Heated Bed for Materia 101

Hi all,

I would like to know if there is a particular heated bed which fits fine in materia 101. I had a little warping in my printed parts...

Thanks,
Jose.

Hey

None yet. But I am talking with Sharebot about developing one for the Materia.

If it's possible we will try and do it without changing the PSU (powersupply).

Thank you for posting this. Now we know that people want this.

ps. Have you tried blue painters tape instead of hairspray? If you keep it clean the PLA really sticks to it. Also keep the first layer hotter than the rest. maybe 5 c higher.

Yep, I always use blue tape for my prints since I discovered it :slight_smile:

I think it is the best option. I've also tried with hair spray and glue stick but I had worse results and it is not as clean as blue tape.

I am going to try a DIY with a Silicon Rubber Heater. I built a simple temperature controller with a comparator and a LM35. I will post the results as soon I finish it :slight_smile:

Regards,
Jose.

This might be an alternative in the future. But we need to change the size of it.

Hi,

Let me share my experience with the heaterbed I created. After some weeks of expererience with the 3D printing, I experience some warping.... and also became curious if I would be able to print ABS with my Materia 101.

In search for a heater-pad that would fit - found one... foldable and less than 15 euros
So I went searching for a heaterbed that would fit the size. That seemed to be kind of difficult, since most are 20x20cm. Until I came accross a foldable Kaptan heaterpad. I thought that by folding it, it would be possible to schrink it into the Z-Axis bed of the Materia 101. During this search, I also found horror-stories on RAMPS schields with MOS-FETs or PCB copper-lines that would not be able to manage the current (>10Amps). So I decided to use a second hand industrial PID controller (the once you'll find in industrial fridges), and to use an external power supply to power the heaterpad and not interfere the powersupply of the Materia 101.

Placement of the heater-pad
With putting it all together, it worked great. I folded the heater-pad in the Z-Axis. Placed the temperature sensor underneath the heaterpad and below that I place a little sillicon mat, normally to be used for home-baking, in order to keep the temperature controller in place. Probably I would also keep the heat inside under the Z-Axis.

Needed a relay to swith the high-currents
After a few days the temperature raised and wasn't controlled anymore. It seemed that the current to be switched by the PID was to high and the relay contacts were molded together. The relay contacts were able to only manage 2Amps, where I needed at least 10Amps. So placing an additional relay fixed this. Since then I'm using the heater-pad almost daily. With good results. The PID settings are 45 Celcius to support PLA and 99 Celcius to support ABS. Resulting in hardly any warping and no more blue tape needed anymore. I'm using a self-made slurry of Acetone with some left-overs of the ABS prints. Cheap, easy to make and works great.

Costs/Bill of Material - total around 65 euro's
Total costs were 15 euro's for the heater-pad, 35 euro's for the power supply, 10 euro's for a second hand PID controller, 3 euro's for a 12V/15Amps relay and 2 euro's for a power-switch . In total 65 euro's.

Benefits of the heater-pad

  • Hardly any warping anymore
  • No need to use the blue tape... instead I use self made Acetone/ABS slurry
  • The first layer stick much better compared to the blue-tape or hairspay
  • I'm able to also print ABS now... which is way more difficult but also an interesting experience
  • Cost are acceptable and components are easy to get online
  • A nice project for the weekend and rewarding to not have warping issues anymore

Pictures of my Arduino Materia 101 heater-pad
I've attached some pictures of my set-up. 1) The heater-pad made of foldable Kaptan, available at iPrototype.nl, which I contacted to first get confirmation that the heater-pad would be foldable. 2) Power-supply, PID and heated bed and 3) How the heater-pad and temperature sensor are mounted and kept in place with a sillicone mat.

So far my expereinces.

Bas
Netherlands.

IMG_0272.JPG

IMG_0487.JPG

Really interesting!!

I'm looking forward to my heater (I attached the schematic).

The controller I built is simple and cheap. These are the main components:

  • A temperature sensor LM35 - 1,30€
  • A resistor divider to set a 0.6V reference (60ºC)
  • An general purpose op-amp to use as comparator LM358 - 0,50€
  • A MOSFET P-CHANNEL to switch the heater on/off depending on the temperature - 1,01€
  • 5V Voltage regulator 7805 - 1,7€

I will comment my experience as soon as I get all materials.

Regards,
Jose.

I went with this heating plate. http://www.makerfarm.com/index.php/6x6-heat-bed.html

It fits perfectly to the metal plate size on the Materia101. I just clamp it under the glass and it works great.

kengdahl:
This might be an alternative in the future. But we need to change the size of it.

Two of these will fit under the metal tray with the heat being transmitted through to the glass, given that the Materia software includes for a heated bed I intend to see if I can use it with these and a separate power supply.

