Power failure

I was wondering, since there is no way to resume printing if stopped, how do you deal with power failure?
Assuming an UPS would solve the problem, how much power does a printer needs to maintain ... say ... a 24 hour print?

Pedro.

All depends on your particular system, but it is pretty straightforward. Monitor your power supply(s) AC input to measure its(their) line current load while printing an object, then add that to the host computer (measured as well) to find the total current load. Multiply by ~1.2 to be conservative (always a good idea in my opinion), then use a wizard at one of the UPS company websites to determine your required UPS capacity.

xiando Wrote:
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> All depends on your particular system, but it is
> pretty straightforward. Monitor your power
> supply(s) AC input to measure its(their) line
> current load while printing an object, then add
> that to the host computer (measured as well) to
> find the total current load. Multiply by ~1.2 to
> be conservative (always a good idea in my
> opinion), then use a wizard at one of the UPS
> company websites to determine your required UPS
> capacity.

I'm still mounting it (reparappro mendel) and I was more thinking of autonomous printing, directly from SD (no PC), since in my zone, we have some power failure issues from time to time. I thought I'd post the question to see if anyone has had that problem also.

Then remove the PC from that part of the equation. Either way, it's very straightforward.

Car battery any good?

waitaki Wrote:
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> Car battery any good?

+1 on that. There are easy circuits to have a 12V battery trickle charged by line power while allowing line 12V to power the machine, but if power fails, the battery picks up the slack with no delay, and as long as the print doesn't use all the power in the battery, no worries. However, if you're running ABS hot and heating the bed with no enclosure, might wear the battery out. That's a simple calculation if you know your power consumption.

Regards,
aeronaut

aeronaut Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> waitaki Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Car battery any good?
>
> +1 on that. There are easy circuits to have a 12V
> battery trickle charged by line power while
> allowing line 12V to power the machine, but if
> power fails, the battery picks up the slack with
> no delay, and as long as the print doesn't use all
> the power in the battery, no worries. However, if
> you're running ABS hot and heating the bed with no
> enclosure, might wear the battery out. That's a
> simple calculation if you know your power
> consumption.
>
> Regards,
> aeronaut

I agree 100% since it's all 12v DC anyway run from a battery and use the outlet to charge it.

I've tried using a standard car battery for a UPS and found it just doesn't perform well under any substantial, sustained load, since the voltage droops too quickly.. Deep cycle batteries will do the job though, for a while anyway.

This seems to be a good solution ... this night another failure from 00:02 till 8:33 ... I hate those guys ... its not even bad weather on this parts ... it smells like a programmed failure and they don't even bother warning people ...

Anyway, can those circuits maintain the printer running for say ... 8 hours?
How much investment on it?

Pedro.


aeronaut Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> waitaki Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Car battery any good?
>
> +1 on that. There are easy circuits to have a 12V
> battery trickle charged by line power while
> allowing line 12V to power the machine, but if
> power fails, the battery picks up the slack with
> no delay, and as long as the print doesn't use all
> the power in the battery, no worries. However, if
> you're running ABS hot and heating the bed with no
> enclosure, might wear the battery out. That's a
> simple calculation if you know your power
> consumption.
>
> Regards,
> aeronaut