printer on a timer??

Hello!
One issue I had a couple of days ago, I was doing a print when I something came up which meant had to leave the house..
my house is... fairly flamable, combined with ocd and slight paranoia, I don't like leaving the printer running while I'm out or asleep.
Not so much while it's printing, but more the fact the PSU continure running after the print is complete.

Can any one reccomend any ideas, I'm think of building an acrylic/perspex enclosure as it is.. should i bother to fire proof this fire or would that be a waste of time? or could doing this cause problems to heat regulation?

or would there be any issues in pluging the PSU into mains timer: [www.amazon.co.uk]

any thoughts?

I have sometimes left my printer on when I am asleep, but I have a smoke alarm in the room it is in, linked to another smoke alarm just outside my bedroom. I'm also careful not to leave anything flammable near the printer.

If you are still using the ATX PSU, then in theory the firmware could switch the PSU to standby when the print is complete. I think this may require allocation of a gcode to enable/disable the feature.

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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].

M80 and M81 are supposed to be for that: [reprap.org]

Ian
RepRapPro tech support

Thanks Ian, maybe I'll implement that in my next firmware version. If we can agree on the M-codes and parameters, I'll also amend the codes used to set thermistor parameters and ADC offsets.

Acting on the M81 command will need to be delayed until the hot end has cooled down.

One problem I can see with using M81 for this purpose is that the user needs to add it to the gcode file to be printed. Since a user may not always want to turn the printer off when a print finishes (e.g. because he wants to start another one), this means either editing the gcode file, or having 2 sets of slic3r settings with different epilogues. I'm wondering whether it might be better to have an optional parameter to the M81 command, e.g. M81 P10 could mean turn the printer off whenever the hot end is cool and the printer has been idle for 10 minutes. Preferably, all the current settings and the axis positions would be saved to flash memory or the SD card first, so that the printer can be restarted without having to home all axes etc.

Implementing the M80 command s well would require that the Duet +5V power be powered from the +5VSB output from the ATX PSU.

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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].

I have mine running on one of the timer sockets like you use for turning lamps on and of automatically. I tend to take a guess on when it's likely to finish and then add an hour or two onto the time. Not sure it helps on the fire risk, but it saves wasting electricity. Editing the g code to turn the bed off after a few mm have been built also helps from an energy use point of view, and presumably if there is no power running to the bed this makes it less likely to be a fire risk.

Like the others I make sure that there isn't anything flamable lying around the printer. The acetone for cleaning the bed before printing definitely goes back in the draw.

Quote
hornbyben
I have mine running on one of the timer sockets like you use for turning lamps on and of automatically. I tend to take a guess on when it's likely to finish and then add an hour or two onto the time. Not sure it helps on the fire risk, but it saves wasting electricity. Editing the g code to turn the bed off after a few mm have been built also helps from an energy use point of view, and presumably if there is no power running to the bed this makes it less likely to be a fire risk.

Like the others I make sure that there isn't anything flamable lying around the printer. The acetone for cleaning the bed before printing definitely goes back in the draw.

Switching off the bed during a print could lead to warping, and could also cause the print to detach from the bed. Perhaps not as much of an issue with PLA, but it would definitely not work with ABS.

Dave
(#106)

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your comments.

Currently I'm only printing pla, and I haven't had any issues with warping from turning the bed off. I always clean the bed with acetone immediately before a print, and do the first layer at 205°C for a good contact, before reducing the temperature to 180°C for the rest of the print. In most cases unless the footprint is very small I end up having to take the glass off to remove my prints so that I don't put too much force into the bed. They definitely don't come unstuck easily, even at room temperature.