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Sunhokey Prusa i3 heatbed

Posted by vibarar 
Sunhokey Prusa i3 heatbed
July 17, 2015 09:06PM
I am new at 3d printing,
last week I finished assembling my printer. So as a little kid I have been playing around with it.
My 3d Printer its a Prusa i3 Sunhokey (the one with the aluminum heatbed), which had been working fine. The problem was that suddenly the heatbed didn't work any more.
So my first thing to do was to unmount the heatbed, so I found the cables that comes from the control plate all burnt. Thermistor was ok, but not the cables that were wired to the resistance from the bottom of the aluminum bed.
I've attached two pictures of the heatbed.
Can someone tell me where can I buy the Resistance "sticker" which provides the heat to the bed? I've been searching a lot but just can't find anything.
Why did that happend? I think its really weird.
Would you recommend me to replace the headbed with the famous Red one with glass? If so, what are the specifications of that in order to work properly, because I can't find info of power consumption on my Sunhokey.
Thank you guys.
Attachments:
open | download - Ai1MAnKRao-j_OG7dPc3syaSw1sQqxk-x5AzCAyi6_TB.jpg (83.3 KB)
open | download - AvPI-9Z2U-V_-jWigPxwE3E9i9eIRzvefEyTnfi5yd6n.jpg (71 KB)
Re: Sunhokey Prusa i3 heatbed
July 18, 2015 03:53AM
Looks like a bad connection, which increases resistance, which in turn heats up to burning point.

The wires to the heater seem too thin to me, though the picture isn't very clear. I'd use at least 1.5mm diameter multicore cable, speaker cables would do.

To find out what max. Current the control board can supply look it up on google. Ramps 1.4 can handle 11 amps, which at 12 V translates to 12x11= 132W. At 24V it's 264W. The mk2b heated bed will do nicely, both 12 and 24V, though for 24V you need a separate psu. Make sure your control board can handle higher voltages. The advantage of 24V is that it supplies more power to the bed, heats up much quicker and reaches higher temperatures. The power loss over cables and joints is also lower.

You could remove the kapton tape heater from the aluminium plate and use it with mk2b. Heat transfer will be much better compared to glass, which conducts heat very badly. It's more like an insulator. Use the trace side up.
Re: Sunhokey Prusa i3 heatbed
July 18, 2015 07:49PM
Thank you for your fast reply.

I was checking voltage output to the bed, but I have no power out of the board. Now I'm looking forward to find the MOSFET which provides the power to the headbed. The MOSFET is VS40200ATD and couldn't find it anywhere but on the manufactureer website, I've just written an email to find out if he can provide me one, only what I need. It should work with the MK2B since it works max at 40V and 200A regardless if it is 12V or 24V.

So I can mount the aluminum base on that heating base just like it was the resistive sticker that I have right now?

The wires isolation is supposed to be resistent to that temperature. I might look for a thicker ones with heat resistent isolation.
Re: Sunhokey Prusa i3 heatbed
July 19, 2015 04:08AM
Thicker cables have lower resistance and will not heat up as quickly with the same current, so you don't need glass fiber insulation.

The fet should be able to handle it, though the 5v gate-source voltage will not fully open the fet, so the Rdson is higher and will dissipate more heat than a fet that is fully open at 5V. If the heated bed is on and it's too hot to touch, it's above 60 degrees already.

I'm not sure what you mean with the build plate, if its just an aluminium sheet then you can lay it on top of the mk2b, or screw them together if they have corresponding holes. Make sure there's no short circuit with the solder pads of the mk2b. You may need to cut some off the alu sheet.
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