Kobra S1 Lighting Upgrade - Multicolor

While it’s nice that the S1 includes a built-in light, it’s not ideal. The major weakness is that the positioning of the current top LED leaves lots of shadows and makes it difficult to see what is printing near the hotend. Printing small parts are especially difficult to see. The existing cool white LED color leaves a lot to be desired, too, although there is camera compensation to improve the color. Basic Upgrade You can use any white LED strip, ideally with a color temperature of 3500K, CRI >90, and 24v. I used about 240mm or 8” attached to the printed bracket. The bracket is mounted to the right side near the threaded rod so the camera gets the least shadows. The holder is designed to block the bright light when you look in from the front and snap into place. Optionally, a screw can be inserted to lock it in place, but I don’t think it is necessary. Basic LED advantages •   Easiest installation •   Improved color accuracy •   Greatly reduced shadows •   Shields LED from front glare •   Improved camera clarity •   The area below the bed becomes visible •   Improved AI spaghetti detection (maybe) I power the LED strip from the 24v power supply. To get access, you need to remove all the screws from the rear, then remove the grey protective power cover (2 screws), and flip up the clear protector on the 24V power supply. Connect to the two unused terminals, +V and -V. You can feed the wires through the hole used by the right-side auxiliary fan. It’s easier to feed the wires from the build plate side. When reassembling, it’s important that the grey cover be reinstalled (I left it off, and I had to remove the back a second time!). Advanced Color Upgrade I used an RGB WW CW LED strip so I could have two modes. When the printer is on standby, the LED strip is one color (I chose cyan), and then when actively printing, it changes to white. With this method, you can choose (via hard wiring) the color: Blue, Green, Red, Cyan, Yellow, or Magenta.   Advanced LED advantages •