Water Sensor Hose Adapter - 1/2 inch FEMALE (or 3/4 inch MALE) with barb for 1/4 inch ID - FL-408 by jhawkn8r

Last crawled date: 2 years, 11 months ago

Presenting this adapter that fits an FL-408. It has both female and male threads on one side, but the FEMALE side is 1/2 INCH to screw onto an FL-408 perfectly, or any other 1/2 INCH standard threaded hose. The other side is a 1/4 INCH OD hose barb for the standard water pump hose used on the K40.
You will have to stretch the 1/4 hose a bit to get it started - I preferred this to being too loose.
It also happens to screw onto a 3/4 MALE side if you want to try, but YMMV as I didn't test that male side of the housing.
I used Teflon tape on the threads and printed with PLA+. I had no leaks using relatively low flow and pressure. Again YMMV depending on materials.
MORE ON THIS BUILD: I like to use ESP-12 modules for all kinds of things, so decided to use one with a FL-408 to monitor my water pump on the K40. I found no adapters here and was unwilling to fork out over $10 for a bag of 10 adapters at the store, so hacked this together. I tested a bit and the PLA+ I'm using seems to be fine for the relatively low pressure involved in my setup.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have a K40, most stock systems just bypass the built in ability to stop the laser if the water pump is not running. You can fix this by bypassing the jumper on the power supply and use a Fafeicy Water Pump Flo-w Sensor, HT‑30. That will completely stop the laser from running when the pump is not running. I chose to not do this option and instead installed a light that is RED when no flow and GREEN when flowing. I'm also watching the total flow via my PC port monitor, but ESP8266 modules let you also network if you want.