How I fixed Z banding on my 12" i3v. AL Y bed and solid state heat bed relay/PID

[tsteever]

Ahh, I see. At first I was very puzzled by this, that can't be true. It is a safety feature. It will cancel the print. It does, but unless your printer can shut off the power supply (or at least power to the heatbed) then it wouldn't do any good. Thanks for the clarification!

Is there a thread about using a ATX power supply and how to wire it? I am thinking about switching power supplies and I had toyed with the idea of a computer power supply. I'm not too keen on the extra steps needed but if it is safer/better it may be worth it. The power supply I linked to earlier is 36amps but appears to be better quality. It is $80. I can get a morepowerful ATX power supply for less. If it also works better...bonus.

[printbus]

...Is there a thread about using a ATX power supply and how to wire it?

Your i3v build guide at least has the basics regarding wiring the 12v output, jumpering the power supply PS_ON signal to force the ATX to turn on, and dealing with a load on the 5v rail if necessary. Being able to turn the ATX power supply on and off by gcode or turning it off in the case of thermal runaway adds complexity. Maybe someone else has links to a thread talking about it - I know this has been discussed. This How to wire PS_ON to control PC Power Supply reprap wiki thread may help.

The printer electronics needs to stay powered on even when the ATX supply is off. Details might vary depending on the type of printer electronics. One option is to power the electronics from USB all the time. Some have used a separate 5V source (5V STANDBY from the ATX, a 5V wall-wart, or some other 5V supply) to power both the electronics and their Raspberry Pi setup. For at least RAMPS, powering the electronics from an external 5V source requires 12v power-or'ing diode D1 on RAMPS to be removed. Otherwise you're shorting the 5V output from the MEGA2560 5V regulator to the other 5V source and D1 is removed as a precaution. Diode D1 is underneath the Y-axis stepper driver board on RAMPS. I don't know if other electronics types have similar issues.

In Marlin, your pins.h file likely has PS_ON_PIN defined to -1 for your motherboard type. Figure out some Arduino pin you can access on your electronics. RAMPS has a PS_ON terminal that is wired to Arduino pin 12. Change pins.h to reflect the pin you want to use and upload the new firmware. Wire the power supply PS_ON pin (see the build guide or other ATX reference for pinout of the ATX connector) to whatever Arduino pin you defined for PS_ON_PIN.

This should get the power supply control working. With pins.h set to something other than -1 for PS_ON_PIN, there should now be a new menu item on the LCD that will toggle between being able to turn the ATX on and being able to turn it off. Gcode commands are M80 to turn the ATX on and M81 to turn the ATX off.

For completeness, configuration.h has a few additional settings related to the ATX power control. The define for POWER_SUPPLY controls what logic levels turn the supply on/off. For an ATX, POWER_SUPPLY is set to 1. When I was using a separate relay to control a dedicated 12V supply, I needed POWER_SUPPLY set to 2. PS_DEFAULT_OFF can be commented/uncommented depending on whether you want the ATX power supply to be left off when the electronics starts up.

[Chadd]

The other option would be to put in thermal fuses in series with your heat bed and hotend. If something were to fail and stick on the thermal fuse would blow and stop supplying power to the heatbed/hotend.

Ahh, I see. At first I was very puzzled by this, that can't be true. It is a safety feature. It will cancel the print. It does, but unless your printer can shut off the power supply (or at least power to the heatbed) then it wouldn't do any good. Thanks for the clarification!

Is there a thread about using a ATX power supply and how to wire it? I am thinking about switching power supplies and I had toyed with the idea of a computer power supply. I'm not too keen on the extra steps needed but if it is safer/better it may be worth it. The power supply I linked to earlier is 36amps but appears to be better quality. It is $80. I can get a morepowerful ATX power supply for less. If it also works better...bonus.

[BLKKROW]

I recently purchased the SSR and heat sink and have questions on wiring.

I understand the output wiring, but for input does the positive and negative leads from my Rumba board go to the corresponding positive and negative leads on the SSR?

Thanks for the help.

[Carrot_or_Stick]

I recently purchased the SSR and heat sink and have questions on wiring.

I understand the output wiring, but for input does the positive and negative leads from my Rumba board go to the corresponding positive and negative leads on the SSR?

Thanks for the help.

At the bottom of the first page I have a picture posted of my setup. However, what you are saying is correct.

[Chadd]

I recently purchased the SSR and heat sink and have questions on wiring.

I understand the output wiring, but for input does the positive and negative leads from my Rumba board go to the corresponding positive and negative leads on the SSR?

Thanks for the help.

Yes they do.

[BLKKROW]

Thanks for the help I was just making sure before I wire it up.

[BLKKROW]

I am getting lost on the configuration file.

I found the #define PIDTEMPBED that you mention but I can only find it in the section with //. Which I believe is the comment section. Is that where you would uncomment or remove the #?

[Chadd]

I am getting lost on the configuration file.

I found the #define PIDTEMPBED that you mention but I can only find it in the section with //. Which I believe is the comment section. Is that where you would uncomment or remove the #?

To uncomment a line you need to remove the // from the front of the line.

The text I posted in the first part of this thread is what it should look like when uncommented.

[BLKKROW]

To uncomment a line you need to remove the // from the front of the line.

Thank you! I don't know much about programming/C## or anything. All I can use is Matlab thank you for your time!