Solidoodle 2 upgrades (Page 2 of 5)

Another question:

I want a quick disconnect to the power supply.  the  Ood look doesn't appeal to me any more.  A 30 amp connector seems a specialty item.  I bought some "luminaire disconnects" from home depot that are rated at "6A/300VAC"  .   Will that work?  I cant remember if Watts or Amps is the telling factor on if a wire starts glowing or not.

note about aluminum wire:  It isn't really the devil most people make it out to be.   It is just mostly incompatible with the electrical stuff you buy at home depot.  In general, you should use 2 gauges higher than copper (14 -> 12)   In fact, aluminum is recommended a salty environments (near ocean).  I read something the other day that house builders are going back to aluminum because of the uptick in copper prices.   But yeah, I agree that at the scale of most electronics projects there is no economy in using AL over CU. 

Although,  It would be a pretty epic hack if someone modded a S2 so it could print on the deck of a sea boat during a hurricane.

if you have a PSU that draws 30 amps on the primary side (incoming plug side of transformer which is what a PSU is) then you need an outlet with separate circuit wired and breaker for 30 amps 120 volt unless its 240 volt input which would be a huge output on the secondary side at 12/24 volt low voltage dont know why any 3D printer in a Home would need that much power. and yes 30 amp single pole 120 volt outlets, breakers etc are rare mostly only used for a 14,000BTU 120v window AC unit or shop power tools in a home. or certain commercial/Industrial applications. in which case I refer to what I used to tell my bosses at a large health center I was Stationary Engineer for, upon them asking why I could not buy materials for the Clince at "Home Depot"? I simply answered "because its not Commercial depot" plus I said for bathroom plumbing which by code also must be grade C Commercial duty or better, I asked them if their home bathroom gets used over 300 times each day? they just look at me and say "maybe each year" I then say then if the faucet/toilet seat lasts 10 years of that use then I would have to replace those same items every 2 weeks in commercial use. and thats why commercial products cost 4 times as much due to better quality construction/materials and not just cheap plastic.

Watts is how much energy is being used by the Load and helps determine for example when an electric motor becomes an electric heater ;^) about 750Watts on a 120v device is equel to 1 HP too.

> well in my 40 years in HVAC etc......

Yeah i don't have anything like that (just HeathKit blurbs  and internet)    I didn't mean to start a fire. (no pun intended).  Although in your scenario I would have asked why the breaker didn't kick itself? That is kind of their jobs. It sounds like someone didn't wire the place correctly some rules... but I digress.

Back on topic.

I guess my overworded question was what does "6A/600VAC" mean on the packaging? 

In my electronics experience it means doesn't exceed either value.   This would means 30 amps at even 12V would be bad.  I doubt it is 6A at 600V (or 36000 watts).  If so then this is an amazing conductor for a little 1/2 inch piece of plastic. 

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Lets try out your diagrams:
So at max capacity we are talking about 12V*30A = 360 watts of work being done between the +/- terminals of the PSU output. 

Therefore , I expect the 120v AC side of PSU draws something like 1.33 AMP + some for conversion losses running full tilt.

In our application, most of that 360 watts will  be converted to heat by design.  Some will be converted into useful plastic bits by electronics and steppers.  Minimal amounts will be converted by the wiring.

Of course, i hope ill be running at much less than 30A. The stuff I'm looking at should have me running about 12A for the print bed if/when i upgrade.

I still want to see the hurricane proof solidoodle

VAC= Voltage in Alternating Current

without giving a 6 month basic electric coarse, in a nut shell.
and that rating is the failure rating where materials/safety devices limit protection from explosion etc. like lighting strikes/power surges that can exceed safety measures built into a device and fuse rating to be used for it, they also usually include a speed like 1/100th second etc which is how you determine if fast or delayed blow fuse should be used. AC compressors and other motors with a start and run winding requir delayed due to pulling much higher load during startup for a second or so then normal load once full speed/run is achieved.

for more info google is your friend ;^)

since dif countries power grids differ thats why said ratings must be on appliances sold world wide. fuses and breakers also have them listed on their labels. and a testing labs logo for how safety ratings where determined. without the safety testing labs stamp of approval they cant be sold/used by law.

