Confusion about 12v/24v advantages
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I'm considering buying a DuetWifi to control an Ultimaker clone that I'm currently building and just have a couple basic questions that I haven't been able to find answers to. From my understanding, the DuetWifi can be powered be either 12v or 24v based on the power-supply I chose to use. The Ultimaker heated bed runs at 24v, so this means I have to use a 24v power supply and everything else has to run at 24v, correct? I have been unable to find 24v Nema 17s that are highly rated and would also like to run the fans and LEDs at 12v, is it possible to just run the bed at 24v and run everything else at 12v? Can this be done with separate power supplies, and if so what would the wiring look like? Also what power supplies are recommended for this board at both voltages? Thanks
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You use the same motors regardless of whether you use 12V or 24V. See the wiki page on choosing stepper motors. Using 24V to power the motor drivers instead of 12V maintains torque up to higher speeds and this is especially significant when using 0.9deg motors on delta printers.
It's possible to use dual power supplies, but fans and heater cartridges are inexpensive, and running everything from one power supply keeps things simple. Another possibility is to use a 24V to 12V converter to power 12V LEDs and fans.
