I’ve seen numerous indications all over the forum of K8200 power supply problems, but nothing official from Velleman support (so called).
When I run a long job my power supply overheats and shuts down briefly. The blue light goes out for a second, then comes back on. The power supply is protecting itself. I would not have realized the problem as fast as I did if I had not had LED lights above the extruder. I saw them blink when the job shut down. The 100 Watt power supply is not large enough for the K8200. It is very hot to the touch when this happens. It only happens on a long job. I attempted to heat sink the supply with a metal mounting, but that only took longer to fail.
If you are not watching closely, you have no idea why the job stopped running because there is no indication of the problem other than a very hot to the touch power supply.
The problem appears intermittent, but it is a simple overheating supply problem. Most intermittent electronics problems turn out to be temperature problems. I didn’t modify the supply in any way, so I intend to return it to Velleman. I don’t need a new supply, but I do need Vellemen to admit the problem and stop giving the run around to other owners who are having power supply problems and don’t know it.
I ordered a 15 Volt 150 Watt supply on eBay for under $35 USD shipping included. That will solve the problem. When and if Velleman gives me a new supply I will put it on the shelf.
To date, I have invested hundreds of extra dollars in my $700 kit. (New controller board, Z-axis coupler, better (adequate) power supply, and other spares because they are hard to come by and you must get them when they are available.) I’m within about $50 of cutting my losses.
Inadequate Power Supply - Just another brick in the wall.
It is plugged directly into the wall. It gets very hot to the touch when I’m running a print job with the heated bed. I stopped using the print bed (used tape instead) and the supply stopped shutting down.
I don’t think I got an especially bad one. Doesn’t yours run hot? Do you use the bed heater?
100 Watts is just too marginal. I bought a 150W supply for less than the cost of a Velleman replacement.
I have had several 12 hour jobs going one after another.
The led will turn off if I keep the room warm (the bed is a very large surface that can be cooled fast)
if the room is cool it will stay on.
I want to build an enclosure with a heater of some sort to see if I can improve the printouts.
So far I am still very pleased with this printer.
One thing to remember.
This is not a 20,000 machine, it is a kit and each of them have their own personality
You can not buy a Prius and expect the performance of a Corvette.
They will both get you to where you want to go but not for the same price or speed.
Take the power supply, unplug it obviously, masking tape off the power cord port and then spray it with NeverWet. A waterproofing spray. Comes in a spray bottle. Should be about $8. Then get take a ziplock bag and fill it about 50% with ice. Zip and place it in another ziplock bag (for extra condensation protection). Simply set the power brick on top of the bag. Just replace the ice every now and then. I went from having prints cut out two hours in at around layer 400ish, to printing parts for over six hours with no issues. It’s not the prettiest solution, but I can definitely say it works. I’m going to buy a more powerful supply soon, but until I find one I’m confident will work, this is working quite well.