elmoret wrote:

Tomek wrote:

you can set it to 14V

That's a 30% jump in power for the heated bed and extruder. Those resistors might be ok short term, but could get into trouble long term with that high a voltage.

Doesn't seem to be a huge issue on rep-raps...

I think you're right. I assume I *will* burn out my resistor eventually. I hope the aluminum does a good job of not letting it get too hot, though. I am hoping it will last long enough until I implement my 400watt AC nichrome heater, which is in the works.

I thought of a better answer than lead acid, if you're unhappy with the 14V setpoint (you can do something like 13V with lead acid, that will also work. You just will need a relatively bigger battery and assume over time the SLA will be unhappy.)  You can use lithium polymer **if you have experience with them and understand the risks** because 3S has the perfect storage floating voltage of 12-12.3V (4-4.1/ea. That's a great level with safety in case anything comes out of balance a little.)

Can you provide more details or a link to the pad you are using?

Very interested to see how it compares to the QU-BD silicone mat I'm using. How much faster is the heat up?

The heat-up is about the same as the old resistor. The big change is in reliability. At one point we were getting significant "DUD" rates on the old resistors, and some were burning out in the field. No such problems with the heating mats.

Also to be clear, the heating mat works in conjunction with the aluminum platform - not instead.

Very interested to see how it compares to the QU-BD silicone mat I'm using. How much faster is the heat up?

We have now switched to a heating pad on all new Solidoodles

Nice!

solidoodlesupport wrote:

Doesn't seem to be a huge issue on rep-raps...

The heated bed resistor has failed for a few users of the SD. It is rated for 50w, and is at 48w on 12v. on 14v, it would dissipate 65w. I'm not predicting certain failure, it was just a heads up.

We have now switched to a heating pad on all new Solidoodles

Doesn't seem to be a huge issue on rep-raps...

The heated bed resistor has failed for a few users of the SD. It is rated for 50w, and is at 48w on 12v. on 14v, it would dissipate 65w. I'm not predicting certain failure, it was just a heads up.

Tomek wrote:

you can set it to 14V

That's a 30% jump in power for the heated bed and extruder. Those resistors might be ok short term, but could get into trouble long term with that high a voltage.

Doesn't seem to be a huge issue on rep-raps...

you can set it to 14V

That's a 30% jump in power for the heated bed and extruder. Those resistors might be ok short term, but could get into trouble long term with that high a voltage.

If you have replaced the power supply unit, you can set it to 14V, or whatever the long-term charge state of lead acid is, and connect a SLA to the DC outputs so that SLA is always charged. Your host computer should be a laptop with its own battery.

Then, everything should be fine without power for a considerable time.

I am.
A small one is fine as it is only needed a few minutes.
Hook your computer to it also and disable  windows update automatic reboots.

Sounds like a good idea.