power consumption

Wow i got a huge amount of feed back on this thread
Im glad i could get different but agreeing perspectives on the subject.
with this information i need to do a little investigating as to the new power sucker.
glad its not the printer, no way i was giving up long prints.



additional subject matter.

I know there are mechanical off switches for the robo combined with software changes, but I dont like adding more mechanical switches. honestly Mechanical switches make me nervous. annnnnnyways is there a non-mechanical switch option to turn off the printer post print?

 

Last year I installed a relay based auto off that works great. It uses an opto-isolated 5V logic controlled relay module and some start and stop gcode.

The relay is something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Docooler-Acti...=1391293856&sr=8-24&keywords=arduino+5v+relay but I got mine from ebay. You may have to play with the logic polarity depending on the module.

• The G-c0de startup script then contains:

M80 ;Turn on P_ON - Pin goes to GND
G4 P5000 ; wait 5 seconds​

• The G-code finish script contains:

M81 ; Turn off P_ON - Pin goes to 5V​

Just add a second power switch to short across the relay. Toggle it on and off to turn on the printer. The finish gcode will turn it off. If you have an LCD controller you can have it beep annoyingly before it shuts down. There is a long thread on the forum from last year by Tonycs and me.

I have a Plugin-Prius and definitely have Tesla envy!

 

I would post a photo of my wife's electric car but ... well ... it's a Prius. Actually when running on the battery I love driving it, but after 12 miles the engine turns on and it's not so good. I couldn't even convince her to get a red one.

 

can you link the thread discussing this?

 

same defiantly.

 

OK it is this thread http://forums.robo3dprinter.com/ind...-down-when-print-is-finished.1620/#post-11868 but it is a mess. A lot of it is me clarifying things and warning to switch the hot wire and not the return. The hookup is really simple. Put the relay in the hot path. Put a second toggle power switch across the relay. The relay logic and ground goes to P_ON and a GND on the RAMPS board. Get the logic polarity right for your isolated relay and you are good. Many of the isolated relays have a selectable polarity. These relays have a pretty small current draw from the Arduino's 5V regulator. While I was in there I replaced and recrimped all the lugs to the power supply and the fuse/switch module. The stock power switch is usually on but can be used to override the relay if needed. You can post further questions on that thread if you want.

 

wow thats a mouth full. I can defiantly see this being a standard mod at some point. Would someone want to write a short guild for the mods threads? not just because it would be useful others but because im infinitely lazy.

 

SteveC do you know if there's a way to force the power supply to shut off at the same time the Extruder Cooling Fans 50C shutoff is hit?

Code:

// Extruder cooling fans
// Configure fan pin outputs to automatically turn on/off when the associated
// extruder temperature is above/below EXTRUDER_AUTO_FAN_TEMPERATURE.
// Multiple extruders can be assigned to the same pin in which case
// the fan will turn on when any selected extruder is above the threshold.
#define EXTRUDER_0_AUTO_FAN_PIN   -1
#define EXTRUDER_1_AUTO_FAN_PIN   11
#define EXTRUDER_2_AUTO_FAN_PIN   -1
#define EXTRUDER_AUTO_FAN_TEMPERATURE 50
#define EXTRUDER_AUTO_FAN_SPEED   255  // == full speed

 

So you run PS_on to enable the cooling fan, and then once the extruder_auto_fan kicks off it'll shut off the power supply?

I guess I'd prefer them to be isolated so I can do manual controls without needing the cooling fan enabled.

 

Sorry guys I'm a bit behind here. I see the extruder cooling fan logic in temperature.cpp and that EXTRUDER_AUTO_FAN_TEMPERATURE is checked in checkExtruderAutoFans(). You certainly manually can toggle P_ON in that logic.

Can you rephrase "run PS_on to enable the cooling fan" for me? I don't get it. The cooling fan output is PWMed. P_ON is a logic level output.

Are you thinking about using the extruder temp to kill the PSU? To avoid the end gcode? Why?

 

That code I copied is from configuration_adv.h.

Here's how I want it to work:

Ramps/Arduino is powered off 5v from either USB or a 5v psu.

Have the PS_On be called from one of the following, Power Supply On from the LCD, Startup G-code, and Manually for jogging/pre-heat.

After the print finishes, allow the power supply to stay on until the extruder auto-fans shut off at 50C. At this point shut off the main power.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all this so please excuse any fuzziness.

 

Last night i came to the conclusion that the printer must cool off before being turned off(all of you know that already im sure but im still a noob)
I think mike is on to something. like i said before we should get his figured out then written up into a guild.

 

OK, got it. You want to AND in that the extruder temperature is below 50C before shutting down. That should be very easy but it would require a branch of the firmware.

That said, I have had a V5 E3D with this setup since last January and never had a problem with not waiting for the extruder to cool down before killing the PSU.

 

I guess I could just go for a dumb approach and just do a time delay

 

Ha ha that's honestly not a bad approach the cool down process is pretty consistent in my experience.