Power supply - affect on performance?
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My 3D printer started life as a gifted £80 CTC I3, and thankfully now it only shares 1 part with that horrendous machine; the power supply.
My primary reason for changing the power supply is safety, I just don't trust something so cheap.
I plan to replace it with a Mean Well or Corsel unit with the appropriate voltage and power output and either no cooling fan, or one i can replace with a Noctua fan seeing as I've worked so hard to make my printer quiet.
Is there anything else to consider? A reason to buy a £300 model over a £70 model? Anything that could affect print quality, motor performance, noise etc. Is voltage stability a thing? Or anything else a bit deeper than just the voltage, power, safety and efficiency?
Thanks!
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@nbGU as often there is a documentation for this, please check https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Wiki/Choosing_the_power_supply
My recommendation is to use 24 V, but you must probably change some components like heater, fans, bed heater to be compatible. A good power supply is the MeanWell LRS-200-24, because it is sufficient for "normal" printers and without a fan, so very silent. The 24 V allows higher speeds for the steppers.
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Hi, i read through all of that and searched the forum for similar posts. I'm not looking for recommendations on voltage or current as I already know what i need and the benefits of 24V
I was hoping to learn something new about how power supply performance could affect wider system performance. In that there must be a reason why you can get a 300W 12V PSU for £80, and another 300W 12V PSU for £300, even with both being medically approved.
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@nbGU okay, then I misunderstood your question, maybe someone other can answer. In my understanding, it's the quality of the electric components which make a difference. Sometimes it's only the branding also, of course. I can only say that I can recommend MeanWell, the mentioned model is about 35 EUR (32 GBP).
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@JoergS5 No worries. I have also trusted MeanWell in the past. Thanks for taking the time to reply
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As said all over the place, Meanwell (but only the real ones) are the go-to units.
Some of the difference in price is component quality, some of it is specifications and some of it is at what volume they are manufactured.
IMHO, Meanwell (again, only the real ones) will give you everything you need without any down side. Yes you could buy a better supply but no, you will not notice a difference.To stress this a bit more .... just because it has a Meanwell sticker on it does NOT mean it's a Meanwell supply. Buy from a supplier you trust and not an unknown Ebay (or Amazon) seller unless you know how to tell the difference between a clone and the real thing.
I received a defective clone supply from an Amazon seller but got it refunded. The only reason I knew that it was a clone was because I opened it up to fix it (bad primary voltage switch) -
@jens55 thank you, I plan to order from RS Components so whatever I buy will be legitimate. I'm not looking to cut costs in any way, rather get the best performance i can.
From what you've said, and everything else I've read, I won't see a benefit from buying one of the very expensive models so I think I'll stay in the sensible price range from a trusted brand.
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@nbGU to get more safety, you can consider uninterruptible power supply, thermal fuses, smoke detector and fire extinguisher and fast fuses where I don't know the english name (german FI Schalter, maybe FI switch, RCD switch).
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@JoergS5 Interesting, I'll have a look in to those, currently the only additional safety I have is a smoke detector above the printer.
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RCD or GFCI; residual current device or ground fault circuit interrupter (some short the latter to just GFI)
Although if you happen to reside in a modern EU-ish building odds are you have this in your main electrical panel / fuse box, might be worth checking before buying a dedicated device.
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If you are looking for a quiet (fan-less) power supply that stays cool, has proper safety certifications and is from a know brand, I recommend the Meanwell UHP series, they come in different voltage and power specifications, e.g. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GPDRV7V
