Power Supply Survey

Hello RepRappers,

as you probably know, RepRappers use all sort of power supplies these days. Cheap PC-PSUs, Laptop PSUs, dedicated 12V supplies. Doing a good choice is a bit tricky, as some supplies work well with pulse width modulation (PWM) used for the heaters, others not. Some simply vastly oversize their supply, but this also oversizes the price, of course.

To get an idea on where's about the minimum requirement, please fill in the following questions. I'll sum them up and offer the total next week.

Please report also combinations you found to not work, you're invited to give more than one answer.

Also, please report only combinations using a heated bed, as this is always the most critical setup.

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1. Type of PSU: -- PC-PSU -- Laptop PSU -- Dedicated 12V PSU -- two PSUs, one for the motors, one for the heated bed.

2. Specified overall PSU power: . . . . . . . . watts

3. Specified current on the 12V rail: . . . . . . . . ampéres

4. Approximate current of the heated bed: . . . . . . . ampéres (Note: PCB heated beds usually take 12 ampéres)

5. Firmware in use (Sprinter, Teacup, ...): . . . . . . .

6. Does the heated bed use PWM (yes / no / unknown): . . . . . . .

7. Does it work / what fails? . . . . . . .


Thank you for participating!

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Here is mine:

1. PC-PSU

2. 250 watts

3. 13 amps

4. 10 amps

5. Teacup

6. yes

7. Works either for motors and extruder or for a heated bed. Not both, of course.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2012 01:00PM by Traumflug.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

And mine:

1. PC-PSU

2. 550 watts

3. 20 amps

4. 12.5 amps

5. Marlin

6. No

7. Yes, I have 5R load on the 5V rail

This is an entry for Kliment, picked up on IRC:

1. PC-PSU: [www.reichelt.de];

2. 420 watts

3. 31 amps

4. 10 amps

5. Sprinter

6. unknown

7. works fine, even without a load on the 5V rail.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/29/2012 03:27PM by Traumflug.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

For my Techzone Huxley :

1. Two PSUs, one salvaged very old PC-AT PSU for the heated bed, one dedicated PSU only giving a 12V line for everything else (provided by techzone with the Huxley). Note that the 5V seems to be drawn from the USB line (everything but motors and hotend works when only USB is plugged).

2. Main : 60 W (calculated 5 x 12) / Bed : 150 W (Only using 3 x 12 = 36 W on the 12 V rail).

3. Main : 5 A / Bed : 3 A

4. 2.85 A when at ambient temp, something like 2.3 A when hot.

5. Techzone modified FiveD (modified to use the custom hotend control daughter board, with thermocouple).

6. No, direct connection to 12V rail

7. Yes it works. Main is provided to fit the machine / Bed surface heat up to 95°C only but I never needed more yet.

Edit : added main power values and some details of the setup.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2012 12:31PM by DeuxVis.

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Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.

For my huxley

1. PC-PSU (some mid-noname PSU called HEGEN 25€)

2. 550 watts (I think it is too much)

3. Specified current on the 12V rail: 16+16 ampéres

4. Approximate current of the heated bed: 4A

5. Firmware in use: Repetier

6. PWM? Yes

7. It work, but because of the cheap PSU, I can't plug and Unplug things on the same 220V plug. I've got interference and sometimes it reset my gen7 board :\ . Nevertheless, it works fine

1. Type of PSU:
PC-PSU, with 10W10RJ power resistor on 5V rail -
See [julianh72.blogspot.com.au]

2. Specified overall PSU power:
500 watts ATX power supply (very generously sized - but I had one lying around!)

3. Specified current on the 12V rail:
16 amps

4. Approximate current of the heated bed:
About 11 amps (Mk. 1 PCB heated bed)

5. Firmware in use:
Sprinter

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Follow my Mendel Prusa build here: [julianh72.blogspot.com]

1. Dedicated 12V PSU -- two PC-PSUs, one for the motors/electronics, one hacked old Dell hotwired for both heaters.

2. I think the main PC-PSU is 350W - I don't know about the Dell, probably ~300W.

3. Specified 12V current capacity - unknown

4. Heated Bed: 7.5-8.0A (1.5 ohm total R - on pretty much on continuously since it doesn't reach temp)
Hot End: 3.5A max (probably ~1.5A average current during operation)

5. Marlin Firmware on Gen7 electronics

6. Pretty sure heater control is bang-bang for both - I can watch the heater switch on/off

7. MOFSETS seem to do fine on bangbang - don't get hot at all. I did burn up one MOFSET (hot end not my bed) using Teacup with the high PWM switching frequency before I switched firmwares. My aluminum/power resistor heated bed doesn't ever reach temp, but at 50-60C it seems to work fine with ABS. I have a 0.75A load on the 5V line, but I'm not sure I need it now that I'm using 2 PSU's - before it would crap out after a few hours of use and not want to come back on for awhile (both supplies exhibited this behavior). I haven't had any PSU shutdowns since I switched to dual supplies, but it kinda sux - I was hoping to use the second PSU on a second printer. My uber nice 24ATX 450W supply refuses to work at all with Gen7 no matter what (turns on briefly and instantly turns off) so I'm relegated to using my older PSU's. Oh - and the motors seem much happier to be on their own supply - I can actually *hear* a significant difference in the coil tone - they definitely appreciate not being undervoltaged.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2012 11:45AM by JazzyMT.

