Connecting LEDs to power supply.
Hey all,
I'm not very experienced with tinkering with electrical equipment, but to my Prusa i3 MK3 I would like to connect some LEDs (24V) I recently bought using the printer's power supply. Upon building the LACK enclosure, I came across this possibility in one of the videos, and found the idea cool, more interesting than buying LEDs with their own power adapter.
I've installed the LEDs, and have everything ready with the enclosure (PSU is out, etc). However, as I open the PSU i find there are not vacant connecting slots. Hence, I wonder how you guys would advise the connection. Can I partition the power from any of the occupied slots with the LEDs?
Many thanks in advance,
Ricardo
Re: Connecting LEDs to power supply.
Hello,
I don't recommend you use stock prusa PSU to power anything else than the printer, it already run at limits when printer is at full heat up, and still is underpowered.
I recommend buy a better power supply and use it for everything you want (printer + extra connections) or run a dedicated power supply for LEDs.
It's ok if you run a few leds, but if you go meters of led i don't recommend connect that to stock psu.
But if you want to you can solder two wires to your led strip, and screw the other side at power supply, stack it on any 24V terminal. You can notice a red wire stack with other fork terminal so no problem to put two wires into a terminal
Re: Connecting LEDs to power supply.
still is underpowered.
i'd like to replace the psu eventually but currently I run my pi+webcam from a buck converter straight off the 24v input to the board, never seen it pull more than 700ma at 5v.
op: the only time the psu is dangerously underpowered is during initial preheat so if you're really worried you can just heat your bed and nozzle separately by tweaking your start scripts.
Re: Connecting LEDs to power supply.
op: the only time the psu is dangerously underpowered is during initial preheat so if you're really worried you can just heat your bed and nozzle separately by tweaking your start scripts.
Yes that is a good way, and by the way the best one, so if you print ABS for example you need wait a ton of time for bed preheat and your nozzle is heating PINDA sensor and will get a bad reading by that. So heat one by one is the best way (bed first)
Re: Connecting LEDs to power supply.
What power supply have folks used?
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
Re: Connecting LEDs to power supply.
i recently went thru this whole process as well. in the dead power supply thread, there were lots of people getting Meanwell units, and there were Thingiverse models for PSU frames/cases, so I went that route. I got an LSR-350-24. I downloaded and modified a case one of the other uses posted, printed it, installed the meanwell, hooked up my LEDs (i was using 12v, so i needed a buck converter) and Iv been running that for about 3 weeks with no issues. I have the Enclosure plugin via Octoprint giving me control of the LEDs and it works perfectly. You can insert gcode into your scripts to control the LED color and brightness (assuming you have RGB leds).
Here is the power supply failure thread, which i read enough of to pre-order the meanwell even before my printer arrived...
https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/hardware-firmware-and-software-help-f64/power-supply-failure-t13443.html
This is the thread i followed for the case, and switching out the guts...
https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/user-mods-octoprint-enclosures-nozzles--f65/alternate-power-supply-meanwell-rsp-320-24-t15707.html#p97571
...its a nice case, but there were a few issues. primarily, that angled corner at the bottom makes it an absolute b1tch to connected the power plug, but its doable.
hope that helps