How can printer turn itself off when done?

Hi,

A lot of times prints take hours and hours; often finishing in the wee hours of the night. Then, the printer sits there keeping the bed warm for hours while I snooze away.
I've seen power supply settings ATX, XBox, etc. but I have a 12v 30amp power supply with no on/off switch.

What I would like is some sort of device that is able to cut power when done printing.

Thinking about it, cutting power does not seem to be the problem, but resetting the mechanism might be?

What do you guys use? Someone must have a clever solution?

Thank you.

M104 S0 ; turn off temperature
G28 X0 ; home X axis
M84 ; disable motors

I use an ATX psu. Repetier firmware has two settings for timeouts with various levels of power-down, the second of which turns off the psu. Perfect.

Mains timer set to turn the power off a little while after the print finishes?

---

Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

You need a way to power the +5v while the main supply is off (so you can turn it back on!)

If you leave your controller connected to a USB you can use that, otherwise you will have to arrange something

Then you just connect a something like a triac switch to a IO pin and turn the AC on and off to the 12v power supply

eg [www.instructables.com] (I dont know if this eg can handle the load)

Most people just use the ending gcode to turn off all the heaters at the end of a print. The firmware itself will generally either turn the motors off or reduce the motor current after a period of inactivity; or you can command this in the end gcode too.

If you use an ATX PSU to power the printer, then most firmwares have the facility to tell the PSU to shut down most of its outputs, if you wire the PS_ON pin appropriately.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
Eddiie
What do you guys use?

A controller which supports all your wishes out of the box: [reprap-diy.com]

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

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etfrench
M104 S0 ; turn off temperature
G28 X0 ; home X axis
M84 ; disable motors

Thanks, I'll use these for now.

But still want to turn off the FANs, lights, cameras,

Quote
JamesK
I use an ATX psu. Repetier firmware has two settings for timeouts with various levels of power-down, the second of which turns off the psu. Perfect.

How many watts is the ATX power supply that you use. I have a full-size power supply but it is too bulky. I tried a little power supply but too much draw from the one rail.

Quote
DjDemonD
Mains timer set to turn the power off a little while after the print finishes?

Meh. We can do better than that. Can't we?

If you are using a Raspberry running OctoPrint you could setup a relay board and use the print start/end events to turn things on and off. I still haven't set it all up but that's how I plan to do it. OctoPrint Print start event will switch on 12V power, LED's, and camera. OctoPrint print stop events will turn all that off.

Add a Normally-Open mains relay, with a toggle switch in parallel to it in the circuit to whatever supplies all the fans and lights and cameras and the ATX power supply and anything else. The relay is controlled by the heated bed or nozzle heater or switched fan circuit, so when the heater is on, the relay is closed. Add a diode (so that the heater doesn't suck the power out of the capacitor too quickly) plus a resistor-capacitor pair so that if the heater is turned off short-term (less than a minute?), the relay stays closed.

If you controlled the relay using an output from the controller board that was switched by a G-code command, you wouldn't need the diode or R-C pair. You would add the appropriate switch on/off (M42?, M81?, M126?, M380?) commands to your start and end of the G-code.

In operation, you'd turn the switch on, which would allow the printer to run. Once the printing actually starts, the relay will close when the heater is turned on. You then turn off the switch. A minute or so (depending on the R-C pair) after the heater is finally turned off at the end of the print, the relay will open, and power will be turned off to everything.

Quote
Eddiie

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etfrench
M104 S0 ; turn off temperature
G28 X0 ; home X axis
M84 ; disable motors

Thanks, I'll use these for now.

But still want to turn off the FANs, lights, cameras,

You will still need to wait until the hot end cools down before turning off the fans, otherwise jams will be the order of the day.

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Eddiie

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DjDemonD
Mains timer set to turn the power off a little while after the print finishes?

Meh. We can do better than that. Can't we?

Of course but there is a place for a simple solution.

---

Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

Quote
Eddiie
How many watts is the ATX power supply that you use. I have a full-size power supply but it is too bulky. I tried a little power supply but too much draw from the one rail.

It's a 450W unit. The ratings are often rather optimistic on these units, so I don't think I'd want to use anything smaller. The physical size doesn't bother me.

I personally don't trust my (or any other ) printer enough to sleep with it on!
You should think about a smoke alarm at least, lest you wake up dead one day.

Automatic fire extinguishers may be an answer :
[www.firemart.co.uk]

[reprap.org]

---

Pierre

- Safety [reprap.org]
- Embedded help system for Duet and RepRap Firmware [forums.reprap.org]
- Enclosed delta printers Lily [rouzeau.net] and Lily Big [rouzeau.net]
- OpenScad delta printer simulator [github.com]
- 3D printing on my site [www.rouzeau.net]

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PRZ
Automatic fire extinguishers may be an answer :
[www.firemart.co.uk]

[reprap.org]

Somehow, I think the printer will keep printing during and after the extinguisher going off.
Oh, unless the fire extinguisher retardant hits a string that is tied to the plug from the wall?? Is that what you mean?
Sounds messy.
:p

There was a good thread relating to this: [forums.reprap.org]

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Zedsquared
I personally don't trust my (or any other ) printer enough to sleep with it on!

better than 80% of all my printing is unattended with better than 30% done overnight when I'm sound asleep. I don't have the printer inside the residence though. It is located in my detached garage so significantly less risky to my personal safety.

About the only time it's actually turned off is if I don't have something to print overnight, it got turned off last night for the first time in weeks

You could try this gCode if you're using Sprinter, Marlin, or Repetier:
M85: Set inactivity shutdown timer
Example: M85 S30
Set inactivity shutdown timer with parameter S. "M85 S0" will disable the inactivity shutdown time (default)

You could also write a macro that checks the hotend temperature, then turns off the fans, etc..

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2016 12:48AM by etfrench.