Blueprint

Ender 3 revamp

Some badly needed upgrades to keep my ender 3 v2 on par with modern printers like the A1. Octoprint running on a orange pi 0 allows for wireless printing, print failure detection running locally, and an h2d inspired LED progress bar and task light. The repo has it all explained :)

Created by Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀

Tier 4

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Timeline

CAN CAN ⚡🚀 approved Ender 3 revamp ago

Tier approved: 4

Grant approved: $52.00

Nice project.

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 submitted Ender 3 revamp for review ago

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 added to the journal ago

Found a new power supply

The current power supply for the raspberyr pi was to espesnisve at 7 dollars, so I found a replacement on aliexpress for 99 cents. Hoepfully it doesn't burn my house down💀Screen Shot 2025-12-09 at 5.13.12 PM

NotARoomba NotARoomba 🚀 requested changes for Ender 3 revamp ago

Hey! I think this is a really cool project but could you try and get that wall adapter from Aliexpress as well? Aside from that, nice work!

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 submitted Ender 3 revamp for review ago

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 added to the journal ago

Added detail

Basically I just went back into my previous journals that were lacking detail and explained in more depth my design choices and how specific key parts will work. If I had to guess I'd say I added about 400-500 characters, not including images.Screen Shot 2025-12-08 at 5.36.12 PMScreen Shot 2025-12-08 at 5.36.17 PM

Tanook Tanook ⚡🚀 requested changes for Ender 3 revamp ago

Hello! This is so so cool! This seems really useful. Just have more depth in the journal, and I think its good to go :) As far as screenshots go, I only see the final product of the CAD.

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 submitted Ender 3 revamp for review ago

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 added to the journal ago

Explaining the features

Features:
-An LED task light!
The corner of my room that my ender 3 lives in, and past 4:30 pm(when I normally do my printing)it is hard to see anything thats going on, which makes it very hard to see print quality or errors, feed filament etc.
The LED task light uses some standard 24v white LED's that I have extras of from a past project. They will be powered by a 24v plug in power supply and go in a slot in the bottom of my LED enclosure(Shown below). It will simply be toggles on off by a switch in the power supply.
Screen Shot 2025-12-04 at 5.57.29 PM

-Print progress bar!
One of the coolest features of Bambu Lab's new flagship printer, the H2d, is the LED progress bar on the side, which is way more convenient than looking at the tiny LCD display on the side of my printer. Mine will use 0.5 meter addressable neopixel LED strip cut down to length, that will be controlled via the Raspberry pi, using the octoprint API to determine how far along the print is done. The neopixel strip will be ordered from adafruit for $12.5( See BOM). The LED's will be masked by a 3d printed diffuser at 0% infill so that you can't see the individual LED's.
In the image above, this will go in the highlighted area labeled "neopixels will go here".

-Octopint!
Octoprint is awesome opensource software that runs on a raspberry pi and allows you to control any 3d printer remotely. It communicates to the 3d printer via the micro-usb port, so that you dont have to go into the guts of the printer, and it allows you to start and monitor prints from you computer, phone, or crappy school chromebook. All you need for it is a raspberry pi, cable, and sd card(See BOM). This will go in the picture below, which has the Raspberry pi modled into it's enclosure
Screen Shot 2025-12-04 at 5.49.46 PM
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-Camera for time elapses and print failure detection
Using the camera module 2 I already have from raspberry pi, I can uses octoprint to automatically take timealapses that have the toolhead home to the same spot each time, allowing for the fancy timealapses that you see on printers like the H2D. It also can locally run machine learning models that detect print failures, like the print coming loose, and send you an alert or stop the print autonomously. The camera will go into it's pictured slot in the pictured above, with a CSI ribbon cable connected to the raspberry pi. Like a said I chose this camera because I already have it on hand, and don't have to buy it.

P.S. This is my submission for Prototype, so please accept it, even if you want me to change a few minor things I will, I just really want to go to the hackathon :)

nimit nimit 🚀 requested changes for Ender 3 revamp ago

This project has a lot of potential, great job on the CAD! But the exact revamp features are kind of confusing. Put yourself in the position of someone following your changes, and write some info on each mod you do (kind of like a guide!)

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 submitted Ender 3 revamp for review ago

Iamalive Iamalive ⚡🚀 requested changes for Ender 3 revamp ago

You said you're making both a "LED task light to light up my print bed", and "LED NeoPixel print progress bar (like the H2D)" Then in your readme you said that you already had the LED light. Does this mean both LEDs are NeoPixels, which you have, or something else?

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 submitted Ender 3 revamp for review ago

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 added to the journal ago

More explaing

People still can't seem to understand how my project works, which is fair. Maybe the stereotype about engineers being bad communicators is true:) I added 4 more angles, with more annotations from my iPad, and I'm going to explain them, so hopefully they make more sense after reading this.

