LED Progress Bar Bed Front Cover for Voron Trident (Standard Sizes)

Introduction

Compatibility

Design made for Voron Trident 250 mm. Tested and fully functional.

UPDATE 13-1-26 - Support for the 300 and 350 mm versions has been added, but it has not been tested yet.
Community feedback and confirmation are welcome before considering it fully validated

Before You Start

This project was created with an open and collaborative mindset, true to the maker community.

If you decide to print and assemble it, I would love to see your make shared on Printables. Seeing how others interpret, adapt, or improve the design is a key part of its evolution.

If you find the project useful or interesting, leaving a like really helps with visibility and motivates further development.

Any feedback, suggestions, or reports of potential issues during assembly are always welcome. The goal is for this design to keep improving through the real-world experience of the people who use it.

Concept Overview

This project is the natural evolution of my previous design “Voron Trident Bed Front Cover with LED Logo”, available on Printables.

In this new version, the design has been updated to integrate a 12 mm wide addressable RGB LED strip (WS2812), used as a backlit print progress bar.

Thanks to this LED strip and the use of the Klipper LED Effects plugin, the front cover not only displays real-time print progress, but also allows different printer states to be represented using color codes and lighting effects, such as:

- waiting during thermal stabilization

- print completion

- alert notifications through blinking effects

- or any other behavior supported by Klipper LED Effects

I will share my own configuration as a starting point, so you can freely adapt and evolve it according to your preferences and needs.

Printing Options and Available Variants

Options Based on Bed Plate Thickness

The front cover structure is designed to support two different aluminum bed plate thicknesses, not including the additional thickness added by the magnetic base or the build surface.

The main support, which mounts to the aluminum extrusion and carries the entire assembly, is available in two different versions:

- a version for 10 mm aluminum plates, which are supplied by LDO in their kits

- a version for 8 mm aluminum plates, which corresponds to the standard defined in the official Voron BOM

It is important to select the correct part based on your aluminum plate thickness to ensure proper fit and avoid stress during installation.

Options Based on LED Strip Configuration

The LED strip support, which is mounted on the rear side of the front cover, is available in several configurations depending on the desired lighting setup.

The main version includes:

- one channel for a 12 mm wide addressable RGB LED strip (WS2812) used as the print progress bar

- two channels for 5 mm wide monochrome SMD LED strips, intended for logo illumination

An alternative version is also provided that allows installing an addressable RGB LED strip in the logo as well, for users who prefer dynamic lighting effects instead of a fixed color.

This option offers greater flexibility and customization possibilities, but comes with increased software configuration complexity.

Front Cover Options

In addition to the variants described above, a upper front cover version without the “TRIDENT” logo is also included.

This option is intended for:

- users who want to customize the design with their own logo

- or those who prefer a cleaner look and want to use only the progress bar without additional front lighting

Printing Materials

Structural parts

This model is designed to be printed preferably in Nylon-CF or ASA-CF.

Both materials are capable of withstanding temperatures above 100 °C and offer good dimensional stability.

Since the front cover is located very close to the build plate, the structural parts will be subject to thermal stress, especially during long prints or when using high bed temperatures.

Take into account the bed temperatures you normally use and choose a material that can withstand them without deforming. Using an unsuitable material in this area may lead to deformation over time, even if the initial print appears correct.

Diffusers

The logo and progress bar diffusers are intended to be printed in translucent PETG. These parts are encapsulated within the structural components, so they do not experience the same direct thermal stress as the front cover.

Even so, LED brightness levels should be taken into consideration. It is recommended to reduce LED intensity to avoid heat buildup that could deform the PETG parts over time.

With this design, an intensity of around 20% is already more than sufficient, as the system produces a high amount of light.

In my personal setup:

- I run the progress bar LED strip at 6%, which is more than enough for my taste

- the illuminated logo is kept below 20%

These values may vary depending on the type and quality of the LED strips used, but they serve as a safe reference.

Printing Notes

This is a medium-difficulty project, so it is recommended to approach it calmly and pay attention to several details during printing and assembly.

Supports

Most parts are designed to be printed without supports, but there are two specific parts that do require them.

The upper front cover with the “TRIDENT” logo needs tree supports in the areas of the logo that are printed in mid-air.

