Saturday, October 03, 2026
Update UV Source For RepRapMicron Fibre Deposition
The old light source was a bit hit and miss because its alignment with the fibre and the UV LED wasn't perfect. In fact shutting the workbench drawer could cause it to drift. I've purchased some 3W UV LED modules, and connected one of them up to a 5V power supply. With a modified adaptor, this now screws everything firmly together. Here's a low-light macro photo of the UV beam hitting a fluorescent translucent plastic rod:
There should be enough UV in that to cure the resin. The star-shaped LED base is an aluminium PCB with notches in, which takes M3 screws quite nicely:
The RAMPS board power outputs are at 12V, so I can't directly run this module off them. The UV LED in the stage runs at a much lower current, so I can get away with a small series resistor, but this thing is taking about a Watt. I'll have to wait until the stores open, then I'll go in search of a 5W 68R resistor to put in series. After that I'll be able to control the UV LED from GCODE.
