Hi All
A friend of mine and myself have both put a bigger output power supply on our printers. I was looking for a bigger supply as mine was running quite hot, and I was concerned that the voltage would not be as stable. I run an E3d head, and they take a slight amount more current anyway. My friends power supply then failed, and we came to the conclusion that we were running the supplies to the limit.
We both got a bigger 15v supply from Rapid Electronics. I got the 10amp output one, and my friend got the slightly bigger one.
Having put them on, we have both seen an improvement in print quality. As the supplies are well on top of the job, we think that the voltage is much more stable, and the fact that they have large smoothing capacitors inside will help. The motors don’t seem to ‘buzz’ quite as much, and all the axes seem to have smoothed out their movements. Funnily enough, it seems to have improved the Z axes movement quite a bit. We assume that there would sometimes be a bit of ‘pole slippage’ on the Z axes. If there is any misalignment in the threaded rod, then the motor would ‘slip’ now and again with the extra torque required. The smoother voltage will help to stop this happening.
Has anyone else come across this?
Peter
I think extra power supply for heat bed should make a nice gap for the original one.
The original 6.67A must “feed” heat bed (almost 3 amps) and extruder (probably another 3 amps) and than there is not mutch left…
Hi Gamer
Yes, we came to the same conclusion. There is very little reserve capacity in the original power supply. If the heat bed switches on at the same time as the filament heater when changing height, then everything is on at once. X, Y and Z motors running with both heaters, and then filament retract as well. The motors also run with ‘pulses’ of power, rather than a smooth pull of current. The ratings of the motors are given from an average current. The actual pulses of current can be higher.
All together this obviously can affect the print quality
Peter
Yesterday I install LED stripes connected to original power supply and i notice a little dimming especially in corners (this makes big difference in print quality)… I’m thinking about some capacitor, but I’m not that good electrician to know how big…
edit:
I have 20v supply for heat bed connected with car rellay, so original power supply is not fully loaded.
I think you are on to something here. A friend of mine has a different brand of printer to which he added an E3D. The printer started resetting due to brownouts and current spikes. He was using an old ATX power supply.
So he upgraded to a larger power supply. This solved the brownout problem, but also caused a dramatic improvement in print quality. There was a huge reduction in z-banding and his extruder smoothed out. It was really very impressive.
I had not realized how big a difference this could make. I will be upgrading the power supply on my printer to see if I also get the same result.