The letter E requires support for its internal structure. This usually does not cause problems, but it must be properly supported.

To remove the supports cleanly, you will need a scalpel or hobby knife, working carefully to avoid damaging the geometry. Depending on the quality of your bridging, you may also need to carefully clean up any narrow sections.

The letter N starts printing partially in mid-air. It is important to check in your slicer’s preview view that this area is fully supported. You may need to manually adjust the supports until you are sure this section is properly held.

It is also recommended to print the front cover parts at low speed, as these components have a strong aesthetic focus, where surface quality is especially important.

The “TRIDENT” logo diffuser also requires supports. It is designed to be printed facing upwards, and you will notice that it forms an arched shape.

This geometry is intentional, as it keeps a consistent thickness across the entire logo and prevents light loss in the center that would occur with increased thickness.

Use standard supports, manually painted across the entire base of the diffuser.

Tolerances

Between the front cover parts and the diffusers (both for the logo and the progress bar), you may need to slightly adjust tolerances, depending on the material and printer you are using. Although the design already includes some optimization in critical areas (mainly to compensate for bridge sagging), this may not be sufficient in all cases.

In my personal experience, the following adjustments worked well:

- Increasing the front cover openings by -0.05mm

- Reducing the diffuser perimeter by −0.05 mm

Treat these values as reference points, not fixed rules. Each printer and material may require different adjustments.

General Printing Notes

If you have difficulties avoiding visible lines along the edges of the logo letters, try to match printing speeds as closely as possible. In this type of geometry, these artifacts are often caused more by speed changes than by mechanical or material issues.

It is also recommended to check the layer time graph in your slicer and, if necessary, increase the minimum layer time.

In the simulation, you will notice that the layer time increases significantly on the last layer before the logo letters start printing, and on the first layer after the letters are finished. This difference can accentuate visible edge lines. It is not necessary to fully equalize these times, but the closer they are, the better the final result will be.

Bill of Materials (BOM)

The following image show the locations where the M3 heat-set inserts should be installed

In the following image, we can see the front cover support with 2 heat-set inserts, 3 M3×16 mm screws, and 3 T-nuts used to secure the part to the aluminum extrusion

Wiring

RGB LED Strip (WS2812)

Controller Board Connection

Whenever possible, it is strongly recommended to connect the addressable RGB LED strip to the dedicated Neopixel / RGB port on the MCU board.

These dedicated ports are designed specifically for addressable LEDs and typically provide:

- 5 V (power)

- Data (signal)

- Ground (GND)

Data Cable Requirements

Using the dedicated RGB/Neopixel port helps ensure proper signal levels, correct grounding, and overall system stability, reducing the likelihood of communication issues with the LED strip.

In this setup, the data cable must be routed to the electronics following the same path as the heated bed cable, through the rear cable chain.

This means both cables will share a large portion of their routing and will also run in parallel, which is the worst-case scenario in terms of electromagnetic interference induction.

In my own setup, once the shielded cable and the series resistor were installed on the data line, all visual artifacts disappeared completely.

Since then, the RGB LED strip has been operating in a 100% stable and reliable way, with no flickering, glitches, or incorrect colors observed.

The shield of the data cable (not the DC 0V / signal return) must be connected only on the MCU side.

The purpose of the shield is to intercept and drain electromagnetic interference, not to act as part of the electrical circuit. For this reason, the shield must never be connected on the LED strip side.

By connecting the shield only to the MCU ground, interference is safely referenced and dissipated without affecting signal integrity.

Monochrome LED Strips (24 V)

The monochrome LED strips used for logo illumination can be controlled from software by connecting them to a fan output on the MCU board. This allows the lighting to be switched on and dimmed via PWM, making it easy to integrate into firmware or macros.

Using a fan port also provides additional flexibility in terms of operating voltage. Depending on the voltage supplied by the fan output on your controller board, it is possible to use either 5 V or 24 V monochrome LED strips, as long as the strip voltage matches the fan output voltage.

The wiring for these strips is straightforward and consists only of a positive and a ground connection. No data signal or special signal conditioning is required, making this a simple and reliable solution for monochrome lighting.

Software

Installing Klipper LED Effects

To use the LED progress bar, the Klipper LED Effects plugin must be installed on your Klipper system.

