Power Supply failure  

Re: Power Supply failure

To anyone wondering if they should take the plunge on the Meanwell upgrade.. it's really not very hard. If you undo all the wire ties you have plenty of room to install the new PSU without any need to run longer wires, it just fits in place. The 3D printed parts available fit great and everything works as it should.

The fan is crazy loud on the meanwell, the replacement fan people linked here is only marginally better. I tried just removing the fan entirely but the PSU gets a little too warm than I'd be comfortable with. I want to rig up a quieter fan somehow, maybe mounted on the outside of the PSU.

Thats interesting. I always read, that you need longer wires. Could you tell, what part you use for mounting the PSU and which meanwell PSU you use?
Is there a difference in the noise level between the different 300-350W meanwell PSU-models?

Re: Power Supply failure

For those who have had a PSU fail under warranty and got it replaced without them asking for the broken one back, it would be interesting to do a teardown and find out exactly what tends to fail. If it really does tend to fail more often with 120V input, it would point to the PFC as the most likely cause. 3D printers are often used in business settings so unlike for, say, a game console, there is a point having PFC.

Replacing the PFC with a voltage doubler (like what the CR-10 PSU uses) would lower the manufacturing cost and eliminate a point of failure, but would lower the number of printers that a circuit can run. Maybe that could be worth a consideration for the kit printers? (I highly doubt a business would order kit printers - the cost of labor to assemble them would cancel out most if not all of the cost savings even if everything goes right.)

Re: Power Supply failure

I just received my printer last week and I'm very impressed by the MK3's printing capability. However, I have to echo what so many of you are saying regarding the PSU being under powered. I didn't go into the unit to measure the DC side wattage. However, I did measure the input side and then applied the efficiency of about 80% (what I understand to be typical for most PSUs of this type). So I was estimating the DC side as being at the limit of the PSU when both hot end and heated bed was energized. Once heated, I had a sustained range of power approximately 80 - 125 W for hot end and heat bed. Throw in 50-60 W for steppers and electronics and you could estimate the sustained power for the printer is probably going to sit around 180-190 W.

That gives you about 20% reserve.

Someone posted earlier about this being a tlpz-24-240 (plus one picture appeared to have this model number stamped on the board)... for this model, this can be found on some websites selling this model:
!!! Warning !!! Maximum continuous recommended load is min. 20% reserve for normal use, for installation in commercial premises with a use time of 8 or more hours per day, the recommended permanent load is recommended due to the efficiency of switched sources with min. 30% reserve to maintain the longest life of the resource.

So as I see it, it comes down to 2 big issues:

1. The PSU cannot handle heating the hot end and heated bed together from ambient. Which on the MK3 preheat settings, I believe the only options heat both.

2. Even though wattage at normal operating condition appears to be within the PSUs capability, the led-tech website suggests for this application, it's still too close.

While I appreciate Josef's response to the clicking and other noises, I would like to see some more technical information regarding the printers estimated maximum power usage and how that compares to the performance of the PSU.

Re: Power Supply failure

Adding my name to the pile of power supply failures. It died quietly in the middle of a PLA print, standard temperatures. Power supply fuse blew. Still waiting on shipping information for the replacement, and giving strong consideration to just using a Mean Well instead.

Re: Power Supply failure

Adding my name to the pile of power supply failures. It died quietly in the middle of a PLA print, standard temperatures. Power supply fuse blew. Still waiting on shipping information for the replacement, and giving strong consideration to just using a Mean Well instead.

Same thing happened to me today, over 200 hours of PLA prints and had just started abs prints today, first 5 hour print went perfect but 2 hours into the second one printer shutoff and fuse blew. Replacement is coming but also thinking about upgrading

Re: Power Supply failure

Crossing fingers here... I have 450+ hours now on mine, with PLA, TPU, and PET prints. So far, so good, but I already have backup power supplies if this blows.

Re: Power Supply failure

well guys... i am in hospital with a suspected stroke... so i am hoping my biological power supply lasts longer than the prusa one... no printing for me, for a while

😥

Re: Power Supply failure

well guys... i am in hospital with a suspected stroke... so i am hoping my biological power supply lasts longer than the prusa one... no printing for me, for a while

😥

Damn. Strokes suck. Hope it is not too bad Joan. Get well soon.

Best wishes,

Alf

Re: Power Supply failure

Thanks Alf...

this is my first and i am not enjoying it...

hope to get out soon.

joan

Re: Power Supply failure

Take care Joan.
Get well soon, we will try to cope here without you for a while. It will not be easy.

Re: Power Supply failure

thanks Gert.

some of my fingers still work. so I will still be around for a while... 🙂

Joan

Re: Power Supply failure

well guys... i am in hospital with a suspected stroke... so i am hoping my biological power supply lasts longer than the prusa one... no printing for me, for a while

😥

Get well soon, keep us posted.

Re: Power Supply failure

well guys... i am in hospital with a suspected stroke... so i am hoping my biological power supply lasts longer than the prusa one... no printing for me, for a while

😥

Get well soon, keep us posted.

Re: Power Supply failure

well guys... i am in hospital with a suspected stroke... so i am hoping my biological power supply lasts longer than the prusa one... no printing for me, for a while

😥

Joan;

I thank you for all the help you have given to us newbies. Please take care. We are hoping for a full recovery!

Bill

Re: Power Supply failure

well guys... i am in hospital with a suspected stroke... so i am hoping my biological power supply lasts longer than the prusa one... no printing for me, for a while

Will keep you in my prayers Joan! Hope you are back to 100% soon. You're so very helpful to everyone here on the forum and I'm happy to have you with us. Have a blessed Easter weekend!

