This video was previously released with a process in line with what 3D printer manufacturers include on their machines with AC heated beds. Early on it was very clear that my viewers expected a higher standard. The feedback was very constructive, rather than nasty, which I appreciate tremendously. Special thanks to people like Tim from TH3D and Chris Egan for listing their suggestions point by point in a constructive way. I’ve included just about everything people suggested. I hope this guide is now up to standard. The standards for mains wiring in houses varies a lot around the world, hence the disclaimer to consult a professional. Just because something is safe for me doesn’t mean it’s safe for you.
Your videos are awesome I'm a pretty technical guy and I have learned a huge amount from them. I don't think anything in the previous version was in any way dangerous. But that you acted in such a responsible way is a huge credit to you. Integrity is so rare now.
This is an excellent guide and it reminds me I need to do a couple things on my AC heated bed install. Thank you for being thorough. Also, consider adding something about adding an inline circuit breaker, such that the bed never exceeds the rated amperage. I do not have my heated bed here with me now, but I believe mine should be limited to 6A. Also, if you do measure the amperage at the max power of 255 and find that it is too high, perhaps that would be the setting to dial down to make sure you are below the 6A? (Someone more experienced with these than I might be able to chime in... I believe the 255 is a duty cycle of 100% while a lower value is a lower duty cycle.... duty cycle and amperage are not the same thing, but you could be reducing the sustained current that way.)
Best would be to use double switch SSR or two, so you can switch of both N and L, as with the European security plugs can be turned, so you actually doesn't know which is N and L when you plug it in. But yes, usually one only switch one of L off, and it still break the power circuit even if the power plug is twisted 180 degrees. One could/should also use a earth security breaker between socket and the power plug, so it will break if there are any current in the earth wire.
This is a good tutorial but I would recommend one addition. The thermal fuses are usually rated with holding temp and functioning temp. The fuse you're using is an NEC Schott SF129E. The holding temp is rated at 118°C, this is the max temp at which the fuse will not fail under operating conditions (rated at 168hrs). The 133°C rating is the temperature where it will reliably open. What this means is that between 119-133°C, this fuse may or may not open. So if you're running temps close to 120°C you may need to bump up to the next size of SF139E which has a holding temp of 127°C and functioning temp of 142°C. I'd personally go with the slightly larger one anyways as cork doesn't start to degrade till ~200°C and gives you a little more wiggle room for more exotic materials.
This! I was very surprised by the fuse Voron specifies for the V2.4, it's an AliExpress special and it doesn't specify any of that. Just "125°C", a firmware limit of 120°C, and users often have issues with it failing. I replaced mine with a 128°C holding temp, 152°C functioning temp.
Some safety notes: - use high strand count or energy chain rated cables, possibly in energy chain. - You SHOULD wire a distinct earth to the metal carrier plate of the bed. Linear bearings and trapezoidal screws are not meant to handle earth fault current. In theory, every metal part that can get in contact with mains voltage should be earthed by wire, not by mounting screws. - it is recommended to add thermal fuse to both leads of the pad. It depends. In many EU countries the Schuko plug is reversible, so you can not guarantee which lead is live. In those (rare) cases that the pad gets an earth short just at the fused side, but it happens that the other is the live feed, it will continue heating until meltdown. RCD/GFCI will trip however, if you have. - Relay is inadequate for high frequency PID control, and low frequency PWM is inadequate for stable temperature at this power. So SSR is the only sensible choice. - Don't cheap out on SSR. If it fails, it most likely fail short, and only the thermal fuse will stop it. Bad enough. For this reason, do not even think leaving out the thermal fuse... Order plenty of spares, to lower the temptation to run without one, in case it blows during PID tuning...
I believe that this upgrade will also take a lot of stress off of the printer’s power supply and keep things running a lot cooler in the control box. So this is also a longevity upgrade to the printer. You make amazing RUclips videos!!! I have a Ender 5 Pro, in the middle of a bunch of upgrades, including this one.
It probably got deleted when you pulled the last video so I'll say it again. These SSR devices are NOT like regular mechanical relays. There will still be some leakage current on the bed heater as well as full mains voltage depending on where you check. Glad you got help from Tim at TH3D. He convinced me to replace the "40A" labeled SSRs on my water heater w/ a pair of his (true) 25A-rated units. My 40s never got above 100F, but it's likely I've been running 17A through a 12A silicon device and the heatsink was saving it from a meltdown.
@Aaron Morrow partly the cheaper (and knock off) SSR may have leakage current and dont 100% turn off, mains voltage is something i dont mess around with. Im more of a better safe than sorry kind of person and would rather buy a known brand from a reputable dealer
Cr10, imagine how I feel with a cr10s5, literally has a cr10s heater bed in the center, doesnt even cover the whole bed. Takes an eternity to reach 40, forget 60! You look at it and it loses 10degrees and trips out
This is a great tutorial! Thanks for all informative videos you put on Michael! Just got my printer upgraded with AC bed after being fed up with waiting 15+ minutes to get to ~100 deg. C before print even starts. There is one side effect, though, depending on what print surface you're using. If that is glass, like in my case, there is considerable lag before the glass heats up nearly as close as what the bed thermistor reads. Starting from room temperature I can hit 100 C in about the same time as on the video, but the glass surface would be as much as 30 degrees lower than desired at the first minute or two of the print, which is obviously not good. After a minute or two, glass "catches up" to around 10-15 degrees difference (in my case). Measuring the aluminum bed where the heating pad is adhered to - difference is 3-4 degrees (accurate reading). I ended up adding delay in Marlin firmware to give a chance of the print surface to catch up with the bed by altering "TEMP_BED_RESIDENCY_TIME" value in configuration.h to 60 seconds which delays M109 command by a minute after the bed reading reaches the desired temperature. This helps a bit with the surface temperature inaccuracy (and bed adhesion with some materials), and heating the bed up is still considerably faster compared to before the upgrade. I plan to experiment by adding thermo-conductive pad between the glass and the bed surface to see if I can get the lag and temperature difference be reduced a bit.
Thanks for this! My AC bed heater came with a bang-bang style bed heater controller, and it gave me terrible layer lines when powering on and off. I replaced that controller with an SSR and did a PID tune, and it's SO much better now.
It is so freaking good to see this video published. This means that manufacturers will clean up their act, and DIYers truly see an example how to best use AC without killing themselves :D
Glad to see that you took the suggestions under advisement. No matter what you show someone will have a difference of opinion when it comes to working with mains power. At the end of the day one can choose to use a mains heated bed or not. My rule of thumb is if you are the least bit unsettled about it, then it's a good idea not to do it.
Thank you for this tutorial. Im setting this up for the Tronxy X5S. The 12V stock heater is totally inadequate. The 24V with external mosfet mod is fine but the cheap power supplies to run it are inadequate. I had one fail from cold solder input on the mains input. After fixing it later the NTC inrush limiter blew, probably from being banged on and off for days on end. I really appreciate your attention to safety in this video.
Tip to solder the thermal fuse. Put the fuse underwater in a glass, leaving a bit outside the water to solder (I used a glass of water with clay on the bottom to stick the fuse in). In that way the fuse will be cooled by the water.
