Stack Light: 3-lamp status tower for printers

Stack Light  - A printer status tower you can read from across the room.

Stack Light is a small stacking light with three lamps for your 3D printer. It connects to your Prusa printer over your own Wi-Fi network and shows what the printer is doing, so you do not have to walk over and look at the screen.

What the lamps show

How it works

A small ESP32-S2 controller (LOLIN S2 Mini) sits in the base and drives three WS2812 LED rings, one per lamp. It asks your printer for its status through PrusaLink every few seconds and lights the lamps. Everything stays on your local network: no account, no cloud.

- Works with Prusa printers running PrusaLink: tested on Prusa Core One

• Phone-friendly setup page: join the unit's Wi-Fi, pick your network, enter the printer's IP address and PrusaLink API key. Done.

• Update the firmware over Wi-Fi from the same page. No cable needed after the first install.

• Safe by design: watchdog, automatic reconnect when Wi-Fi or the printer drops, safe mode if something goes wrong.

What you need

• The printed parts from this page (see the dimensions below)

• 1x LOLIN S2 Mini (ESP32-S2 Mini)

• 3x WS2812 LED rings [size, 12 LEDs each]

• A 5 V power supply [rating, e.g. 5 V 2 A] and a USB-C cable for the first install

• Wires to connect the led rings

• Wiring: the LED data line goes to GPIO16 of the controller

Fastners:

• Inserts: M3x3mm inserts (qty depend on your build) for 3 lamps you need 15

• Bolts: M3x16mm 15 pcs

• Screws: 12 pcs M2x6 screws

The code

The code is available on github: https://github.com/Quizcen-Code/Prusa-Stack-Light

The parts and their size

Print settings in my build

• Lamps (the "glass"): Sunlu translucent PETG in green, yellow and red, so the light shines through.

• Everything else: Sunlu PLA in grey.

• PLA or PETG both work for the structural parts.

• Tolerance: 0.2 mm between parts.

• Printed and tested on a Bambu Lab A1, a Bambu Lab P1S and a Prusa Core One. All work.

Getting started

1. Print the parts and assemble the tower with the LED rings.

2. Download Basic or Pro from github and follow the "first install" guide (about 10 minutes, only a browser and a USB cable).

3. Join the unit's Wi-Fi, open the setup page, connect it to your network and your printer.

4. Set how many LEDs are in each lamp and press Save.

Assembly is a bit tricky, you need to more or less assemble the entire unit at once, so wire up all the rings but remember to route the wires thought the internal units and add the outer glass. It takes a bit to get use to so make the wires a bit to long, there are room in the tubes for this. Bolt everything together (Tip: it helps to get magnetic bolts so you can use a magnetic screwdriver since the tube is narrow) You can also add connectors inbetween the modules for easy assembly. Up top you. The power cable connects to the esp32 and routs out thought the bottom.

Please note

Provided as is, without warranty. You are responsible for a suitable power supply and safe wiring of the LEDs. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Prusa Research. Prusa and PrusaLink are trademarks of Prusa Research.
Licence: Personal use only. The STL files are released under **Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)**, and the firmware may be used free of charge for personal, non-commercial purposes. Commercial use requires a one-time purchase licence that covers the entire company: one purchase, no per-unit or per-seat fees. The commercial licence is for internal use only: a business may use the tower in its own manufacturing line or workshop. It does not allow selling the tower, the files or the firmware to customers. The commercial licence and the downloads are on coff.ee/quizcen.