Tom Sanladerer's voltage mod, is it safe?
Hello all,
I was perusing YouTube last night and found a recent video that Tom posted about increasing the voltage of the power supply to between 13.8v-14v. He did this to combat the problem of slow heat times and the occasional low temp error. Tom says that by doing this it does not harm the machine or any of its components... but i'm still skeptical. Does anyone know definitively what this does in the long term to the machine and is it safe. i have cooked a couple ramps boards on my other printer because of high voltage so i'm not willing to risk something like this unless i'm reassured that its not going to harm the machine.
any thoughts?
Toms video:
Re: Tom Sanladerer's voltage mod, is it safe?
I had the same question.
Re: Tom Sanladerer's voltage mod, is it safe?
OK, the RAMBo is safe up to 28 volts, I believe, the stepper motors are current-limited and the electronics are powered via a buck converter.
So the only things that will be affected by the higher voltage are the fans and the heaters.
Fans should be OK up to 14 or 15 volts. The bed heater is nominally 1 Ohm, so any increase in voltage will also increase the current draw. As it has a 15 Amp fuse and at 14 Volts will be drawing 14 Amps, that for me, is way too close.
I think the most I would go to is 13 volts, and given the drop across the MOSFET output, the resulting voltage and current would be around 12.5, or about 170 Watts, an 18% power increase
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Tom Sanladerer's voltage mod, is it safe?
Thanks Peter,
This is excellent input i just hope that people don't cook their machines due to this video. Tom gives a disclaimer but i feel like a lot of people may push the machine to hard. normally things have limits for a reason and if it was meant to run at 14v Prusa would ship them already set at 14v.
thanks again,
Cole
Re: Tom Sanladerer's voltage mod, is it safe?
Yeah, there are other ways to help heat-up times (cork under the bed, enclosure) and to combat temperature warnings (socks, kapton tape).
Personally I use socks and the bed heat time is not unacceptable. Only used socks for a couple of months, before that I had no problems. Mainly print PLA though, other materials could persuade me to implement other measures.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Tom Sanladerer's voltage mod, is it safe?
At least he confirmed my observations in an earlier post that the bed takes 15 minutes to heat to 105c for abs (see first comment).
I'll stop worrying about that issue being a fault at least.
Re: Tom Sanladerer's voltage mod, is it safe?
I totally agree with Peter (PJR) . Don't push it at the higher end voltage. My heatbed does not take long to heat up with default voltage setting, and the hotend always heats up quickly, my printer is in a warm room. I have printed with many materials PLA. ABS, Ngen, Ninjaflex, PLA/PHA , and PETG. No problem as far as I can see with default voltage settings. About the only thing I feel Tom Sanladerer has maybe, got wrong. My Original MK2 Prusa is singing in tune with me. I always get brilliant prints, with the materials I have tried so far.
Nigel
Life is keeping interested and excited by knowledge and new things.
Re: Tom Sanladerer's voltage mod, is it safe?
Yeah, there are other ways to help heat-up times (cork under the bed, enclosure) and to combat temperature warnings (socks, kapton tape).
So far my bed heads up fast enough (PLA and PETG) but that cork isolation is interesting. I guess one need to train the bed PID after this?
Carsten
My Prints: https://www.prusaprinters.org/social/15695-carsten/prints
My Employer: https://make-magazin.de
Re: Tom Sanladerer's voltage mod, is it safe?
Carsten
I do that already anyways but it really isn't as necessary as the extruder.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Tom Sanladerer's voltage mod, is it safe?
I ordered some of the silicon socks so hopefully those will come before Christmas... but printer shipped yesterday so I will get it put together and try it without sock for a while.