Stealth Burner 3DO Nozzle Camera V2 - Simplified Ribbon Cable Path, all print heads supported

Reason for implementing this mod

Ribbon cables are delicate. They really only like to be folded once at each location, both in terms of over-lapping folds and re-folding/un-folding. So trying to route it through the usual route where you hotend fan cables and LED cables go was real challenge, bordering on impossible. Its not meant to be folded like this. Alternatively, it seems like most people just route it out from the side of the front plate, and run it to some location in the back of their tool head, up near the extruder (where the umbilical connects, if one is used, seems to be popular). But I didn't like the look of that, and it always seemed like just asking for trouble, putting what are typically delicate cables somewhere they could get caught on something either while printing or while servicing the printer.

So I worked out a way to cram the USB board into the top of the tool head, between the part cooling fan and the extruder.

The First Piece of the Puzzle

I cut out the original features that were there, that as far as I could tell were effectively useless - I suspect things left over from routing the air duct seen on the right in the image above, but were never filled in because it would be a waste of filament. But by cutting them away, and maintaining the straight lines, you get a straight path from the top of the hot end fan is located, which the cable can access with a single fold to put a 90-degree bend in its path.

The only drawback is you can't have the path go clean through the part there, because it would involve either printing a hole in mid-air or printing a multiple turns in mid-air - thus introducing supports. And without some relief in this location, the ribbon cable is either pinched, there is a gap between the ducts in your faceplate and the ducts in your printhead (robbing you of airflow and pressure), or both. 

The Second Piece in the Puzzle

The solution to this second problem is to modify the printhead itself. By projecting the bottom line (in purple) of the new feature on face plate, onto the printhead, you can easily cut out a little 0.5mm deep rectangle, which is more than enough clearance for a ribbon cable.

So this:

Becomes this:

And when you do a section analysis of the overall assembly, you can see the cable will have plenty of room (path is the blue line), and won't need to really bend/fold again until it its to the top of the nozzle fan.

And since its only 0.5mm deep and has a 0.5mm Chamfer, it prints without supports and doesn't conflict with any of fan ducting (neither the hot end, nor the nozzle fan ducts).

The Third Piece of the Puzzle

After I started trying to assemble it all together, I found another problem/annoyance. I had initially planned for the PCB where the ribbon cable plugs in and the output is converted into USB to just loosely sit between the fan and extruder. I thought that would make it more compliant with the routing the USB wires. Practice proved differently. Not only did it not want to stay in one place while putting everything together, I was concerned about strain on the ribbon cable connector and on some of the components. So I designed a bracket that holds the PCB in place.

It uses two screws to hold the bracket - the same two used to hold in the fan & LED PCB of a 2-part print head tool board - and then the PCB just sits down onto those four pegs in each corner. If you would like, you can add a little 'cap' of hot glue to the top of the pegs the PCB sits on, to further secure it in place, but I didn't find it really necessary. You could also use a soldering iron to slightly melt the top of the pegs, for a similar effect, but lower profile - but I personally don't think it would be worth the risk of accidentally damaging one of the PCBs.

It also has the added benefit of raising the PCB up above the fan just enough to keep it flat and not resting on any of its own components. Plus, I think it raises the mating PCB of a 2-part toolhead PCB up in a beneficial way, too, to keep it from getting stressed when you screw it down onto its components.

The Fourth Piece of the Puzzle

Once I had everything mechanically linked together, I ran into one final problem: the USB connection. The pigtails 3DO provides are honestly too short. And I mean for anything <100mm is pretty much useless unless your USB hub is right there next to your 3DO camera PCB. In the case of the Nitehawk-SB V2, they give you a 300mm USB cable with a JST-ZH on one end. You can either take a crack at hand-crimping on a JST-SH onto the other end, or you can send the cable drawing attached here as a PDF off to a manufacturer to have a few made (OurPCB made mine, was easy to work with, and was willing to do a small run for $60; tariffs not included).

If you want to DIY, 125mm is a length with some healthy slack. You can probably get away with 115mm-120mm, if you want a tighter route. I went with 125mm, though.

And if you are truly dead-set on DIY, I would recommend getting a Jonard Tools ST-500 wire stripper. It handles 20-30AWG (0.8mm^2-0.25mm^2) wires pretty easily, and can do consistent, very short strip lengths with a little patience (as long as the insulation isn't too 'stretchy'). Short of a $10k+ machine that does the strip+crimp in one shot, it is about as close as you're going to get to getting the right strip length for the tiny 1.00mm pitch that 3DO uses for their USB devices.

The Fifth Piece of the Puzzle

Due to the USB connector rising ever-so-slightly above the edge of the front cover, you need to also 'carve out' some space in the extruder housing, while being mindful of the filament path and internal gear housings. Here is what that looks like for G2E with the ECAS connector:

This give you plenty of room for the connector receptacle, the housing, and a route for the USB wires to the tool head PCB compartment. Right now, I have only done this for G2E'. I also plan to do the same for the Clockwork 2, and all of its versions, but I need to take some time to figure out a good route for its wire first.

But after all this, the end result is a clean, internal routing of a 3DO Nozzle camera, ribbon cable, and PCB. No more PCBs hanging off the side of your extruder, or wires or cables to potentially get caught on something.

Support Status

Implemented:

• Galileo 2 Extruder, both 'regular' and with ECAS coupler

• Clockwork 2 Extruder

• All print head models listed on the official Stealthburner github as of Aug 4, 2026

• Olof's non-LED nozzle camera front plate

Planned:

• Olof's LED nozzle camera front plate

Notes:

• I have only modified Olof's "SB_FRONT-3DO_CAM" model. I haven't touched Olof's "LED" version, but probably will

• All Stealthburner print heads on the official github are provided in this printables model and are supported

• All files are just the 'front' piece; print along with the other default files for your print head of choice

• Only Galileo 2 Extruder is supported at the moment, but I plan to add in Clockwork 2 support in the very near future (v2; likely later in August 2026)

Version History

• V0, 2026-July-14: Initial Release

• V1, 2026-Aug-03: Support for all print heads listed on the official Stealthburner Github as of this date. Files were reorganized to help make it easier to find whatever parts you need. All fixed some of the text formatting for this description/guide. Also, I totally forgot to upload the extruder parts for v0 (oops), so I added them now

• V2, 2026-Aug-04: Clockwork2 support now added. It was much easier to implement than I thought it was going to be. However, it should also be noted that I was only able to do a basic fit check; I don't have the parts to build a full CW2 extruder and put it into my Stealthburner to check its functionality. It should work, I just haven't been able to test it.