One minute? that's all done? I cannot believe Michael is so quick. He pulls all the juice just under the minute. When the Australian lovers do not drink too much beer and fail the job, they... well... pull the heat too quickly :) We will still honor your others tech skills Michael !!!!!!!! but not this special one.
SAFETY WARNING : At 12:00 you mention that in Australia RCD installation is standard, that is, if your house was built AFTER 1991. Might seem a long time ago, but my house was built in 1988, so the only RCDs are the one I installed in my workshop.
Great video! There’s one thing noticed when you pointed out what control voltage you need. The control is the voltage that turns the relay on and off. So you’d need 12 or 24vDC.
Very good video, and great improvements. I was one of the previous commenters, I just wanted to tell you to keep up the good work and videos - new patreon supporter too.
Thanks for this, my first printer was the Anycubic i3 Mega, very pleased with that after 2 years so bought the Mega Zero recently for the extra height. I ordered an i3 heated bed that will need some modification but this was useful :)
@@Lidocain777 I stopped looking but thanks for the reminder i need to do that this month so i can return the wrong one that i got! I'll keep ya posted.
Some additions; - Fake SSR's often don't like PWM control, the rapid on/off switching will cause an early death for he SSR. - I experienced fake (Fotek) SSR that could not stay cool enough, and it just melted! - MAX_BED_POWER can also be used to prevent the fuse blowing when using some DC voltage beds. I've set this option in my printer to 180 and that gives me just under 20Amps. Anything higher and the 20A fuse blows on my SKR 1.3. My 24V bed heats up to 100C in about 2 minutes. (It's a 20x30cm Tevo Tarantula bed altered for 24V)
I bought all this stuff 5 years ago and never actually installed it. In my defense we had a kid and got busy living life! I'm going to have to see what I did with those parts...
Hi - as usual I follow your videos and appreciate them. I would have soldered the thermal fuse (or not considered at all) had I not seen your video. FWIW, I bought a heat shrink type of connector with solder - it went alright, but not great and I don't recommend that (even with my heatgun at 480 c it was a real challenge, and I didn't want that fuse over heating). I looked at butt connectors at my local big box store, and saw they were only good to about 75c, so I might suggest a caveat - that if folks are to use them, check the thermal limits - I found some on amazon that said the minimal shrink is at 80c, and they are good to about 130 which I think are fine for our purposes. I also plan to dial down the max settings in Marlin to 120 so I don't run afoul of the fuse, and that should be fine for the bullet connector. Great video as always!
Why is soldering the fuse a bad idea? Because it may pop during soldering, or is there any other reason? EDIT: Oh, solder will melt in >200C temps, is that the reason?
I've had mine f or 6 months... worked great for PLA or low heat settings. As soon as I went to ABS or 100 C bed temps, this thing imploded. Now the outer edges are 130-140 C while at the same time the center is 94-100 C ... and from the reviews on Amazon (that I failed to read) I'm not the only one.
Great work on the videos. I have done this upgrade on my CR10-S4 about 8 months ago using the the keenovo mat mentioned in your video, which works amazing. But i found that cork was not that great to keep heat in. I ordered from aliexpress some ceramic Insulation and glued it to the back. Helped alot with the mat turning on and off alot. Keep the videos coming.
I know it's a year later but i'm looking at the S4 but I only really print PETG so the bed only getting to 60C stock is a concern. with the Keenovo can you get it up to 80C?
Super late little tip here, but with all connectors like the white one you used for the PCB they usually have a way to cleanly take out the cable and insert new ones. You just need to get the right size insert for the cables to snap in with the little part that sticks out. (To remove them, you push in that little metal part you see on the underside of the connector for each cable and pull out the cable at the same time. Took me ages to figure this out so I figured Id let people know this. You can buy new inserts or whatever they're called at any hardware/electronics shop for cents
You did an awesome job, going above and beyond what any YT creator would normally do. I just hope no one starts the old -- cork is a fire hazard nonsense again...sigh...can't please everyone. I actually got an idea how to improve my SSR setups from your video -- awesome work!
Caution with Ender 3 S1 Pro - there is marginal clearance to the Y axis motor. If adding this to the bottom of the existing heater bed, it will foul on this motor (as the stock one already fouls if you screw down the bed). Whilst you could raise the bed, you may find the springs then are so loose to achieve the clearance that the bed isn't robustly secured. I can't see this working myself. Yes an E3 S1 Pro has an AC heated bed, but the coverage of the heater doesn't cover all of the bed. This causes issues with adhesion towards its edges.
Tou should be promoting keenevo silicone heat beds. They are highly reliable, fairly priced, will make any size you ask 800x800? No problem 50x50? No problem. And they have an amazing warranty/return policy. I just noticed you did mention them!! Which is awesome lol idk i don’t trust anyone but keenevo and as i said any size you want theyll make for you.
Naming and shaming: Creality Ender 5 Plus or more accurately, the TFT 35 v3. I recently downgraded(?) to the SKR Mini E3 V1.2 on my Ender 5+. I also added my TFT35 to the case. The only time it has issues is when the bed is heating. I have tried adding capacitors on the 24v and the 5v bus lines to no avail. I am considering this upgrade for the sake of using my TFT, but the point might be mute because I am now using a dedicated Octopi.
Nice vid, thank you Michael. Use flux for soldering and desoldering, difference of night and day. My Ender 5+ has the BTT high power mosfet and 600w meanwell, 24v. Not bad, takes 5 to 6 minutes I think. AC is better, but you have to know what you’re doing, I completely agree. Very good video for the general printing public. I enjoyed it in any case, especially the pitfall warning for the cheap relay. For sure people don’t want to find out the wrong way it fuses itself stuck in the on position if it fails.
Not sure if this is a new feature of Marlin or if it was available 3 years ago, but when doing the PID autotune, you can specify "U1" to load the PID values into memory, this saves having to enter them in. You still need to save the memory to EEPROM, but it means only two commands now: M303 C5 E-1 S100 U1 M500
Hey I just upgraded my Ender 5 Pro with a Kenova 350W, DC24V . It has the cutouts for the screws as they sell a specific one (actually two - also a 250W version) for the ender 3 which has the same bed size and screw locations. It looks similar your AC one and heats up really quickly to 70 Deg C with a thicker Al plate (6mm). Haven't yet tried to heat up to higher temp yet but will do so once I fit a mosfet. Of course, I upgraded my power supply from 350W 24V to a Meanwell HRP-600W-24V so that I would have enough power for the bed at higher temp. The mosfet will be connected to the bed to make sure I don't fry the control board (a BTT Octopus 1.1). I think it will work fast at higher temp. but I wish I saw your video before I went down this route. However, it must be working well because I get the same temperature oscillations with the standard bang- bang heating and will update the firmware with the bed PID as you have suggested in the video. I love all your youtube videos as they are very clear and also the Aussie accent (but I am biased being Aussie myself). Proud owner of an Ender 5 Pro with extended bed Dual Z axis, Bondtec DDX extruder, copperhead hot end (300 deg C), linear railed X and Y, Kenova hotbed, BTT smart filament sensor, BTT octopus 1.1, raspberry PI 4B OCTOPRINT ready with BTT TFT70 touch screen. Fully working Marlin firmware and printing as I type.
