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Community Favorite Bed Heater - Installing SSR & PID Control Instructions

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by Perry Genovese, Jan 20, 2017.

  1. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    it is a 350w supply (stock) and about 130w heater. Not sure how much all of the other bits use, but I can be sure that there is not a lot of overhead free watts.
     
  2. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

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    If you offload the bed heater to mains power everything else has plenty to play with.
     
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  3. Doug Meek

    Doug Meek Member

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    Why when I enable PIDTEMPBED and BED_LIMIT_SWITCHING do I get a compile error of "To use BED_LIMIT_SWITCHING you must disable PIDTEMPBED"? Something aint right here.....
     
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Sounds like a Marlin config switch. Not sure what the reasoning is there.
    Which version of marlin?
     
  5. Doug Meek

    Doug Meek Member

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    1.1 RC8 using Arduino 1.8.1
     
  6. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    You don't need BED_LIMIT_SWITCHING when you use PIDTEMPBED They are actually two different methods for determining feedback and are incompatible with one another, use one or the other you can't use both.
     
  7. Doug Meek

    Doug Meek Member

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    That's what I was thinking since this was coming from SanityCheck.h....

    So someone should correct the Ops first entry so as not to confuse anyone else. Mark?

    Thanks for the info WheresWaldo!
     
  8. Jim Leoanrd

    Jim Leoanrd New Member

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    Any good reason to not use an 18v 20A power supply for the bed heater? It should still heat alot faster than 12v, but will require much less space. Meaning I can fit it, and the Mosfet all in the bottom of the printer.

    Im using a GeckoTek bed (uses the original Robo3D PCB heater element)

    My other thought is to go ahead with the Keenovo 240x240 AC Heater and a AC/DC SSR. This uses the least space, and cost is nearly the same in the end.
     
  9. Jim Leoanrd

    Jim Leoanrd New Member

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    Following up on my progress, I have some data on the Geckotek Bed replacement and power supply testing.

    With the stock Geckotek (original Robo3d PCB) element I found the following:

    18v applied, heated from 27C-65C in 3 minutes @ ~14A 245W
    18v applied, Heated from 65C-110C in 10 minutes @ ~14A 245W

    24v applied, Heated from 65C-110C in 3 minutes @ ~17A 400W

    The Mosfet used worked flawlessly, and was warm to the touch without a fan, and maintained room temp with the added 40x10mm fan. The mosfet is mounted with a printed base. This allows the use of (4) M3x14-16mm screws to hold on the base, and the mosfet is inserted and secured with (4) M3 nylon nuts. The 4 screw heads are barely noticable at the back half of the case.

    I'm conflicted on what to do. I can get an 18v power supply that will easily be mountable inside the case that is more than sufficient for its load, or I can get a 24v power supply that would be running at 100% and fit inside. This isn't acceptable for long duration prints, so it would then need to be an external supply, which brings me back around to the AC heater and SSR. To many choices!
     

    Attached Files:

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  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    For the huge aluminum bed replacement we are going to be doing soon we already decided to use an A/C heater bed.
    Otherwise the heatup time is just going to be stupid. Not that using a ginormous aluminum bed was smart...
     
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  11. Jim Leoanrd

    Jim Leoanrd New Member

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    The heat sink capacity definitely keeps things consistent though! I may just order a Keenovo Heater, and use the big external adjustable unit I have until It gets here (a month?). It will be the cleanest in the long run, providing I can get a good AC/DC SSR
     
  12. jim3Dbot

    jim3Dbot Active Member

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    Personally, I am partial to the 18v, totally enclosed controlled set-up........the extra 7 minutes of time required to heat the bed to the higher temperature does not seem to be justified.......that time may be small when added to the print time of your ABS job. Your mosfet design is very clean & proven by you...........Nice job Jim
     
  13. Jim Leoanrd

    Jim Leoanrd New Member

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    Thank you, and I do agree about the time being trivial, but sometimes Im running in and out, and having it sit warming up to check the first layer is PAINFULL, lol. And I cant take credit for proving the use-fullness of the mosfet, there were a few in this thread before me that noted having used them with good success. I just wanted to try to pay it forward with some more info and a mounting solution. The parts I am using are all here. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2384884
     
  14. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

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    Why is it necessary for you to watch the first layer? I haven't done that since mid-2016.

    Have you upgraded the firmware to some version of MESH leveling yet (or manually shimmed the bed so it's as trammed as possible)?

    Unless your bed is warped in a way the old school leveling can't counter or haven't cleaned/prepped the bed properly, watching the first layer shouldn't be required.
     
  15. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Heck I always do it anyway and mine is manually set :)
     
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  16. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

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    Is it a general peace of mind thing or just habit?
     
  17. jim3Dbot

    jim3Dbot Active Member

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    'peace of mind'
     
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  18. Jim Leoanrd

    Jim Leoanrd New Member

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    A little of both. I have a bad habit of preheating while setting up the print, then never actually sending it to the printer! Coming back later to a nice warm bed with nobody in it.
     
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  19. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I always monitor my prints and watch the first layer. To easy to lose a print or cause a huge mess that takes alot longer to clean up. Even the fancy leveling implemented on some of my other machines i watch to ensure and have caught and corrected in time to avoid a failure.
     
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  20. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I can tell a lot about the slice and the model with just the first layer.
    My son is more of a "wade through the slice in the preview" kind-a guy, I just print it and see :)
     
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