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

[dunginhawk]

sweet.. thats how i had it wired in the end yay me...
thanks guys for clarifying though.

SO i am running my first test print on the new metal bed, with the new SSR and its looking great.
I will run a test cube in the same color as my other test cubes, after i finish this print.
I hope it is as good as it appears.

[Carrot_or_Stick]

sweet.. thats how i had it wired in the end yay me...
thanks guys for clarifying though.

SO i am running my first test print on the new metal bed, with the new SSR and its looking great.
I will run a test cube in the same color as my other test cubes, after i finish this print.
I hope it is as good as it appears.

Right on, did you already determine your PID settings and enable PID control in the config.h?

[dunginhawk]

I copied and pasted the Block of text in to my configuration.h file and altered the PID data to reflect what mine said after the PID command i ran.
so my values were changed to reflect my own.
its holding its temp well, and the print is still kicking it. unfortunatley its a 6 hour print, with clear PLA, so i wont be able to really tell if the issue is better.
ill test it in PINK when its done like all my other test cubes

[dunginhawk]

so ive been printing on it for a full day now and cant really tell if the quality is a ton better, but it is improved. for the cost of this upgrade, i will definitely say its worth it. Cleaner lines, not as much banding... Now i just gotta figure out what my next printer will be

[tsteever]

Just finished my swap. Was pretty easy and the print quality is marginally better. It isn't night and day, but noticeable. I will have to try it on some trickier prints and report back.

What at I do notice is a more even draw on my power supply. Before, whenever the bed relay kicked in the lights that I have mounted would flicker. Almost to the point it seemed like they were turning completey on and off.

Now, they Slightly flicker but the voltage is much more constant. Before the swap, the voltage would cruise at 12.2 and then drop almost to 10 as soon as the relay kicked in. I had to turn it up to 13 just to keep the voltage above 11 when heating. I was able to back down the voltage at idle to 12.3 and it never drops below 12 now.

Here is a video of the current flicker. You have to look at the wall to see it. It kinda matches the pulsing of the communications led on the rumba. I'm looking for a vid of the previous flicker. Think strobe light!

http://youtu.be/0KAfG17Sjgw

[Roxy]

Think strobe light!

Think Totally Unreliable! You need good, clean power that can accommodate the surges.

[Chadd]

As I mentioned before you either have a bad power supply, a poor connection, undersized wiring or a combination of the above. You shouldn't see that much of a voltage drop off of a 30A PS.

Just finished my swap. Was pretty easy and the print quality is marginally better. It isn't night and day, but noticeable. I will have to try it on some trickier prints and report back.

What at I do notice is a more even draw on my power supply. Before, whenever the bed relay kicked in the lights that I have mounted would flicker. Almost to the point it seemed like they were turning completey on and off.

Now, they Slightly flicker but the voltage is much more constant. Before the swap, the voltage would cruise at 12.2 and then drop almost to 10 as soon as the relay kicked in. I had to turn it up to 13 just to keep the voltage above 11 when heating. I was able to back down the voltage at idle to 12.3 and it never drops below 12 now.

Here is a video of the current flicker. You have to look at the wall to see it. It kinda matches the pulsing of the communications led on the rumba. I'm looking for a vid of the previous flicker. Think strobe light!

http://youtu.be/0KAfG17Sjgw

[tsteever]

I am using 14 gauge wire. Two sets going to the board from the power supply and a third to the heatbed relay. I have checked, but will triple check that all connections are solid. I would think that 3 sets of 14 gauge wire should be enough to run this short of a distance. Heck, my 2000 watt speakers are running 12 gauge wire across 50 feet which is pretty my industry standard.

[Chadd]

Are you measuring voltage across the power supply output or somewhere else?

I am using 14 gauge wire. Two sets going to the board from the power supply and a third to the heatbed relay. I have checked, but will triple check that all connections are solid. I would think that 3 sets of 14 gauge wire should be enough to run this short of a distance. Heck, my 2000 watt speakers are running 12 gauge wire across 50 feet which is pretty my industry standard.

[tsteever]

I am measuring at the power supply. I read a fair bit more on wire gauge from all my text books, online, etc... I am sure that the 14 gauge wire is more than adequate from the job here. I still need to check the connections. I am getting even more convinced that the cheap power supply is just not up to the job of a 12" bed. It is a 30 amp model. I only paid $28 or so from Amazon. I think I may go with this one as it has a higher output and reads to be of better quality. I think a more stable power source may help with my Z banding issues.

My next step in getting rid of Z banding is to replace the M5 screws with M6 lead screws. I'm not really sure what gains that will give me as the 5mm screw has pretty good resolution. I think the biggest gains may be had by a backlash nut of sorts.

Do you guys see the M5 rods as a possible source of Z banding? I was thinking of getting a pair of these.

PS - sorry for seemingly hijacking the OP's thread. Trying to keep this as close to getting rid of Z banding so people can use this thread to serve as a resource.