Kind Regards,

Nelson

Re: Power Supply failure

well guys... i am in hospital with a suspected stroke... so i am hoping my biological power supply lasts longer than the prusa one... no printing for me, for a while

😥

Hopefully you get a good recovery.

I had a stroke at 37. Due to a dissected vertebral artery. Luckily I had a good recovery was only in hospital for 8 days. And have very little left over symptoms 9 years later.

Most people that don’t know me wouldn’t even be able to pick that it had happened to me.

Keep us updated. And again. Speedy recovery.

Jason.

Re: Power Supply failure

Thanks Folks,

it turns out i had an Ischaemic Stroke

been told to keep active but not overdo things,

went to the cinema with the grand kids, bought a walking stick
had a meal out and went home...

not as active as normal but still up and about

regards Joan

Re: Power Supply failure

At the risk of going off topic, I would suggest watching Forks over Knives, with the caveat that it sounds like a big ad for Whole Foods because that's the most well known health oriented grocery store in the US.

Trying to get back on topic, maybe the next release of firmware should have the option to sequence the bed and extruder warmup? By manually preheating the bed first, I managed to lower the peak to 250W or so.

Re: Power Supply failure

Trying to get back on topic, maybe the next release of firmware should have the option to sequence the bed and extruder warmup? By manually preheating the bed first, I managed to lower the peak to 250W or so.

This is just gcode sequencing from your slicer software. You can update the gcode to heat one at a time if you want.

Re: Power Supply failure

Trying to get back on topic, maybe the next release of firmware should have the option to sequence the bed and extruder warmup? By manually preheating the bed first, I managed to lower the peak to 250W or so.

This is just gcode sequencing from your slicer software. You can update the gcode to heat one at a time if you want.

Like this.

ORIGINAL

M115 U3.1.1-RC5 ; tell printer latest fw version
M201 X1000 Y1000 Z200 E5000 ; sets maximum accelerations, mm/sec^2
M203 X200 Y200 Z12 E120 ; sets maximum feedrates, mm/sec
M204 S1250 T1250 ; sets acceleration (S) and retract acceleration (T)
M205 X10 Y10 Z0.4 E2.5 ; sets the jerk limits, mm/sec
M205 S0 T0 ; sets the minimum extruding and travel feed rate, mm/sec
M83 ; extruder relative mode
M104 S[first_layer_temperature] ; set extruder temp
M140 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; set bed temp
M190 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; wait for bed temp
M109 S[first_layer_temperature] ; wait for extruder temp
G28 W ; home all without mesh bed level
G80 ; mesh bed leveling
G1 Y-3.0 F1000.0 ; go outside print area
G92 E0.0
G1 X60.0 E9.0 F1000.0 ; intro line
G1 X100.0 E12.5 F1000.0 ; intro line
G92 E0.0
M221 S{if layer_height<0.075}100{else}95{endif}
M220 S115


SEQUENTIAL

M115 U3.1.1-RC5 ; tell printer latest fw version
M201 X1000 Y1000 Z200 E5000 ; sets maximum accelerations, mm/sec^2
M203 X200 Y200 Z12 E120 ; sets maximum feedrates, mm/sec
M204 S1250 T1250 ; sets acceleration (S) and retract acceleration (T)
M205 X10 Y10 Z0.4 E2.5 ; sets the jerk limits, mm/sec
M205 S0 T0 ; sets the minimum extruding and travel feed rate, mm/sec
M83 ; extruder relative mode
M140 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; set bed temp
M190 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; wait for bed temp
M104 S[first_layer_temperature] ; set extruder temp
M109 S[first_layer_temperature] ; wait for extruder temp
G28 W ; home all without mesh bed level
G80 ; mesh bed leveling
G1 Y-3.0 F1000.0 ; go outside print area
G92 E0.0
G1 X60.0 E9.0 F1000.0 ; intro line
G1 X100.0 E12.5 F1000.0 ; intro line
G92 E0.0
M221 S{if layer_height<0.075}100{else}95{endif}
M220 S115

And just becuase I can, Here's my custom one that prevents oozing, and oozey-bits sticking to the PEI sheet.
Pre-heat the nozzle to a "cold" temp, once "full preheat" starts, turn cooling fan on, which keeps any "ooze" from sticking to anything. Once full pre-heat, perform bed-leveling. Then before printing the inital "purge" extrude, turn fan off. I've never had a "blob" stick to the PEI sheet since I started using this script. 🙂

Sean's Custom Print-Start G-Code

M115 U3.1.1-RC5 ; tell printer latest fw version
M201 X1000 Y1000 Z200 E5000 ; sets maximum accelerations, mm/sec^2
M203 X200 Y200 Z12 E120 ; sets maximum feedrates, mm/sec
M204 S1250 T1250 ; sets acceleration (S) and retract acceleration (T)
M205 X10 Y10 Z0.4 E2.5 ; sets the jerk limits, mm/sec
M205 S0 T0 ; sets the minimum extruding and travel feed rate, mm/sec
M83 ; extruder relative mode
M104 S170 ; set extruder temp to 170c to preheat nozzle, yet not ooze.
M140 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; set bed temp
M190 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; wait for bed temp
M106 S255 ; Turn cooling fan on to harden outside of oozy filament
M109 S[first_layer_temperature] ; Bring extruder to full first-layer temp.
G28 W ; home all without mesh bed level
G80 ; mesh bed leveling
G1 Y-3.0 F1000.0 ; go outside print area
M106 S0 ; Turn cooling fan off before printing anything
G92 E0.0
G1 X60.0 E9.0 F1000.0 ; intro line
G1 X100.0 E12.5 F1000.0 ; intro line
G92 E0.0
M221 S{if layer_height<0.075}100{else}95{endif}