Stack Light Base

Having external indications for the laser cutter’s internal status signals seemed like a good idea and, rather than build the whole thing, I got a five-layer stack light:

Stack Light – disassembly

It arrives sans instructions, apart from the data plate / wiring diagram label on the housing, so the first puzzle involves taking it apart to see what’s inside. My motivation came from a tiny chip of blue plastic on the kitchen table where I’d opened the unpadded bag. Apparently, a mighty force had whacked the equally unpadded box with enough force to crack the blue lens, but I have no idea how the sliver escaped the still-assembled stack.

Anyhow, hold the blue/green lenses in one hand and twist the red/yellow lenses counterclockwise as seen looking at the cap over the red layer. Apply more force than you think appropriate and the latches will reluctantly give way. Do the same to adjacent layers all the way down, then glue the blue chip in place while contemplating other matters.

A switch on each layer selects either steady (the default and what I wanted) or blinking (too exciting for my needs). Reassemble in reverse order.

A Stack Light generally mounts on a production-line machine which might have a suitable cutout for exactly that purpose. I have no such machine and entirely too much clutter for a lamp, so I screwed it to a floor joist over the laser:

Stack Light – installed

The tidy blue PETG-CF base started as a scan of the lamp’s base to serve as a dimension reference:

Stack Light – base scan

Import into LightBurn:

Draw a 70 mm square centered on the workspace
Round the corners until they match the 13 mm radius
Draw one 5.6 mm circle at the origin
Move the circle 52/2 mm left-and-down
Turn it into a 4 element array on 52 mm centers
Verify everything matches the image
Export as SVG

Import into Inkscape:

Put the perimeter on one layer
Put the four holes on another
Center around an alignment mark at a known coordinate
Save as an Inkscape SVG

Import into OpenSCAD, extrude into a solid model, and punch the holes:

Stack Light Mount base – solid model

The lip around the inner edge aligns the lamp base.

If I ever make another one, I’ll add pillars in the corners to put the threaded brass inserts close to the top for 10 mm screws instead of the awkward 30 mm screws in this one. More than a single screw hole in the bottom would align it on whatever you’re indicating.

Now, to wire the thing up …

The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

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view raw Stack Light – base layout.svg hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	// Stack Light mount
	// Ed Nisley – KE4ZNU
	// 2025-01-03

	include <BOSL2/std.scad>

	/* [Hidden] */

	ID = 0;
	OD = 1;
	LENGTH = 2;

	BaseCenter = [100,100,0];

	Base = [70,70]; // nominal, for figuring holes

	Insert = [4.9,5.9,6.0];

	PlateThick = Insert[LENGTH];

	HolderTall = 24.0;

	WallThick = 2.7; // outer wall of light base

	LipThick = 1.5; // alignment lip inside light base
	LipTall = 0.75;

	CableOD = 5.0;

	Protrusion = 0.1;

	difference() {

	translate(-BaseCenter)
	linear_extrude(height=HolderTall + LipTall)
	import("Stack Light – base layout.svg",layer="Base Perimeter");

	up(Insert[LENGTH])
	translate(-BaseCenter)
	linear_extrude(height=HolderTall – LipTall)
	offset(delta=-(WallThick + LipThick))
	import("Stack Light – base layout.svg",layer="Base Perimeter");

	up(HolderTall)
	linear_extrude(height=HolderTall,convexity=5)
	translate(-BaseCenter)
	difference() {
	offset(delta=WallThick) // avoid glitches on perimeter edge
	import("Stack Light – base layout.svg",layer="Base Perimeter");
	offset(delta=-WallThick)
	import("Stack Light – base layout.svg",layer="Base Perimeter");
	}

	down(Protrusion)
	translate(-BaseCenter)
	linear_extrude(height=2*HolderTall,convexity=5)
	import("Stack Light – base layout.svg",layer="Base Holes");

	up(HolderTall/2)
	yrot(90) zrot(180/6)
	cylinder(d=CableOD,h=Base.x,$fn=6);
	}

view raw Stack Light Mount.scad hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Stack Light Base

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