10" heated bed source

[kd7eir]

Any recommendations on a US source for a 10" x 10" heated bed, besides MakerFarm? Silicone or PCB.

The bed that came with my 10" I3v has several dead zones after a couple years of use, and I'm not sure that buying the same thing from MakerFarm is a wise decision.

[longjohn119]

Ditch the stupid relay, get a solid state relay and set it up for PID control. I could see the effects of the full on/full off poorly regulated heat showing up in my prints, as well as the glass 'warping' which really became noticeable at 0.1mm. With full on you aren't limiting the current and every time you bang that thing on their is a momentary 'in rush current' that's going to be several times higher than the nominal current it draws. That is the likely cause of boards burning up. I have a Pegasus 10 kit with all the bells and whistles except dual extruder and added ABL with an 8mm inductive probe which works flawlessly once properly set up and adjusted (How did I ever get by without that feature?) I also flipped the X axis/gantry so everything in on the left and home (0,0) is in the front left corner of the bed like my 2 other printers. Since that puts the probe off the PCB I use Safe Homing. The main reason I didn't get the 12 is I knew that 12" pcb heater wasn't going to cut it especially at only 12 vdc from a shared power supply. By the time I got a good silicone heater, SSR and a proper aluminum bed. proper Z rods, couplers and nut blocks, etc. I'd be out of my budget. With the 10 I had enough left to get a RaspPi 3 and 5" touch LCD for Octoprint or as just a Pronterface controller which I'm still playing around with. With the SSR (and heatsink) added the pcb bed heater works a lot better, a more constant temp, no bed heat warp and the outer edges stay warm better