Below is a zoomed out view of how it all works. there is a green piece I will 3d print that has the Rpi and camera(annotated). This will mount with m3 screws to the top extrusion of the ender 3.
Screen Shot 2025-12-04 at 5.58.11 PM

Below is a zoomed in view of the LED assembly(in pink). It also mounts to the top extrusion of the ender 3. It has slots for both the addressable neopixels and the bright 24v white tasklight LED's.
Screen Shot 2025-12-04 at 5.57.29 PM

Below is a zoomed in view of the electronics sub-assembly. It has the Rpi 03w, in green(annotated), and a arm to hold the camera(with m2.5 hardware). I drew in the ribbon cable because that kind of think doesn't work well in fusion, and I couldn't find a model for my camera, but I have an arrow showing where it will go(far left). This image is in gray to show the colors of the RPi, instead of the bright colors fusion generates to easily tell components apart.
Screen Shot 2025-12-04 at 5.49.46 PM

Below is a zoomed out view of the electronics enclosure, showing how it fits in on a larger scale. It's a little confusing because one of the aluminum extrusions is also green, but this is NOT part of the design, and is a quirk of fusion. It has the same features metnioned above- the RPi, camera cable and spot for the camera. You can see that it mounts to the blue bar, which is the top of the Ender 3 gantry, and is also where the LED assembly will mount(Both will m2.5 hardware).

Image 12-4-25 at 6.02 PM

Iamalive Iamalive ⚡🚀 requested changes for Ender 3 revamp ago

Can you add seperate pictures of the two parts that you will attach to your ender in differnt angles? Also does this include the final render which has the parts you want to buy attached?

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 submitted Ender 3 revamp for review ago

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 added to the journal ago

Figured out the mounting

After getting feedback from a reviewer, I realized I needed to have my 3d printer inside the design so people could figure out what was going on. Even though I had the idea perfectly clear in my head, no else did, and things that I thought were obvious aren't in retrospect. I think that it's a clearer now. Both assemblies will mount to the 3d printer using m3 hardware onto the aluminum extrusion. I will slide T-nuts into the extrusion, then put the bolts through the 3d printed part ad the T-nut, which is how my filament holder is attached, and can hold over 1 kilogram, so I think that this will be plenty strong.
Adding in the chunking ender 3 step file really slowed down Fusion, so this part took longer than expectedScreen Shot 2025-12-02 at 5.47.31 PM
Screen Shot 2025-12-02 at 5.47.21 PMScreen Shot 2025-12-02 at 5.47.51 PM
Screen Shot 2025-12-02 at 5.02.38 PM

Tanook Tanook ⚡🚀 requested changes for Ender 3 revamp ago

Hello! This is still hard to understand :sob: I think it would be optimal if you imported an Ender 3 and put it on that assembly to show how exactly it gets assembled onto an ender 3

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 submitted Ender 3 revamp for review ago

Tanook Tanook ⚡🚀 requested changes for Ender 3 revamp ago

Hello! While the concept of this is cool, from your ReadME, its unclear how this will be incorporated into an Ender 3.

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 submitted Ender 3 revamp for review ago

Shaurya Bisht Shaurya Bisht requested changes for Ender 3 revamp ago

Could you make a schematic or design of how you are going to incorporate all the components together?

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 submitted Ender 3 revamp for review ago

Shaurya Bisht Shaurya Bisht requested changes for Ender 3 revamp ago

cart screenshots dont add up to grant request?

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 submitted Ender 3 revamp for review ago

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 added to the journal ago

drafted it out

This morning I used fusion 360 to design out everything I will 3d print, while listening to Leon Bridges. I started with the LED enclosure that includes a mounting system to the top of my printer, a slot for the neopixel LED's behind a removable 3d printed diffuser, and an alcove at the bottom for the task light LED's.(thats the image in pink)

I then designed an electronics enclosure that would house the raspberry pi, rpi camera, and wires for the LED's. This part was a little trickier because I find that as designs get more complex and larger I have a harder time working on them.
I then polished everything off with a healthy splattering of filets.
Finally I send the images to my iPad where I annotated them so that it's clearer to see whats going on. For that I just used apples basic Markdown tool in photos.

Image 11-29-25 at 8.06 AMImage 11-29-25 at 8.08 AM

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 added to the journal ago

Sourced the parts

The next thing I did was source the BOM. I knew that adafruit made a lot of neopixel stuff, and I found a neopixel LED strip at 0.5 meters, which is the perfect length. This will allow me to control every single LED on the strip for my LED print progress bar. I'll also order my rpi from here to save on shipping.

I found the micro-sd card and micro-usb cable on aliexpress since thats's where they will be the cheapest.

For the LED task light I already have some white LED strip laying around, I still haven't figured out how I'll power it though.

Screen Shot 2025-11-28 at 4.52.10 PM

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 added to the journal ago

How the heck does octoprint work?

Octoprint seems great, it gives cloud functionality to older printers or cheaper printers, and a lot of other features seen on bambu's and other new printers.
I just never understood how it works, but now I do! it just sends the commands to the usb port on the printer, like how the SD card works. Also it's really cheap, and can be set up for like 25 dollars!

Screen Shot 2025-11-28 at 10.39.34 AM

Jake Hopkins Jake Hopkins 🚀 started Ender 3 revamp ago