Very informative video and you did a good job of installing this however as an electrician of many years I have a few points people should be aware of for Australian rules (USA may be the same) 1 This device (unless I missed it) does not state if its double insulated or not (the cables coming out of it point to not double insulated). 2 For it to comply with the electrical regs here is has to have a label stating its Voltage, current and insulation status (it may have this). 3 The device needs certification in an approved Australian lab to comply with ASNZS3000 4 If it does not comply your house insurance will be invalid, so if your house burns down there is no insurance even if the printer didn't cause the fire. 5 I didn't see any earthing on the frame of the printer after it was installed? To anybody who reads my comments as stated here electricity can kill, a fault to the frame on this printer and somebody grabs it.......... hopefully the earth leakage will protect you but who wants to risk that? The regulations are there for a reason for example you can only install 12v lights in your pool and so on
I wrote some code for a heated plant incubator. I Switched the heater on for 1/10 of a second when it was on target. And rose it by 1/10 second every .1 drop in temp from target until it was on 100% 1 degrees lower than target. Stops the bang bang.
Wouldn't you want to put the thermal fuse on the side going into the ssr so if it fails its not being fed power and eventually burn it would be a bit more wiring but I feel itll.add to the overall safety and be worth it
awesome video!!! Subscribed! I had the fluctuation issue as you did but when I set up my silicone heater I didn't know about PIDTempbed! I'll be updating this when I do my Marlin 2.0 update (still running Marlin 1.1.0)
Not sure if it will work but I think safe and cheap way would be to use two fake SSRs in series on the output, so if it fails short, there's still second one switching it ON/OFF. Though would be nice if someone would manufacture something like that in a one package and sell it for a decent price. $50 is too much for most people just for a "Switch" and I bet they still use only one Triac.
Not a good idea! If one failed in the on state you might never notice and the other one is just waiting to fail too. Plus the fake ones can do worse than just fail open they can also catch fire! If $50 is too much you could definitely find a cheaper one that's not fake or just stick to the DC bed that comes with most printers.
with all the extra thickness added to the bottom of the bed does it create problems with the springs being very compressed to get the top of the bed to the correct height ?
@Teaching Tech - 9:44 "When you get one you need to make sure you choose one for AC control" Don't think that's right Michael, the *control* voltage is the *input* to the SSR, you have a DC input unit (KSI240D, 4-32VDC input which is CORRECT for switching via the printer's control board) and NOT an AC input where you would need to apply 85-250VAC on the control input to switch the unit
@@TeachingTechYou say "make sure you choose one for AC control", and you also highlight the coding for AC control ("A"). Both are consistently incorrect, so it will be hard to know that it's not correct unless one has that knowledge beforehand. It might be a good idea to issue a correction. The SSR you show at 8:40 has the DC control marking ("D"), though.
@@ChristopherJones16 AC on the mains side, DC on control side. Voltage from the printer should be in the SSR's control voltage range. So a 15-30V DC controllable SSR is not suitable for a 12V printer, but a 4-32V DC one is okay.
Thank you for sharing your expert, It was a nightmare for my CR-10 how long it takes to heat the bed, I bought a new heat bed 750w 220v and I upgraded my bed after your video, it was extremely helpful for me, but can you make a video how to install the hotend also if you don't mind, I will be appreciate it, because also it will help others.
I'm in the process of tuning a Tevo Flash that comes stock with an AC heated bed. The heat pad is stuck to an aluminum plate which the glass bed is glued to. There's no ground connection to the bed, the electronics enclosure or the printer frame, so I'm adding those. I hadn't thought to add a thermal fuse, I'll add that now too.
I've been contemplating upgrading to a 240V bed, I have a Tevo Tarantula Pro and it struggles to get to 100 degrees, even though the printer claims it can. After about 85 ish, it starts taking forever and then errors out. I am going to go buy a 240V one now. Also good to know I can get the SSR from Jaycar :) I would have probably gone to Middy's or somewhere like that. Thanks :)
Make sure the firmware is not pmw-ing the bed, limiting. For example, Klipper sets bed max_power to 0.6. I had the same issue as you. Had to up mine to 0.85 to get it to warm up in 10 minutes or so. People say even a setting of 1.0 is safe, but 0.85 works fine.
I've just done this on my cr10 yep gets to 80 degrees in under a min on the display, but still needs time to propagate through my mirror on the bed, maybe time to look for a different print surface.
Have you ever considered doing a test on fire extinguisher balls? I had not heard of them till today but they are very very interesting and could be a useful safety feature mounted above your printer. Not a guarantee by any means but worth having. Only downside I can see is that they only work if touched by flame, smoke and heat do not set them off, but seriously consider getting some, its not perfect but a worthwhile option perhaps, only issue I can see is the original make, Exide I think is far superior to the cheaper makes such as AFO, AFC I think they are , 3 times the price for the Exide but is the more expensive one overkill, would the cheaper one do the job? Printers are not very large after all. What do you think or do you think covering this might get too much negativity for covering it. Paul Milne
Great stuff! As I'm in the process of building my own printer soon(tm), I'd very much like to see a test of the thermal fuse. I know I will probably do my own testing when time comes, but It could be interesting for others aswell, might even be a recommended safety upgrade for the stock bed. Bonus would be to research if there are viable options for thermal fuses for hotends?
This is just a warning for other people trying to do the same installation: please make sure that if you use a UPS for your printer it is sized for the AC bed power you are installing. I have had an issue while installing a 750W AC bed on my Reality CR10-S which has a 360W power supply and I was getting a continuous beep every time the bed was kicking up and as long as the SSR was on. I had to power the AC bed from a separate AC source as it seemed that the power surge from the AC bed was sucking too much from the UPS. Now that my power supplies are separate, everything is fine.
If you solder the new fuse into the wire, see RUclips demos on how to do this (fuse submerged under cold water) - if not, fuse will exceed temperature and blow.
How did you actually do the Thermal fuse ferrule connection? did you run both the thermal fuse wire? @5:20 Did you use a ferrule on both sides (one on ssr wire connection, another on the fuse), with the heat shrink on the top the only thing stopping it from bending?
My ender 5 plus has a huge heatbed with great inconsistency and a hotspot that will warp prints. Not to mention the level is wonky. I’ve upgraded other parts of the printer. I’m considering redoing the bed.
my newest 3d printer has the issue of it was sent with a giant bed and a underrated psu. its a flsun cube and that bed it has is thirsty for those watts
Eh any electrical store will know what you mean. Everyone in the US says 110 but it's really nominal 115-125. All of the components you would typically find will be good for the range.
Looking good, Im really impressed with the update. totally off topic what happened to the relay covers? is that the bottom of the first layer? they would of been cooler with your logo on them, bright colour and a warning :)
Hey Michael, what specific tape are you using to stick your tempature fuse to the bottom of your silicone heating element, as I've tried kapton tape, and high temp insulation tape and it just won't stick, is there a specific adhisive key word I'm looking for when buying? Cheers!