If you are using KIAUH, this is the easiest method:

1. Connect to your printer via SSH

2. Launch KIAUH

3. Select the option to install Klipper LED Effects

4. Reboot the system once installation is complete

No additional configuration is required at this stage.

Once installed, the plugin will be available for use in your Klipper configuration files.

This project only relies on the basic functionality provided by the plugin, without advanced or custom effects.

Progress Bar Configuration File Setup

Configuration Notes

The remaining code and configuration provided in this project correspond to my personal setup, where the progress bar is driven using G-code commands sent from the slicer (OrcaSlicer)

This configuration is shared as a reference implementation for users who may have difficulties setting up their own progress bar logic from scratch.

You are not required to use this configuration exactly as shown.

Feel free to adapt, simplify, or modify it to better fit your own workflow, slicer, or printer setup.

To keep your Klipper configuration clean and easy to maintain, it is recommended to place all progress bar–related settings in a separate configuration file.

Step 1 – Create a dedicated configuration file

Create a new configuration file, for example:

leds_status_bar.cfg

Step 2 - Include this new file on printer.cfg

Open your printer.cfg file and add the following line:

[include leds_status_bar.cfg]

Step 3 - Defining the LED Strip in Klipper

The first step is to define the addressable RGB LED strip in Klipper.

Add the following configuration to your progress bar configuration file:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

########################################

# STATUS LED BAR – PROGRESS

########################################

[neopixel progress_lights]

pin: PF10

chain_count: 34

color_order: GBR

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

⚠ Important:
The pin value shown above (PF10) is specific to the dedicated Neopixel LED port on the LDO Leviathan board.

If you are using a different controller board, you must replace this pin with the correct Neopixel data pin for your MCU.
Please refer to your board’s documentation to identify the proper pin assignment.

The number of LEDs (chain count) should also be adjusted if your LED strip length differs from the example shown here.

Step 4 - Keeping Klipper LED Effects Up to Date

To allow Klipper LED Effects to be updated automatically through Klipper’s update system, the following section can be added to your Moonraker.conf configuration:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[update_manager led_effect]

type: git_repo

path: ~/klipper-led_effect

origin: https://github.com/julianschill/klipper-led_effect.git

is_system_service: False

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Step 5 – Adding the LED Status Bar Logic

Add the following code to the leds_status_files.cfg file, placing it directly after the LED strip definition added in the previous steps

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

########################################

# PRINT PROGRESS BAR

########################################

[gcode_macro LEDS_OFF_ALL]

description: Apaga todos los LEDs de la barra de progreso

gcode:

{% for i in range(34) %}

SET_LED LED=progress_lights INDEX={i+1} RED=0 GREEN=0 BLUE=0

{% endfor %}

[led_effect progress_bar]

autostart: false

frame_rate: 24

leds:

neopixel:progress_lights

layers:

# Progress layer (full-intensity design color)

progress -1 0 add (1.0, 0.0, 0.0)

# Background layer (very dim blue)

static 0 0 top (0.0, 0.0, 0.0)

# Global brightness limiter (35%)

static 0 0 multiply (0.06, 0.06, 0.06)

[led_effect kitt_scanner]

autostart: false

frame_rate: 24

leds:

neopixel:progress_lights

layers:

# Main scanning LED (RED)

cylon 1 0 top (0.0, 0.0, 1.0)

# Soft trailing glow (dim red)

cylon 1 0 add (0.0, 0.0, 0.4)

# Global brightness limiter

static 0 0 multiply (0.06, 0.06, 0.06)

[gcode_macro START_KITT_EFFECT]

description: Arranca el efecto LED tipo KITT (cyclone)

gcode:

SET_LED_EFFECT EFFECT=kitt_scanner

[gcode_macro STOP_KITT_EFFECT]

description: Detiene el efecto LED tipo KITT (cyclone)

gcode:

SET_LED_EFFECT EFFECT=kitt_scanner STOP=1

[led_effect blue_pulse_idle]

autostart: false

frame_rate: 24

leds:

neopixel:progress_lights

layers:

breathing 6 0 top (1.0, 0.0, 0.0)

static 0 0 multiply (0.06, 0.06, 0.06)

[gcode_macro START_BLUE_PULSE]

description: Arranca el efecto azul pulsante suave (idle)

gcode:

