Large Scale Bed Controller

Hello all,

I am working on creating a printer with a large heat bed (24x24) and I wanted to control it with a separate temperature controller, not with the RAMPS board on the printer. Basically what I'm trying to do is similar to how gcreate is controlling their bed: [shop.gcreate.com]

I wanted to ask if anyone knows where to buy a controller like this or how to make one similar to this?

Easy way is with a PID.

They are using a bang-bang controller that you can buy on amazon.com for about $15. If you spend about $40 you can get a PID controller with temperature probe and SSR: [www.amazon.com]

PID control will provide better temperature regulation if you have an adequately powered heater, and more regulated temperature translates to better print quality.

I have used the same controller for a different project and they are easy to set up and use.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

The problem with using a separate controller is that you can't so easily get the bed heater to turn off when the print is finished; or wait until it has reached operating temperature at the start of a print. The usual solution for controlling large bed heaters is to use an SSR driven from the main electronics.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2016 02:19AM by dc42.

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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].

Thank you all for the quick replies!!!