Adding light to Prusa i3 MK3S

Prusa 3D printers are great, but they don’t have any built-in lights. I always feel fascinated by watching the 3D printing process. Also, even on Prusa things don’t always go flawlessly, so checking it periodically during print never hurts.

From day one, I had a Raspberry PI attached to my Prusa in order to print via Wi-Fi. It also shoots video through an attached USB camera. That leaves two empty USB ports, and coincidentally I had an unused USB light stick lying around. After getting a short USB cable, I plugged the light into Raspberry and most of the problem was solved.

Except, it looked ugly and the light wasn’t fixed in place. When you have a 3D printer, fixing something is usually not a problem. I designed a small part in Fusion 360 to fit into a hexagonal hole in the Prusa i3 top Z-axis mount. It holds the USB cable in place and points the light in the direction I want.

I published .STL and .STEP files on GitHub, feel free to modify it to suit your needs (cable thickness, for example).