Good video. Only thing I'd recommend is not buying anything from jaycar after what they pulled with Freetronics. I'd also say the SSR from jaycar may not be from a reputable brand/supplier.
The SSR is DC controlled not AC controlled right? you are showing the DC control SSR but you're saying AC control. It's confusing please clarify or correct. thanks
7:41 Will the only performace issue be it heating up slower, or will it also be harder to maintain a temperature? I'm building a printer and am wonder if I can just do this for simplicity at first, then later wire up the SSR to the power supply. Or, would it be better to just buy a 24V heater pad?
It seems like the mainboard would still be sending current/amperage to the SSR, correct? The actual heating current for the bed is from the mains, but unless something is changed in the firmware, wouldn't the mainboard bed output still try and provide enough amps @ 12v as if it was trying to heat the bed itself? The signal to an SSR is usually just a voltage with just a tiny bit of amperage, so I'm wondering if this set up may damage the SSR over time? But I see so many people set up this way (and with tiny wires between mainboard and SSR) that I have to be missing something.
Main board can't try to provide SSR as much current as heated bed needs, it would have to increase voltage do do it. If you disconnect electrical oven from the electrical outlet and connect phone charger instead it will consume less power from the same outlet.
If you had your printer in a passivly heated enclosure I assume you would want to think about cooling the SSR somehow is that correct? If so how could you go about that? Would a 40mm fan blowing air across the SSR be suitable?
Love your vids. Just got my new Ender 3 S1 Pro. I've set it up, switched it on and have been levelling the bed only to realise that my heat bed doesn't seem to heat up? The home screen stays at 21 degrees and it's been over an hour now. Faulty unit out of the box?
I don't understand was your bed heater dying. I have a prusa mk3 and it warms up in a couple of minutes and uses 24 vdc. Could it have been the heating elements in your bed. Thanks for the videos. They are always informative.
I should warn you. 1. The temperature on thermistor will not correspond to temperature of the bed surface. Thermal mate heats really fast, but it is not transferring it's heat that fast to aluminium bed, especially if you use glass over it. Measure temperature of the bed with remote thermometer to check actual bed surface temperature. 2. You must NOT use any thermistor that is not connected to thermal mate, because in such case you can and will easily burn thermal mate that can cause AC voltage line shortcircuit and fire or electrical hazard. Reason - thermal mate heats a lot faster than print bed surface. 3. There can be temperature deviations across thermal mate. Check it with remote thermometer. Visually can be recognizable by looking for bubbles on mate. It starts to grow hump under surface. In my case I use both thermal mate(600W) and heated bed itself(12V). With 300*200 aluminium bed with 3mm glass on it I still wait till glass surface gets to proper temperature for several minutes after the reported temperature already reached. And my mate in one location have temperature over 20C more than reported by thermistor. So, I recommend you to consider turning you heated bed earlier and do not mess with SSR and this things. Or, at least, use thermal mate with low power(less Watt). I my case 600W really too much. Mate heats instantly and it takes long time to proper heat all my layers of a bed.
I know this video is several years old, and I am hoping you may see it and help expand some information you provided. I recently purchased an Ender 3V2. The machine is great, but I quickly expanded it with all sorts of upgrades including flashing to one of the latest EPROM updates. The latest update is the Ender Extender 400x400x520 package and the large AC heat pad. I have everything put back together and mechanically working thanks to your Ender Extender video and this video on the AC heat pad. Thank you for those. So the question - you mention updating the firmware. I'm having trouble finding how to do this. Any suggestions or some direction where I can find out how to do this would be very much appreciated. Thanks, Todd
hello, The correct calculation for a 750w 220v resistance is 3.40 AMPS (POWER = AMPS * VOLTS or AMPS = POWER / VOLTS), why a 40Amps relay? the fake works well so it will only support 10 AMPS or less, is good video
I have a aluminium anycubic 300x300 mm hot bed plugged with solidstate relay and power supply about 500w it don't work. The whatchdog time blocked the 3 d printer after 1 minute. Do you think it's better use a Ac connection directly in the plug connector 220 volts?
I hooked mine up the way you indicated but it keeps blowing fuses on the printer switch. Which is better than blowing my board up but I don't know enough about electrical engineering to know why it's getting overloaded.
This video was previously released with a process in line with what 3D printer manufacturers include on their machines with AC heated beds. Early on it was very clear that my viewers expected a higher standard. The feedback was very constructive, rather than nasty, which I appreciate tremendously. Special thanks to people like Tim from TH3D and Chris Egan for listing their suggestions point by point in a constructive way.
I’ve included just about everything people suggested. I hope this guide is now up to standard.
The standards for mains wiring in houses varies a lot around the world, hence the disclaimer to consult a professional. Just because something is safe for me doesn’t mean it’s safe for you.
Your videos are awesome I'm a pretty technical guy and I have learned a huge amount from them. I don't think anything in the previous version was in any way dangerous. But that you acted in such a responsible way is a huge credit to you. Integrity is so rare now.
Hot beds are back on the menu boys! Thanks for revising this video, I really want to do this but want to be really really safe about it too.
can we bake a cake with that 750W heater if we put insulator on top?
This is an excellent guide and it reminds me I need to do a couple things on my AC heated bed install. Thank you for being thorough. Also, consider adding something about adding an inline circuit breaker, such that the bed never exceeds the rated amperage. I do not have my heated bed here with me now, but I believe mine should be limited to 6A. Also, if you do measure the amperage at the max power of 255 and find that it is too high, perhaps that would be the setting to dial down to make sure you are below the 6A? (Someone more experienced with these than I might be able to chime in... I believe the 255 is a duty cycle of 100% while a lower value is a lower duty cycle.... duty cycle and amperage are not the same thing, but you could be reducing the sustained current that way.)
Best would be to use double switch SSR or two, so you can switch of both N and L, as with the European security plugs can be turned, so you actually doesn't know which is N and L when you plug it in.
But yes, usually one only switch one of L off, and it still break the power circuit even if the power plug is twisted 180 degrees.
One could/should also use a earth security breaker between socket and the power plug, so it will break if there are any current in the earth wire.
Great job with the updates, safety discussion, and added resources. Your work is the gold standard for 3DP RUclips videos.
This is a good tutorial but I would recommend one addition. The thermal fuses are usually rated with holding temp and functioning temp. The fuse you're using is an NEC Schott SF129E. The holding temp is rated at 118°C, this is the max temp at which the fuse will not fail under operating conditions (rated at 168hrs). The 133°C rating is the temperature where it will reliably open. What this means is that between 119-133°C, this fuse may or may not open. So if you're running temps close to 120°C you may need to bump up to the next size of SF139E which has a holding temp of 127°C and functioning temp of 142°C. I'd personally go with the slightly larger one anyways as cork doesn't start to degrade till ~200°C and gives you a little more wiggle room for more exotic materials.
This!
I was very surprised by the fuse Voron specifies for the V2.4, it's an AliExpress special and it doesn't specify any of that. Just "125°C", a firmware limit of 120°C, and users often have issues with it failing. I replaced mine with a 128°C holding temp, 152°C functioning temp.