1. PC psu: ATX model RE502-SLV, recycled out of an old computer.

2. Power supply claimed 500W total / 480W load

3. 12V rail is rated at 34A

4. Did not have the heated bed attached yet. Hot end predicted to draw 2.1A max.

5. Marlin, modified for Rostock printer, on RAMPS 1.4 board.

6. Does not appear to, during the brief test I did they were on all the time (print head never reached temperature)

7. Power supply was working properly during testing of moving the print head. When I told the printer to power on the hot end, after a few seconds the power supply made a loud bang and flash of light, then stopped working and smelled like burned components. The power supply seems to be dead. For ballast I was using the 5V line to power various fans and LEDs on the printer, and was running the motors and heaters off the 12V line.

Something of note regarding hot ends.

With a standard hot-end setup using a thermistor, the thermistor has a connection to ground. The resistor or heating element (nichrome) has a connection to your +ve voltage (12V).

Should you somehow short the +12V side of the resistor to the hot end, and also the thermistor ground to the hot end, you'll get a short across your PSU. This shouldn't take out your PSU, but it's possible that it will damage your electronics.

Therefore I always recommend you check to see that you don't have a short like this before connecting the hot end up to your electronics.

Also, some of the high temp glues that people use to hold the resistor, nichrome wire or thermistor to or in the hot end can be "somewhat" conductive till they are baked at a decent temperature for a short period. I tend to directly connect the hot end heating element (resistor, nichrome, etc) up to approximately one half of the hot ends rated voltage (mainly cos it's usually an easy value that is available on a PSU - eg: 5V or 6V for a 12V hot end, 12V for a 24V hot end) to make sure that the glue sets properly. The hot end won't get properly hot, but it will warm up enough over an appropriate period (eg: 30-45 mins) to usually bake the glue dry (which usually causes it to become non-conductive). Only once I've done that and confirmed once again there are no shorts between the heating element and thermistor, do I hook the thing up and give it a try.

Lastly: When cutting wires (such as component leads, tinned ends of wire, etc), note that you want to avoid the offcuts being flung around, ending up wherever they may. A standard PSU tends to have a lot of open holes for vents and the cooling fan, and the last thing you want in your PSU is a tiny bit of metal that could short out something inside. I've actually seen someone accidentally manage to fling a bit of wire offcut from one side of a bench to the other, directly into a switched on PSU that wasn't covered, killing the PSU and frying the electronics project that was connected to the PSU at the time (and that didn't belong to the person who was doing the cutting).

1. Type of PSU: -- HP model DPS-600PB series ESP135 PS (used in ProLiant DL380 G4 Rack Servers)

2. Specified overall PSU power: 575W

3. Specified current on the 12V rail: 47A

4. Approximate current of the heated bed: 12A

5. Firmware in use (Sprinter, Teacup, ...): Marlin

6. Does the heated bed use PWM (yes / no / unknown): No

7. Does it work / what fails? Works great. Modified the PS to be always on following [sites.google.com]

I also found this post on slowing the fan down so the PS is not so loud: [www.rcgroups.com]

-Rob A>

1. Type of PSU: PC-PSU Raidmax RX630Z ATX power supply, 630W

2. Specified overall PSU power: 630 watts

3. Specified current on the 12V rail: 22.0 ampéres

4. Approximate current of the heated bed: 12 ampéres

5. Firmware in use (Sprinter, Teacup, ...): Marlin

6. Does the heated bed use PWM (yes / no / unknown): yes

7. Does it work / what fails? I wasn't able to get past 80C with my old power supply so I went all out with 630 watts. it works great, currently heating the bed and hot end at the same time and I'm at 97C in about 10 minutes. I'm also running a few 12V LEDs that light up my bed. A perk of the PSU is that PC case fans directly connect if needed. So far so good!

1. Type of PSU: Meanwell SP-320-24

2. Specified overall PSU power: 320 watts

3. Specified current on the 12V 24V rail: 13.6 ampéres

4. Approximate current of the heated bed: 9.6A ampéres (Note: PCB heated beds usually take 12 ampéres)

5. Firmware in use (Sprinter, Teacup, ...): Marlin

6. Does the heated bed use PWM (yes / no / unknown): yes

7. Does it work / what fails? works

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Grüße / Regards

STB

______________________________________________________________

Basics about MOSFETs

1. Dedicated 12V PSU (this one: [www.ebay.co.uk])

2. 529 watts

3. 24 ampéres

4. 12a to 17a, it is connected to the PSU directly with a relais in between to switch on/off with sanguino signal

5. Marlin

6. No

7. Works great, heats up quick, almost as quick as my hotend, first layer: 110º, second layer 100º (with quick I mean it's ready to print in 5 minutes)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2013 06:12PM by Ohmarinus.

ill put this one in not finished built my 3d printer yet but hear goes


1.Hacked Xbox 360 With switch and Fan


2. 203w had 3 12v rails maybe four two wires was spliced together made it into two 12 volt rails wired straight to my ramps connector
(prob two power supplys later on)


3.16.5 amps (newbie to electronics so i dont understand if the bed is suppose to be powered from ramps and you have a 5amp and a 11amp input surely the ramps is rated a 16amp board), but slightly understand that it not just about amps it about the stability of the current flow so i suppose i will later on get another

4. have not got one yet till having trouble how to mount it into m4 tapped holes


5. marlin


6. unknown


7. unknown

1. Type of PSU: -- Xbox 360 PSU
2. Specified overall PSU power: . . . . . . . . 203W
3. Specified current on the 12V rail: . . . . . . . . 16.5amps
4. Approximate current of the heated bed: . . . . . . 10 amps
5. Firmware in use (Sprinter, Teacup, ...): . . . . . . . 
6. Does the heated bed use PWM (yes / no / unknown): . . . . . . . unknown
7. Does it work / what fails? . . . . . . . yes it works gr8, quick heat up times and offers power protection, overheat protection, active cooling and standby. i highly reccomend it and I have used it on several repraps

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