Handcrafted lighting powered by GaggiMate
Wanted to share a small mod I built over the weekend: a handcrafted LED light bar to illuminate the water tank and the cup during extraction, powered directly from the GaggiMate.
The build:
- 8× SMD 3528 white LEDs in parallel, each with a 100Ω resistor
- Mounted on a small piece of perfboard, soldered free-hand
- Total current draw: ~240mA at 5V
- Tapped into the spare 5V JST-PH 5pin connector on the GaggiMate PCB
- 3D-printed enclosure in PETG-CF for heat resistance near the group (I can share the files if anyone wants it)
- Diffuser top in 0.4mm white PLA — surprisingly effective at smoothing out the LED hotspots
- Held to the chassis with small neodymium magnets — no drilling, fully reversible
Wiring note: I'm currently using UTP wire because that's what I had on hand, but I routed it away from any hot zones. Silicone wire is on the way from AliExpress to replace it properly.
Result: The tank water level is finally visible at a glance and the cup gets a nice warm glow during the shot. Small QoL improvement that punches above its weight.
Bonus: the scale you can see in one of the pics is also a print and assembly of mine (WeighMyBru, XIAO ESP32-S3 + HX711). I can't recommend it enough.
Happy to share more details, files, or wiring if anyone's curious. Cheers ☕