Some safety notes:
- use high strand count or energy chain rated cables, possibly in energy chain.
- You SHOULD wire a distinct earth to the metal carrier plate of the bed. Linear bearings and trapezoidal screws are not meant to handle earth fault current. In theory, every metal part that can get in contact with mains voltage should be earthed by wire, not by mounting screws.
- it is recommended to add thermal fuse to both leads of the pad. It depends. In many EU countries the Schuko plug is reversible, so you can not guarantee which lead is live. In those (rare) cases that the pad gets an earth short just at the fused side, but it happens that the other is the live feed, it will continue heating until meltdown. RCD/GFCI will trip however, if you have.
- Relay is inadequate for high frequency PID control, and low frequency PWM is inadequate for stable temperature at this power. So SSR is the only sensible choice.
- Don't cheap out on SSR. If it fails, it most likely fail short, and only the thermal fuse will stop it. Bad enough. For this reason, do not even think leaving out the thermal fuse...
Order plenty of spares, to lower the temptation to run without one, in case it blows during PID tuning...
Thank you for the correct information, tuning and hacking is fine so long it's all safe !!!
Is your third note correct? If the thermal fuse pops there's no way for the bed to heat out of control since there is no complete circuit anymore.
@@TheArachnoBot If one of the thermal fuses doesn't pop, then you still have the other, which hopefully works.
I believe that this upgrade will also take a lot of stress off of the printer’s power supply and keep things running a lot cooler in the control box. So this is also a longevity upgrade to the printer. You make amazing RUclips videos!!! I have a Ender 5 Pro, in the middle of a bunch of upgrades, including this one.
It probably got deleted when you pulled the last video so I'll say it again.
These SSR devices are NOT like regular mechanical relays. There will still be some leakage current on the bed heater as well as full mains voltage depending on where you check.
Glad you got help from Tim at TH3D. He convinced me to replace the "40A" labeled SSRs on my water heater w/ a pair of his (true) 25A-rated units. My 40s never got above 100F, but it's likely I've been running 17A through a 12A silicon device and the heatsink was saving it from a meltdown.
Good information about SSR, too many people buy the cheapos not understanding the risks.
@Aaron Morrow partly the cheaper (and knock off) SSR may have leakage current and dont 100% turn off, mains voltage is something i dont mess around with. Im more of a better safe than sorry kind of person and would rather buy a known brand from a reputable dealer
Again: The best availlable explanation with extremely well made graphical support
I did this to my CR10 since the huge bead takes FOREVER to get to temp. Worth every penny! I get to 60C in less than a minute!
Cr10, imagine how I feel with a cr10s5, literally has a cr10s heater bed in the center, doesnt even cover the whole bed. Takes an eternity to reach 40, forget 60! You look at it and it loses 10degrees and trips out
This is a great tutorial! Thanks for all informative videos you put on Michael! Just got my printer upgraded with AC bed after being fed up with waiting 15+ minutes to get to ~100 deg. C before print even starts. There is one side effect, though, depending on what print surface you're using. If that is glass, like in my case, there is considerable lag before the glass heats up nearly as close as what the bed thermistor reads. Starting from room temperature I can hit 100 C in about the same time as on the video, but the glass surface would be as much as 30 degrees lower than desired at the first minute or two of the print, which is obviously not good. After a minute or two, glass "catches up" to around 10-15 degrees difference (in my case). Measuring the aluminum bed where the heating pad is adhered to - difference is 3-4 degrees (accurate reading). I ended up adding delay in Marlin firmware to give a chance of the print surface to catch up with the bed by altering "TEMP_BED_RESIDENCY_TIME" value in configuration.h to 60 seconds which delays M109 command by a minute after the bed reading reaches the desired temperature. This helps a bit with the surface temperature inaccuracy (and bed adhesion with some materials), and heating the bed up is still considerably faster compared to before the upgrade. I plan to experiment by adding thermo-conductive pad between the glass and the bed surface to see if I can get the lag and temperature difference be reduced a bit.
If I don't have a Ac hot bed and plug to Ac line can it catfire?
Thanks for this! My AC bed heater came with a bang-bang style bed heater controller, and it gave me terrible layer lines when powering on and off. I replaced that controller with an SSR and did a PID tune, and it's SO much better now.
It is so freaking good to see this video published. This means that manufacturers will clean up their act, and DIYers truly see an example how to best use AC without killing themselves :D
Glad to see that you took the suggestions under advisement. No matter what you show someone will have a difference of opinion when it comes to working with mains power. At the end of the day one can choose to use a mains heated bed or not. My rule of thumb is if you are the least bit unsettled about it, then it's a good idea not to do it.
I agree. Hopefully the disclaimer at the start scares off anyone sitting on the fence.
Thank you for this tutorial. Im setting this up for the Tronxy X5S. The 12V stock heater is totally inadequate. The 24V with external mosfet mod is fine but the cheap power supplies to run it are inadequate. I had one fail from cold solder input on the mains input. After fixing it later the NTC inrush limiter blew, probably from being banged on and off for days on end. I really appreciate your attention to safety in this video.
Tip to solder the thermal fuse. Put the fuse underwater in a glass, leaving a bit outside the water to solder (I used a glass of water with clay on the bottom to stick the fuse in). In that way the fuse will be cooled by the water.
Dont solder it!
One minute? that's all done? I cannot believe Michael is so quick. He pulls all the juice just under the minute. When the Australian lovers do not drink too much beer and fail the job, they... well... pull the heat too quickly :) We will still honor your others tech skills Michael !!!!!!!! but not this special one.
SAFETY WARNING : At 12:00 you mention that in Australia RCD installation is standard, that is, if your house was built AFTER 1991. Might seem a long time ago, but my house was built in 1988, so the only RCDs are the one I installed in my workshop.
Thanks, for deleting the old one and making that update, that's really amazing !
Superb guide. Probably the best ac heatbed video guide out there
Great video! There’s one thing noticed when you pointed out what control voltage you need. The control is the voltage that turns the relay on and off. So you’d need 12 or 24vDC.
The ones in this video will accept anything from 4 to 32V DC.
So if my mains is 220v using ssr I can use 110v heat bed?
@@Farivar313 In theory you could, if you limit the PWM to less than 25% to keep the max wattage the same.
I had issues with my E3 bed fluctuating and had to turn on PID tuning for it. Good tip for people who have issues like that!
Awesome update Michael.
I recognize that t-shirt. Nice!
Also, Australia is far from the only 220V country.
Great guide, will defenitely do this one day.
finally a video that pinpoints everything using and connecting an SSR
Very good video, and great improvements. I was one of the previous commenters, I just wanted to tell you to keep up the good work and videos - new patreon supporter too.
Thanks for this, my first printer was the Anycubic i3 Mega, very pleased with that after 2 years so bought the Mega Zero recently for the extra height. I ordered an i3 heated bed that will need some modification but this was useful :)
Did you manage to find an AC heated bed matching the i3 Mega(-S) ? Should be 24x22, most of them are more like 20x20 cm.
