Simple Metal Heatbed

[Chuckels]

Hi all. I am a newbie in the world of 3D printing. My nephew has given me his Simple printer, and I have been using it for about a month now. I would like to have a heated bed on this printer and have ordered a heat mat and thermistor (off eBay). I have been in contact with the seller and he is telling me I am going to need a new power supply and Solid State relay if I want to use the Printrboard temp control circuit. He says this new heatbed draws about 75W or 6 amps. I have noticed a prewired power supply on the Printrbot website. If I get that power supply will I still need the relay? Also, I was looking at the Printrbot X axis upgrade with heated bed, but when I went into Cura, as per the install instructions, it told me to load a .stl file and modify the gcode. I never saw any of the gcode. So I decided to keep the original bed and just add a heater. Any help is appreciated and I hope I don’t sound to stupid. Thanks

[RetireeJay]

You shouldn't need the Solid State Relay if the heated bed is designed to run on 12V DC. If it's designed to run on a different voltage, then yes, you need a relay.

[Chuckels]

Just to make sure I don’t screw anything up, do I hook up the thermistor to the 2 pin connector marked T-BED? Have included a picture of this connector. And is there any certain location on the printer bed the thermistor should be mounted? Planning on using Katon tape to mount the thermistor and am planning on mounting the actual heat mat to the under side of the printer bed. Again sorry to sound so stupid.

[RetireeJay]

Yes, the thermistor gets plugged into the "T-bed" connector on the board.
Yes, tape the thermistor to the underside of the heater, somewhere near the center. Good thermal contact to the heater is important.
Be sure your thermistor and power wires are clamped or zip-tied to the bed platform so that as the platform moves back and forth that there is no strain at all on the connection points. Avoid allowing the wires to bend back and forth sharply at a single point; spread the bending out over a long stretch of wire.

[Chuckels]

Thank you so much for all your advice. As soon as I get my new power supply and get it hooked up I will update the post. Thanks again

[Chuckels]

Just got the new power supply today and got the heater hooked up. Have not printed anything yet but it seems to be working. Bed gets warm in a hurry. The power supply that I got from Printrbot has a 6 pin connector that plugs right into the Printrboard. I would like to be able to plug this male 6 pin connector from the power supply into a female 6 pin connector mounted on the side of the printer itself (just like the original barrel connector was on the side of the printer) and then plug the other end (male 6 pin) into the board. Does anyone know if there is a short 6 pin male to female cable that I could use. I would like to be able to unhook the power supply without having to get to the board itself. I sometimes take my printer to my shop during the day if I have a long print. Just for ease of portability. Thanks

[cbxbiker61]

These are very nice extension cables with a woven cover. I just bought a couple last week for my Einsy board conversion.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DV1Z4EQ/

[Chuckels]

Thanks I will look into it

[Chuckels]

So, I got a pair of these extension cables. It worked great. I printed up a bracket the female end fit into and mounted it to my printer. Had do cut a couple of holes in the frame but it works great. Made my first print with the heat bed, everything stuck down nice. Thanks for all the help everyone.