SET_LED_EFFECT EFFECT=blue_pulse_idle

[gcode_macro STOP_BLUE_PULSE]

description: Detiene el efecto azul pulsante suave

gcode:

SET_LED_EFFECT EFFECT=blue_pulse_idle STOP=1

[gcode_macro LED_BAR_GREEN]

description: Barra completa verde atenuada (nivel KITT)

gcode:

{% set B = 0.02 %}

{% for i in range(34) %}

# Verde con color_order GBR → RED=1 es verde

SET_LED LED=progress_lights INDEX={i+1} RED=0.0 GREEN={B} BLUE=0.0

{% endfor %}

########################################

# PRINT PROGRESS STATE

########################################

########################################

[gcode_macro LED_PROGRESS]

description: Barra de progreso atenuada (mismo nivel que KITT)

variable_leds: 34

gcode:

{% set p = params.P|default(0)|float %}

{% set lit = (p / 100.0 * leds)|int %}

{% set B = 0.06 %} # brillo equivalente a KITT

{% for i in range(leds) %}

{% if i < lit %}

# Rojo atenuado (recuerda: color_order GBR)

SET_LED LED=progress_lights INDEX={i+1} RED=0.0 GREEN=0.0 BLUE={B}

{% else %}

SET_LED LED=progress_lights INDEX={i+1} RED=0.0 GREEN=0.0 BLUE=0.0

{% endif %}

{% endfor %}

[gcode_macro LED_PROGRESS_FINISHED]

description: Barra de progreso completa en verde

gcode:

{% for i in range(34) %}

SET_LED LED=toolhead_leds INDEX={i+1} RED=0 GREEN=1 BLUE=0

{% endfor %}

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Configure Your Slicer

All the slicer-related configurations described below have been tested and are working correctly in OrcaSlicer.

1º-Generate progress G-code from OrcaSlicer

This G-code line instructs OrcaSlicer to generate print progress information and send it to Klipper, allowing the progress bar to be updated in real time during the print.

After Layer Change G-code (OrcaSlicer)

In OrcaSlicer, open your Printer Settings, go to the G-code tab, and add the following line to the After layer change G-code field:

gcode:

LED_PROGRESS P={max(3, (layer_num * 100) / total_layer_count)}

2º-Pulsating blue effect (optional)

I use this pulsating blue effect during the pre-print preparation phase, such as the 5-minute wait for bed thermal stabilization, Z-tilt, bed mesh calibration, and the purge line.
All these steps are handled through my start G-code and are executed automatically before each print begins

This effect must be started and stopped from the start G-code.

Important note: when launching an LED effect, if you want to start another effect afterwards, the first one must be stopped before starting the next one.
For this reason, there is a dedicated macro to start the effect and another one to stop it.

If a new effect is started while another one is still active, both effects will overlap.
While this can lead to unexpected behavior, it can also be used intentionally to create additional creative and customization options, depending on the desired result

Add the following macro call to the printer start G-code, at the point where you want the effect to begin:

START_BLUE_PULSE

Now add the following macro call to the end of your printer start G-code to stop the blue pulse effect:

STOP_BLUE_PULSE

3º-Solid Green Status Effect (Print Complete)

Add the following macro call to your printer end G-code to trigger the solid green effect when the print finishes

LED_BAR_GREEN

4º-Cyclone effect (KiTT effect) on startup

If you want the KITT / cyclone scanner effect to start automatically when the printer boots, you can do so by adding a delayed_gcode block to your printer.cfg. With initial_duration: 0, the KITT effect will start as soon as Klipper finishes loading its configuration. You can adjust initial_duration to any value (in seconds) that best fits your setup

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[delayed_gcode kitt_boot]

initial_duration: 0

gcode:

SET_LED_EFFECT EFFECT=kitt_scanner

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

🛑(IMPORTANT)

When you configure an LED effect to start automatically on boot (for example, the KITT / cyclone scanner), it is important to understand that LED effects remain active until they are explicitly stopped.

If you later want to start a different effect (for example, a blue pulsing effect during calibration, or a progress bar during printing), you must stop the current effect first.

Failing to do so may result in overlapping effects

Add the following to your slicer Start G-code:

STOP_KITT_EFFECT