@@Lidocain777 I stopped looking but thanks for the reminder i need to do that this month so i can return the wrong one that i got! I'll keep ya posted.
Some additions;
- Fake SSR's often don't like PWM control, the rapid on/off switching will cause an early death for he SSR.
- I experienced fake (Fotek) SSR that could not stay cool enough, and it just melted!
- MAX_BED_POWER can also be used to prevent the fuse blowing when using some DC voltage beds. I've set this option in my printer to 180 and that gives me just under 20Amps. Anything higher and the 20A fuse blows on my SKR 1.3.
My 24V bed heats up to 100C in about 2 minutes. (It's a 20x30cm Tevo Tarantula bed altered for 24V)
I bought all this stuff 5 years ago and never actually installed it. In my defense we had a kid and got busy living life! I'm going to have to see what I did with those parts...
I need to do this to my CR-10S S5. It will take 15 minutes to reach 60C and cannot go above 65C. Thank you for the tutorial.
My s5 bed now reaches 60 faster then the nozzle.
Hi - as usual I follow your videos and appreciate them. I would have soldered the thermal fuse (or not considered at all) had I not seen your video. FWIW, I bought a heat shrink type of connector with solder - it went alright, but not great and I don't recommend that (even with my heatgun at 480 c it was a real challenge, and I didn't want that fuse over heating). I looked at butt connectors at my local big box store, and saw they were only good to about 75c, so I might suggest a caveat - that if folks are to use them, check the thermal limits - I found some on amazon that said the minimal shrink is at 80c, and they are good to about 130 which I think are fine for our purposes. I also plan to dial down the max settings in Marlin to 120 so I don't run afoul of the fuse, and that should be fine for the bullet connector. Great video as always!
Why is soldering the fuse a bad idea? Because it may pop during soldering, or is there any other reason?
EDIT: Oh, solder will melt in >200C temps, is that the reason?
Well done! Lots of good info on SSRs, AC Mains wiring, etc. I've already pointed a few folks to this video!
I've had mine f or 6 months... worked great for PLA or low heat settings. As soon as I went to ABS or 100 C bed temps, this thing imploded. Now the outer edges are 130-140 C while at the same time the center is 94-100 C ... and from the reviews on Amazon (that I failed to read) I'm not the only one.
Great work on the videos. I have done this upgrade on my CR10-S4 about 8 months ago using the the keenovo mat mentioned in your video, which works amazing. But i found that cork was not that great to keep heat in. I ordered from aliexpress some ceramic Insulation and glued it to the back. Helped alot with the mat turning on and off alot. Keep the videos coming.
I know it's a year later but i'm looking at the S4 but I only really print PETG so the bed only getting to 60C stock is a concern. with the Keenovo can you get it up to 80C?
Super late little tip here, but with all connectors like the white one you used for the PCB they usually have a way to cleanly take out the cable and insert new ones. You just need to get the right size insert for the cables to snap in with the little part that sticks out. (To remove them, you push in that little metal part you see on the underside of the connector for each cable and pull out the cable at the same time.
Took me ages to figure this out so I figured Id let people know this. You can buy new inserts or whatever they're called at any hardware/electronics shop for cents
You did an awesome job, going above and beyond what any YT creator would normally do. I just hope no one starts the old -- cork is a fire hazard nonsense again...sigh...can't please everyone. I actually got an idea how to improve my SSR setups from your video -- awesome work!
Caution with Ender 3 S1 Pro - there is marginal clearance to the Y axis motor. If adding this to the bottom of the existing heater bed, it will foul on this motor (as the stock one already fouls if you screw down the bed). Whilst you could raise the bed, you may find the springs then are so loose to achieve the clearance that the bed isn't robustly secured. I can't see this working myself. Yes an E3 S1 Pro has an AC heated bed, but the coverage of the heater doesn't cover all of the bed. This causes issues with adhesion towards its edges.
Thanks to this video I'm now waiting on my hotend to catch up.....and I'm ok with that! Great content Michael! Keep it coming
Great video just waiting on chamber heater update!
Tou should be promoting keenevo silicone heat beds. They are highly reliable, fairly priced, will make any size you ask 800x800? No problem 50x50? No problem. And they have an amazing warranty/return policy. I just noticed you did mention them!! Which is awesome lol idk i don’t trust anyone but keenevo and as i said any size you want theyll make for you.
I finally made the switch to a mains powered bed.... AMAZING! Thanks for the helpful video.
Good explication, my printer it works with de new 110VAC 300X300mm bed, thank you for your tutorial, greetings from Mexico
Wow thanks a lot for this clear tutorial! i just finished modified my Geeetech A10 and it work wonderfully !!awesome!
Naming and shaming: Creality Ender 5 Plus or more accurately, the TFT 35 v3. I recently downgraded(?) to the SKR Mini E3 V1.2 on my Ender 5+. I also added my TFT35 to the case. The only time it has issues is when the bed is heating. I have tried adding capacitors on the 24v and the 5v bus lines to no avail. I am considering this upgrade for the sake of using my TFT, but the point might be mute because I am now using a dedicated Octopi.
Nice vid, thank you Michael. Use flux for soldering and desoldering, difference of night and day. My Ender 5+ has the BTT high power mosfet and 600w meanwell, 24v. Not bad, takes 5 to 6 minutes I think. AC is better, but you have to know what you’re doing, I completely agree. Very good video for the general printing public. I enjoyed it in any case, especially the pitfall warning for the cheap relay. For sure people don’t want to find out the wrong way it fuses itself stuck in the on position if it fails.
Not sure if this is a new feature of Marlin or if it was available 3 years ago, but when doing the PID autotune, you can specify "U1" to load the PID values into memory, this saves having to enter them in. You still need to save the memory to EEPROM, but it means only two commands now:
M303 C5 E-1 S100 U1
M500
Hey I just upgraded my Ender 5 Pro with a Kenova 350W, DC24V . It has the cutouts for the screws as they sell a specific one (actually two - also a 250W version) for the ender 3 which has the same bed size and screw locations. It looks similar your AC one and heats up really quickly to 70 Deg C with a thicker Al plate (6mm). Haven't yet tried to heat up to higher temp yet but will do so once I fit a mosfet. Of course, I upgraded my power supply from 350W 24V to a Meanwell HRP-600W-24V so that I would have enough power for the bed at higher temp. The mosfet will be connected to the bed to make sure I don't fry the control board (a BTT Octopus 1.1). I think it will work fast at higher temp. but I wish I saw your video before I went down this route. However, it must be working well because I get the same temperature oscillations with the standard bang- bang heating and will update the firmware with the bed PID as you have suggested in the video.
I love all your youtube videos as they are very clear and also the Aussie accent (but I am biased being Aussie myself).
Proud owner of an Ender 5 Pro with extended bed Dual Z axis, Bondtec DDX extruder, copperhead hot end (300 deg C), linear railed X and Y, Kenova hotbed, BTT smart filament sensor, BTT octopus 1.1, raspberry PI 4B OCTOPRINT ready with BTT TFT70 touch screen. Fully working Marlin firmware and printing as I type.
