Community Favorite Bed Heater - Installing SSR & PID Control Instructions

is this a better option than a ssr ?

 

The particular Mosfet I linked doesn't require any Ramps modification, either.

 

Mosfets are generally preferable to SSRs for that kind of operation, yes.

 

I'm using one of these with a meanwell 24V PSU.

https://tinyurl.com/jral2zm

Now my bed goes from 25c to 90c in 5 minutes. And it was super easy to install.

 

The Mosfet I used on my current printer works really well at improving the heat cycle of the stock bed as well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HEQVQAK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Put that on my current printer between the heatbed, control board and power supply. The heatup cycle for the heated bed was faster than the hotend and stayed rock solid the entire time the print was running.

I didn't time it, but it was closer to 3 minutes than 5 minutes (that was the hotend time). Best upgrade since putting an all-metal hotend on.

EDIT:

I should probably also mention this was a pure hardware/wiring upgrade. No firmware editing or PID tuning required.

 

Whats the benefit of going with a DC/DC SSR and 12v rather than just running 110V heater and AC/DC SSR off the house power.

Also just looked at my AC/DC fotek its corner is not cut on label must be a fake.

 

Nebulous feeling of false safety believing that the DC/DC SSR & 12v combo won't be quite as catastrophic if your SSR fails in the Open condition vs. the same failure using 110v mains power & AC/DC SSR and a similarly powered heater.

Also in my case it doesn't require replacing the PCB on my printer, is cheaper, and still results in a radically decrease bed heating time.

EDIT: And the PSU on the printer in question has plenty of overhead to support it.

 

Well now i'm scared to hook mine up. plus it looks like its fake.

My idea was to run the bed off the mains lines that go into the power supply. and get a larger fuse.

the bed heater I have is a 350W 110V heater

I could not find a heater that would work with the ramps that was big enough.

 

Just do the math on how many amps it would take to feed 350W at lower voltage and see if the SSR/Mosfet and/or PSU you picked is rated for it (the bottleneck may be anywhere in those places, all of them need the overhead for it to work though).

350W on 12V would require 30A (29.9, rounding up) where 350W on 110V only requires 4A (closer to 3, but rounding up for safety). IIRC the mains power switch has a 5A fuse already, so that should be ok if the remaining printer electronics require less than 1A at 110V (don't know the wattage for the remainder of the Robo's electronics to do the math though).

Remember, it's not the voltage that'll get you, it's the amps.

 

Not worried about me, im worried about the 110v wires chafing while im gone and burning the house down lol

 

Hi I'm new here. I just bought a Robo 3d R1 Plus on eBay for $100. It had a broken glass bed. I replaced the glass with 1/8" aluminum and used the stock heater and magnet's. It seems to be working great as is. I was wanting to do the SSR mod to take the load off the main board. Will I need to edit the software to do that? Thanks.

 

Curious about opinions going the route of Pergo's upgrade. (Can't post links yet, ww w.thingiverse .com/thing:1300095)

110V/600W vs. 12V/300W

Pros/cons of each? It seems to me that the 110V option is better, but carries a higher risk in event of failure.

 

Ok. Then I think I'll go that route. Leaves me some room on the power supply, might make things a little better overall. Considering a power supply upgrade too (as I understand, it's being pushed pretty close to limits?), but that can wait.