Silicone Heated Bed Pad with thermostat

Hi,

I'd like to know what your thoughts about silicone heated bed pads with an included thermostat. There is one at here

Do you think it would be easier to set up and use compared to a SSR controlled one? Do we lose anything in this system, as it isn't controlled by RAMPS anymore?

Thanks

1) If it isn't controlled by the printer's controller, you will have to babysit the printer while the bed heats up. You can't just hit the go button and walk away like you can if the bed heater is controlled by the printer's controller.

2) Is the controller a simple bang-bang thermostat or a PID controller? Bang-bang sucks. Even Marlin has PID control built in.

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

Quote
the_digital_dentist
1) If it isn't controlled by the printer's controller, you will have to babysit the printer while the bed heats up. You can't just hit the go button and walk away like you can if the bed heater is controlled by the printer's controller.

2) Is the controller a simple bang-bang thermostat or a PID controller? Bang-bang sucks. Even Marlin has PID control built in.

Hi digital_dentist,

Thanks for your contributions.

1) Some user reviews state that the bed heats to 105 degrees C in a few minutes. If the babysitting part you mention is only for the heat up time, that doesn't seem to be a huge problem to me (I don't leave the printer before the first 2 layers are printed).
2) I haven't been able to find any mention on the manual about the controllin method. The manual can be found here and there is a link to the controller alone, without the silicone bed here but no mention on bang-bang or PID either. I don't suppose there is a way to find it. If the thermostat fluctuates a lot, that would be a problem for adhesion and print quality.

200W / 400 cm^2 = 0.5 W/cm^2 which is plenty to heat up to 100C quickly. If it doesn't say PID control, it is bang-bang.

You can buy a line powered heater with a built-in thermistor and an SSR for the same sort of money, and use the controller's built in PID loop to regulate temperature. You'll be able to use a cheaper, lower current power supply for the printer.

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

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