Thanks for the updated video. Great community work and top notch reaction to critics from your side!
Very informative video and you did a good job of installing this however as an electrician of many years I have a few points people should be aware of for Australian rules (USA may be the same)
1 This device (unless I missed it) does not state if its double insulated or not (the cables coming out of it point to not double insulated).
2 For it to comply with the electrical regs here is has to have a label stating its Voltage, current and insulation status (it may have this).
3 The device needs certification in an approved Australian lab to comply with ASNZS3000
4 If it does not comply your house insurance will be invalid, so if your house burns down there is no insurance even if the printer didn't cause the fire.
5 I didn't see any earthing on the frame of the printer after it was installed?
To anybody who reads my comments as stated here electricity can kill, a fault to the frame on this printer and somebody grabs it.......... hopefully the earth leakage will protect you but who wants to risk that?
The regulations are there for a reason for example you can only install 12v lights in your pool and so on
Truly brilliant video. Knowledgeable and full of hard to find information. It would take me a month to google all these solutions on the web.
I wrote some code for a heated plant incubator. I Switched the heater on for 1/10 of a second when it was on target. And rose it by 1/10 second every .1 drop in temp from target until it was on 100% 1 degrees lower than target. Stops the bang bang.
With regards to cable fatigue, flexible building wire with a high strand count should be used as it has less "memory".
so good to the community
Outstanding , I watch your channel all the time. Talented teacher
Wouldn't you want to put the thermal fuse on the side going into the ssr so if it fails its not being fed power and eventually burn it would be a bit more wiring but I feel itll.add to the overall safety and be worth it
Have you tried just attaching the cork sheet to the bottom of your standard 24v bed? Its much faster to heat up without all the mains power issues.
I am going to try that when I get home
awesome video!!! Subscribed! I had the fluctuation issue as you did but when I set up my silicone heater I didn't know about PIDTempbed! I'll be updating this when I do my Marlin 2.0 update (still running Marlin 1.1.0)
Not sure if it will work but I think safe and cheap way would be to use two fake SSRs in series on the output, so if it fails short, there's still second one switching it ON/OFF.
Though would be nice if someone would manufacture something like that in a one package and sell it for a decent price.
$50 is too much for most people just for a "Switch" and I bet they still use only one Triac.
Not a good idea! If one failed in the on state you might never notice and the other one is just waiting to fail too. Plus the fake ones can do worse than just fail open they can also catch fire! If $50 is too much you could definitely find a cheaper one that's not fake or just stick to the DC bed that comes with most printers.
When you install the thermal fuse in there, dont you lower the effective gauge of the wire? How is this resolved?
It only draws 2 amp anyway.
with all the extra thickness added to the bottom of the bed does it create problems with the springs being very compressed to get the top of the bed to the correct height ?
Thisll definitely be the next upgrade for my anycubic predator. 7-9 mins to 60c is getting old.
Thx so much for all your content!
@Teaching Tech - 9:44 "When you get one you need to make sure you choose one for AC control"
Don't think that's right Michael, the *control* voltage is the *input* to the SSR, you have a DC input unit (KSI240D, 4-32VDC input which is CORRECT for switching via the printer's control board) and NOT an AC input where you would need to apply 85-250VAC on the control input to switch the unit
You are right, my choice of words was not the best. Hopefully people know what I mean by what I highlighted on the data sheet as I was talking.
@@TeachingTechYou say "make sure you choose one for AC control", and you also highlight the coding for AC control ("A"). Both are consistently incorrect, so it will be hard to know that it's not correct unless one has that knowledge beforehand. It might be a good idea to issue a correction.
The SSR you show at 8:40 has the DC control marking ("D"), though.
Now im confused.. What relay should we be looking for DC to AC?
@@ChristopherJones16 AC on the mains side, DC on control side. Voltage from the printer should be in the SSR's control voltage range.
So a 15-30V DC controllable SSR is not suitable for a 12V printer, but a 4-32V DC one is okay.
A very nicely performed mod
Thank you for sharing your expert, It was a nightmare for my CR-10 how long it takes to heat the bed, I bought a new heat bed 750w 220v and I upgraded my bed after your video, it was extremely helpful for me, but can you make a video how to install the hotend also if you don't mind, I will be appreciate it, because also it will help others.
I'm in the process of tuning a Tevo Flash that comes stock with an AC heated bed. The heat pad is stuck to an aluminum plate which the glass bed is glued to. There's no ground connection to the bed, the electronics enclosure or the printer frame, so I'm adding those. I hadn't thought to add a thermal fuse, I'll add that now too.
I've been contemplating upgrading to a 240V bed, I have a Tevo Tarantula Pro and it struggles to get to 100 degrees, even though the printer claims it can. After about 85 ish, it starts taking forever and then errors out. I am going to go buy a 240V one now. Also good to know I can get the SSR from Jaycar :) I would have probably gone to Middy's or somewhere like that.
Thanks :)
Make sure the firmware is not pmw-ing the bed, limiting. For example, Klipper sets bed max_power to 0.6. I had the same issue as you. Had to up mine to 0.85 to get it to warm up in 10 minutes or so. People say even a setting of 1.0 is safe, but 0.85 works fine.
I've just done this on my cr10 yep gets to 80 degrees in under a min on the display, but still needs time to propagate through my mirror on the bed, maybe time to look for a different print surface.
Have you ever considered doing a test on fire extinguisher balls? I had not heard of them till today but they are very very interesting and could be a useful safety feature mounted above your printer. Not a guarantee by any means but worth having. Only downside I can see is that they only work if touched by flame, smoke and heat do not set them off, but seriously consider getting some, its not perfect but a worthwhile option perhaps, only issue I can see is the original make, Exide I think is far superior to the cheaper makes such as AFO, AFC I think they are , 3 times the price for the Exide but is the more expensive one overkill, would the cheaper one do the job? Printers are not very large after all.
What do you think or do you think covering this might get too much negativity for covering it.
Paul Milne
Thx a lot for this tutorial!
How to determinate the positive and negative of the bed please?
Australia is AC230 v 50 hertz no neg or positive... need to make sure it is an AC not DC bed..
Won't soldering a thermistor wire effectively change its resistance and thus give you inaccurate temperature readings?
and 100k thermistors aint the most accurate
My creality Cr10 S5 used to take 30minutes to reach 70c for PETG and now it takes under 5 minutes.
Great stuff! As I'm in the process of building my own printer soon(tm), I'd very much like to see a test of the thermal fuse. I know I will probably do my own testing when time comes, but It could be interesting for others aswell, might even be a recommended safety upgrade for the stock bed. Bonus would be to research if there are viable options for thermal fuses for hotends?
You can buy thermal fuses in all kinds of temps. They are in many things and rarely blow but they are a great safety feature.
This is just a warning for other people trying to do the same installation: please make sure that if you use a UPS for your printer it is sized for the AC bed power you are installing. I have had an issue while installing a 750W AC bed on my Reality CR10-S which has a 360W power supply and I was getting a continuous beep every time the bed was kicking up and as long as the SSR was on. I had to power the AC bed from a separate AC source as it seemed that the power surge from the AC bed was sucking too much from the UPS. Now that my power supplies are separate, everything is fine.
