Printrbot Simple Metal heated bed power supply?

[peacefuljeff]

Hello,

First post, hopefully I'm in the correct part of the forum. I have a heated bed I found on Ebay from Printrbot. No instructions, first printer, no idea what I'm doing. I have some thermisters, but not yet a power supply. Would a Thermaltake TR2 RX-450W work, please? I know I need a separate power supply, I know where the heated bed plugs into the PCB, but that's about it. Thanks in advance!

Jeff

[Mooselake]

The specs say it has two separate +12 outputs, both around 15A. I don't recall the bed and extruder power (amps are watts divided by 12 for a PB) requirements off the top of my head, but that sounds right on the edge. If you have the supply then give it a try, otherwise I'd recommend a 29 or 30A 12V supply, often called an LED supply from Amazon or your favorite supplier. That's more current than you need but that's ok, no voltage sag. Had that supply been "single rail", just one big honking +12 outputs, it would have been fine.

Kirk

[Mooselake]

It would help if you said what model Printrbot, and what size (better yet, what current requirements) bed you bought.

Hope it's 12V, 24V will require a relay and additional 24V power supply just for the heated bed.

Kirk

[peacefuljeff]

Picture. Sorry, it posted upside down!

[Mooselake]

That's an aftermarket bed, not surprising now Printrbot is defunct. 3dheatbeds.com goes to a defunct site, Avanti is a pcb house and probably made the board for 3dheatbeds.com.

An official version would draw 7 amps at 12V so the PC supply's 15 amps should (lots of supplies are optimistic...) be enough to handle it. You'll need to install a jumper, search the forum for examples. I'd do it but it's hard on my mobile.

I'd suggest using a DVM to check the voltage with the bed on and see how much it drops - the bigger the drop the slower it'll heat up. Iirc around 11V works ok, I used a supply with a voltage adjustment and tweked it to 12V under full load. If you're adventurous you can get a self powered 3-30V DC voltmeter for a couple bucks on the bay; I posted pics of them somewhere, search is your friend

Kirk