Got my parts and everything is assembled.   I have the new PSU tuned to about 12.05 volts (old was 12.74). I ended up getting the most robust looking automotive spade crimps for the quick disconnect to the printer. I put male on + and female on - to prevent accidental mixups. Maybe someday ill model and print a plug for this arrangement.

The bed warmup doesn't feel that much faster, but i didn't have any of the low-power indicators others have complained about so my old  PSU was probably sufficient (Rated at 10.5 amps.)  Still, as mentioned, this is a prereq for pretty much other mod.

I printed a supernight terminal cover with a power socket hole.  Unfortunate the socket parts i ordered were too big so i had to do some modifications of that.  Also, have a tiny voltmeter led package.

I attached pretty much everything with my new favorite technique: friction spin welding
http://makezine.com/2015/04/30/turn-dre … ic-welder/

Kind of ugly, but solid. Probably be better with matching colorered plastic

I also modeled a quick vertical stand which I'm printing now. I have a feeling it is way too heavy duty.  File attached if anyone is interested.

I'll try to post a picture of my psu cover later.

Question:   AZERATE:  Why did you jump all 3 outputs of the PSU?  From what little documentation i could find online this is a single rail (?) PSU and all three posts are connected to the same output.  I tested resistance between the 3 ports and they are all reading dead short. in addition to this i tested output between all permutations of the 3 connectors and got exactly the same reading.  I didn't see an immediate reason to jump these outputs (also, i was running really short of space inside my enclosure) so i just connected a single one to output wire.

edit:  ~45 to heat the bed to 100C from 14C.   ill probably crank the voltage back to ~12.74 once this print finished and see what happens

edit2:  i ended up using 18g power tool cable on the primary side (crazy overkill), and 16g speaker wire on the 12v side.  the 18g i bought wouldnt crimp in the connectors i got.  Luckily, i had a huge spool of MonoPrice wire from doing my home entertainment system.

jumping those 3 posts simply handles more load without risking the thin lines on PCB which are not made to carry much without burning out

I like that voltage display, nice work!!!
When you get into The larger heaters use an SSR so the load isn't running though the board.

I was referring to the  solidoodle branch who's last commit was like a year before i got my printer (2011?).  If i go back to the master sanguinololu branch, is there any issues i should be aware of?  Also what does upgrading give me?  i glanced at the changelogs but didn't see anything obvious outside of support for other driver boards, etc.

Would it make sense to merge master back into the solidoodle branch? (sorry I'm being kind of lazy, i don't have a clone of the repo at my current location)

Thanks

oh I see what i did....

There is a sang package that seems to contain the bootloader etc.  This one was last updated before i got my printer.

Then there is the marlin package which is probably what i want to focus on.

ok new firmware installed, pid autotuned (sort of?).

so first thing.  i think i need to run autotune again,  the hotend WAY overshoots the temp set .. i an running it at 195 and it hits about 202 before pausing until it cools to about 197 before continuing the print.  After the initial spike the temp is rocksteady at 195c. 

Second, the hotbed seems to heat in half the time.  I've only heated it twice from a "warm" bed of about 40C and it got to temp in less than 10 minutes?  could the firmware be causing bed heating problems?

Also, I printed a calibration cube and it was the best thing I've ever printed.  no layer wobble and the dimensions are visually perfect.

....

Unfortunately about 10 seconds into a real print, I started having problems with the new lawsy mk5 extruder assembly.  the way the tension arm fits, the bearing sits less than a hair width away from the lip of extruder/base piece.  if any dust gets in there the entire thing locks up and it starts grinding filament (making dust..making jams..etc.

Was i supposed to substitute a smaller bearing or did my print go awry somehow? i did print an extra lawsy set post conversion but things look like they turned out the same.. hrm.ideas?