If you solder the new fuse into the wire, see RUclips demos on how to do this (fuse submerged under cold water) - if not, fuse will exceed temperature and blow.
How did you actually do the Thermal fuse ferrule connection? did you run both the thermal fuse wire? @5:20 Did you use a ferrule on both sides (one on ssr wire connection, another on the fuse), with the heat shrink on the top the only thing stopping it from bending?
My ender 5 plus has a huge heatbed with great inconsistency and a hotspot that will warp prints. Not to mention the level is wonky. I’ve upgraded other parts of the printer. I’m considering redoing the bed.
my newest 3d printer has the issue of it was sent with a giant bed and a underrated psu. its a flsun cube and that bed it has is thirsty for those watts
I am wondering whether it wouldn't make sense to add an extra ground wire to the bed for extra safety...
Actually, Australian mains is 230V, so that is, in fact, a 522-watt heater on 230V. But close enough.
Unless you live in WA or QLD! I always thought it was 240 as well but it changed in 2000, you would think it would be more widely known.
Eh any electrical store will know what you mean. Everyone in the US says 110 but it's really nominal 115-125. All of the components you would typically find will be good for the range.
Looking good, Im really impressed with the update.
totally off topic what happened to the relay covers? is that the bottom of the first layer?
they would of been cooler with your logo on them, bright colour and a warning :)
Hey Michael, what specific tape are you using to stick your tempature fuse to the bottom of your silicone heating element, as I've tried kapton tape, and high temp insulation tape and it just won't stick, is there a specific adhisive key word I'm looking for when buying? Cheers!
I too would like to know the type of tape that actually sticks to the bottom of the AC Bed mat.
Nothing sticks to it.
I used high temperature silicone to stick it to the bottom of the silicone bed
Good video.
Only thing I'd recommend is not buying anything from jaycar after what they pulled with Freetronics. I'd also say the SSR from jaycar may not be from a reputable brand/supplier.
The SSR is DC controlled not AC controlled right? you are showing the DC control SSR but you're saying AC control. It's confusing please clarify or correct. thanks
7:41 Will the only performace issue be it heating up slower, or will it also be harder to maintain a temperature? I'm building a printer and am wonder if I can just do this for simplicity at first, then later wire up the SSR to the power supply.
Or, would it be better to just buy a 24V heater pad?
A bit of flux will help removing solder.
It seems like the mainboard would still be sending current/amperage to the SSR, correct? The actual heating current for the bed is from the mains, but unless something is changed in the firmware, wouldn't the mainboard bed output still try and provide enough amps @ 12v as if it was trying to heat the bed itself? The signal to an SSR is usually just a voltage with just a tiny bit of amperage, so I'm wondering if this set up may damage the SSR over time? But I see so many people set up this way (and with tiny wires between mainboard and SSR) that I have to be missing something.
Main board can't try to provide SSR as much current as heated bed needs, it would have to increase voltage do do it. If you disconnect electrical oven from the electrical outlet and connect phone charger instead it will consume less power from the same outlet.
If you had your printer in a passivly heated enclosure I assume you would want to think about cooling the SSR somehow is that correct? If so how could you go about that? Would a 40mm fan blowing air across the SSR be suitable?
Mount he SSR outside the enclosure
Michael, it's not clear to me where the mains cables come from in the SSR diagram. Could you please help me to clarify? Thanks!
This is almost exactly what I was looking for. The exception is how would I change the settings in Klipper since I'm using the Creality Sonic? Thanks!
Love your vids. Just got my new Ender 3 S1 Pro. I've set it up, switched it on and have been levelling the bed only to realise that my heat bed doesn't seem to heat up?
The home screen stays at 21 degrees and it's been over an hour now. Faulty unit out of the box?
I don't understand was your bed heater dying. I have a prusa mk3 and it warms up in a couple of minutes and uses 24 vdc. Could it have been the heating elements in your bed. Thanks for the videos. They are always informative.
The Ender 3/5 bed is good to 60 but the higher you go from that, it starts to struggle.
I should warn you. 1. The temperature on thermistor will not correspond to temperature of the bed surface. Thermal mate heats really fast, but it is not transferring it's heat that fast to aluminium bed, especially if you use glass over it. Measure temperature of the bed with remote thermometer to check actual bed surface temperature.
2. You must NOT use any thermistor that is not connected to thermal mate, because in such case you can and will easily burn thermal mate that can cause AC voltage line shortcircuit and fire or electrical hazard. Reason - thermal mate heats a lot faster than print bed surface.
3. There can be temperature deviations across thermal mate. Check it with remote thermometer. Visually can be recognizable by looking for bubbles on mate. It starts to grow hump under surface.
In my case I use both thermal mate(600W) and heated bed itself(12V). With 300*200 aluminium bed with 3mm glass on it I still wait till glass surface gets to proper temperature for several minutes after the reported temperature already reached. And my mate in one location have temperature over 20C more than reported by thermistor.
So, I recommend you to consider turning you heated bed earlier and do not mess with SSR and this things. Or, at least, use thermal mate with low power(less Watt). I my case 600W really too much. Mate heats instantly and it takes long time to proper heat all my layers of a bed.
I know this video is several years old, and I am hoping you may see it and help expand some information you provided. I recently purchased an Ender 3V2. The machine is great, but I quickly expanded it with all sorts of upgrades including flashing to one of the latest EPROM updates. The latest update is the Ender Extender 400x400x520 package and the large AC heat pad. I have everything put back together and mechanically working thanks to your Ender Extender video and this video on the AC heat pad. Thank you for those. So the question - you mention updating the firmware. I'm having trouble finding how to do this. Any suggestions or some direction where I can find out how to do this would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Todd
Michael, Why can't I use the thirster that is already on the ben
Really Great video. You explained everything in really calm manner and it helps a lot !
hello,
The correct calculation for a 750w 220v resistance is 3.40 AMPS (POWER = AMPS * VOLTS or AMPS = POWER / VOLTS), why a 40Amps relay? the fake works well so it will only support 10 AMPS or less, is good video
I have a aluminium anycubic 300x300 mm hot bed plugged with solidstate relay and power supply about 500w it don't work. The whatchdog time blocked the 3 d printer after 1 minute. Do you think it's better use a Ac connection directly in the plug connector 220 volts?
Hey I have done some upgrades on my printer and I have been doing it for just over a year and a half do you think a teen should do it
Maybe consult a sparky as the disclaimer suggests.
I still see exposed live contacts with the SSR cover... this could be done a bit safer
So is the terminals on the PSU. It's okay as long as it's in the enclosure since it's supposed to be closed during use
Ron feel free to remix and release your own improvement.
@@TeachingTech Yes, of course, but I feel AC voltage is too dangerous for a 3D printer. The wires will break sooner or later, so I use 36V DC
I hooked mine up the way you indicated but it keeps blowing fuses on the printer switch. Which is better than blowing my board up but I don't know enough about electrical engineering to know why it's getting overloaded.