so as not to overload the PSU while running my machine.
Hmmm I didn’t think of that… power off the PSU might be a better option 
The caveat there is that the easiest way to get the 24V power is to cut & splice the 24V cable off the PSU - which will void any warranty on the PSU. I don’t know if I ever looked to see if there’s any power pins on the control board from which to attach to cause I hate taking the cover off mine. But if something goes wrong, a 24V PSU is way cheaper than a replacement control board.
Some nice 24v fcob LEDs will give you a good smooth glow. The fcobs that run on straight voltage (eg: no IC for controlling brightness or addressing) tend to be much brighter per linear foot.
You can throw them on an A-penta-mini if you want to control brightness or run tunable white lights.
That’s maybe a bit in the weeds but it’s been worth the effort in my opinion.
Some fcobs for example:
Amazon.com (I like tunable white 
)
So I decided to give these a try. Not comfortable splicing into the wiring on the psu. They arrive tomorrow so We’ll see how they workout 
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08X6LHLR9?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
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Those will be great from some quick and easy lighting. I’ve always had good experiences with the BTF lighting and build quality, should be smooth and bright 
I’ve never used the 5v strips but I thought it was kinda funny they don’t advertise lumens per meter.
I expect they’ll still be plenty bright but if they’re not, let me know and we can spec out an easy to assemble higher power system 
Regardless, let us know how they work out for you!
Thanks Tyler… I’m all about quick and easy 
. I’ll take before and after pics and post them here to show how they are.
I installed the LED light strip under my gantry today. I think it’s going to be just what I was looking for to light the work area. Powered through a USB port on my laptop and has an on/off switch and dimmer. I ran the gantry back to front numerous times and there’s no interference.
Before:
After:
I ran the cable through with the other wiring in the chain track and secured the switch to the side of the chain track with 2 sided tape. We’ll see if that holds up otherwise its no big deal if the switch is just beside the machine
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