Has any one made use of the Ramps circuit for a bed heater, D8 is defined as the Bed Heater circuit and derives its 12V supply from the second pair of power supply connectors on the 4 pin connector so can use a second power supply. The D8 circuit appears to have the same power capability as the Extruder heater, the Marlin software has the settings to use either Bang/Bang or PWM control of the bed heater. The temperature can be measured with a thermistor or use a thermocouple via an AD595 again built into the software.

I've used the circuit quite a few times. If it is a quality built Ramps board; which I believe yours is, there should be no problems hooking up a heated bed to it. Be aware that the mosfet dedicated to the heatbed does get hot and the board is not overly cooled in the materia101 design.

If you want to add an extra fan to cool the stepper driver and the mosfets there should be and extra 12 volt output just below the fuses on the board.

One problem I've had running a heatbed from this board have been the connector coming from the PSU. Mine was just rated for 10 amps. The heatbed in my case was using 12-13 amps and the connector melded. Luckily smaller heated beds demand less amps. S you might be good.

You have the option of two different inputs. One 12 volt for the hotend and one 24 volt for the bed. I myself am running a prusa i3 with a 200x200mm heatbed on a 30amp actively cooled psu and another i3 on two 12 volt psu's in parallel.

Here is a good review of the RAMPS shield

kengdahl:
I've used the circuit quite a few times. If it is a quality built Ramps board; which I believe yours is, there should be no problems hooking up a heated bed to it. Be aware that the mosfet dedicated to the heatbed does get hot and the board is not overly cooled in the materia101 design.

I have the standard board supplied by Arduino, the 101 arrived last week and has produced its first object earlier this week.

The heater I intend to use will take about 3Amps at 12 Volt and is capable of heating up to around 60C.

I will be using a separate 12Volt supply for the heater fitting an extra socket to ensure the existing socket is not overloaded and a relay switched from the existing 12V supply to isolate the new 12 volt supply from the main on/off switch, I will also fit heat sinks to the MosFets.

I also intend to replace the glass plate with a similar sized piece of copper clad board using the copper surface as the bed with the usual blue tape. The copper is a good heat conductor so should even out any hot spots and also has the advantage that is can be sensed by an inductive sensor so I can use it with auto bed leveling, using an M5 sensor fitted into the extruder head.

I think a bigger fan is a must as the existing fan does not appear to draw much air into the base of the 101, I am thinking of using a 12V larger diameter unit.

I finally received the Silicon Rubber Heater and I had time to make some tests.

I attached the heater to the metal plate with kapton tape. I built the temperature controller but actually it was not needed because the temperature is not so high, so you can leave the heater on all the time.

The result is amazing!

I printed a RaspBerry Pi case with and without heating the bed. You can see the difference in the attached picture.

Definitely, Materia 101 needs a heated bed...

PS: I had problems uploading all images to the forum so here you have a link.

So how did you drive the heater, with a separate controller or via the ramps board?

I use a separate power suppy. I built a circuit to switch on/off the heater using a temperature sensor, but I don't use it because the heater doesn't reach an excessively high temperature. So I leave the heater on all the time.

The results look great!

Here is my heated silicon pad solution:

Ask these guys Keenovo Flexible Heaters | eBay Stores to make you a 4 by 4 inch silicon heated pad with a digital thermostat which will be like a wh7016D as in http://www.willhi.com/data/product_en/20140104_173339.pdf

They can make this for 12 volt DC, and, if the power supply of the materia were rated at 10Amp rather than the 5 amp then the problem is solved.

My temporary solution is to vandalize an ATX power supply, I've set the temperature to 70C, lets see what it makes from something flat.

Hi Ejo60,

This looks like a great solution. Especially if this Keenovo team is able to customize the dimensions.
I've great results with the my heated bed solution. It makes the printed results much better.
And warping is not an issue any more.

Now I only would wish that the printer bed dimensions would be bigger. 8) .

Bas
Netherlands.

My experience with Keenovo is very positive. Simply state what you need, mention the voltages and the dimensions of the pad and the shape, and they simply make it the way you asked for. For the 20 to 30 euro extra I'm not going to make my own digital thermostat, others do this cheaper, they are produced in great numbers. The same is true for the 12V power supply coming from the yellow and black of an ATX power supply. And yes, near all warping and smudging of PLA has disappeared, you may want to start with a bed at 80C for the first few layers and then turn the thermostat back to 65C.

https://plus.google.com/105007223477973316510/posts/291Uf3d48fn

https://plus.google.com/105007223477973316510/posts/YkW3SkHazfr

Blog post that summarizes the modification and the results:

https://ejo60.wordpress.com/2015/05/09/add-a-heated-bed-to-your-3d-printer/