Is there any way to lower my MK3S+’s wattage?
Hi all,
I have a MK3S+ that I wanted to operate at a stall at the beach. For this I bought a Ryobi power inverter (link) to supply it. The inverter can supply 220 watts which I thought would be enough to power the machine given it maxes at 150 watts during printing. However it appears that on start up it uses 300 watts, as a result the printer does not turn on and the inverter flashes.
Is there any way I can lower the wattage on start up? It can be either hardware or software. I think I can get away without a heated bed so maybe I could unplug that?
Thanks in advance! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Ezra
If you, or someone you know, are competent with power electronics then a large capacitor to support the output during the surge might be enough.
Or, if you are using 24v batteries you could bypass the AC stage entirely.
Or experiment by raising the bed temperature in stages - this may take some time but doesn't require any electronics knowledge.
Cheerio,
RE: Is there any way to lower my MK3S+’s wattage?
Hi Diem, thanks for the reply!
What rating/type of capacitor should I use, and how could I connect it to my printer? Thanks again.
RE: Is there any way to lower my MK3S+’s wattage?
if you are going to try a cold bed, you would be wise to use a different substrate, PEI Gets less good at adhesion as it gets cooler...
Perhaps Blue painters tape on top of the PEI (Old School)
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
I'm going to be deliberately unhelpful: if you need to ask that question then I doubt you are a capable enough power engineer to fit a high energy capacitor circuit safely. Sorry, but if it's not done right it can go spectacularly wrong.
In your case it might be better to take the more expensive and bulkier route and supply 24v from batteries thereby bypassing the power supply and the inefficiency of inverting then regenerating DC ... You will need batteries capable of supplying 10A for a short while; if you use cheap, second hand car or truck batteries you might need a zener circuit to stabilise the output but most will be OK. You will also need to fudge the power panic signal, it should be OK to just pull it high through a resistor or you could choose to use it as a low battery cutoff with another zener.
Cheerio,