Finally Heating A Matrix Bed ???

[IB3D]

Been setting on a printrbot 6" bed heater and Matrix bed far longer than I'm willing to admit. Installed the bed earlier this month and now that I'm ready to install the heater, I'm finding the pictorials and other useful information scarce. Which brings me to my first question. Who/where do I make email contact to be allowed on the Wiki site? Where else can I find a pic of the F rev board to confirm the pin outs for the bed thermistor and htr power (SSR in my case)? Will the printrbot 6" heater be sufficient for lower PLA temps? Looking at the printrbot site, they show a higher wattage for the 6" heater than they do for the 8", can that be? In my mind when I started this wasn't supposed to be that difficult. But right now I'm struggling to decide if the 3M dbl sided tape on the Matrix bed will suffice or if I should tap it for the screw holes in the heater. Heck without the pictorials I'm not even certain which side of the heater is up nor which side of the bed is best to exit the wires...HELP !

[RetireeJay]

[IB3D]

Thx Jay, never found a pic on the wiki showing the circuit board pin outs; did find the markings on the board with help from a younger household member, nuff said bout my eyes. Ordered the 8" heater today just cause I think it'll give more even heat across the surface than the 6" would have. Planning to mount it in the pocket of the bed on underside with screws if I can find a tap small enough in my clutter.

[New Passion]

Hi,
I installed the Matrix Precision Heated bed upgrade on my Simple Metal almost two years ago. I used the 8" heater pcb from Printrbot, I used the 3m tape that came with the bed and stuck the heated pcb to the bed, You will want to put the heater on with the flat side against the tape, the side where the solder connections are should not be on the 3m tape, the solder connections might allow a gap where the heated pcb joins the bed, and you want the best possible adhesion you can get. I put my thermistor in the middle of the bed with kapton tape. I put a little extra kapton tape on the wires to keep them where I wanted them to go, then I put some of that insulation foil stuff Printrbot was sending out a while back, ( don't really know if it helps), then I attached a sheet of Kapton under the bed to hold the insulation foil on. So... I have my thermistor attached to the bed in the middle, I have the heated pcb attached to the 3m tape, then the foil insulation, then a sheet of Kapton to hold it all on. I have used my printer for almost 2 years, and the 3m tape that came with the bed is still holding, I never used screws or tapped threads in the bed. As a matter of fact my concern is if and when my heater plate dies how am I going to get the heated pcb off of the glue ( It really sticks).

Mark

[IB3D]

Thanks for the additional insight Mark. What kind of top surface bed temps are you able to obtain this way and do you find the bed top runs cooler than the thermistor indicates?

[RetireeJay]

[New Passion]

I really do not have a way to measure the surface temps, or check the accuracy of the thermistor, I normally run my heated bed at about 55c to 60c. I just keep adjusting the bed temperature until it works for whatever material I am printing. I have heated the bed up to 75c, and at that temperature you cannot keep your finger on the bed for very long. Oh, I forgot to mention earlier, my heated bed wires run through the left side of my bed, through the gap in the end bar that holds the x axis rods.

[IB3D]

Oops, feel kinda foolish now as I missed that and it's the pic I thought I had seen before and couldn't find. THX