Hey all

Is anyone else running a 3D printer on their solar setup?

I have an Axpert Clone 5KVA 4kw inverter and a Tevo Flash 3D Printer with AC Heatbed.
The problem I'm having is the heatbed is causing the fluorescent lights in the house and garage to flicker, only when on battery mode and solar mode.
On bypass it doesnt flicker and also when bypassing the inverter entirely it doesnt flicker.

Any idea what could be causing this, I'm assuming the inverter is not liking the AC heatbed.

Link to the 3D Printer : https://www.tevo.cn/products/3d-printers/tevo-flash/

Having the same thing with a Axpert 5kw and Ender 5 3D printer. I believe it is the pwm of the heating circuit of the 3D printer that is causing it. The inverter is too slow to reacted to the current draw variations due to the pwm. It does it on my coffee machine as well. It is the same with a big load (say 2kw): the lights flicker when the load is switched on or off. The inverter is too slow too react to the sudden change in current that must be supplied. It happens on the more expensive "blue" inverters as well. There is a YouTube video on that. I am also concerned about the constant flicker as the printer does run for extended periods of time. Does anyone have a solution what can be done? 

3 hours ago, JacquesVDM said:

Does anyone have a solution what can be done? 

I haven't tried it, but in theory, a mains filter on the AC to the problematic load should help. But it could be bulky and hard to find.

Another possibility is a different (higher quality) controller for the heater pad. But that means modifying the 3D printer, which you are probably reluctant to do.

Perhaps start with some clamp-on ferrites, then an inexpensive EMI filter, then if those don't resolve the problem enough, try to find a decent filter with larger inductors and capacitors. What you want is to make the current drawn more sinusoidal. The filters might be described as power factor correctors.

Another possibility is a small UPS just for the printer. But cheaper UPSs may have a poor power factor as well. 

Same issue experienced with the SunSynk

On my  Ender 3 Pro, i used a small(500w) ups on the printer, and problem sorted.

Also had the same issue with the clothing iron (3000w), so i replaced it with an eco-iron (1100w) , problem sorted...

now to replace my electric leaf blower with a the petrol variant, as it causes the same issue....

16 minutes ago, Iiceman said:

Same issue experienced with the SunSynk

On my  Ender 3 Pro, i used a small(500w) ups on the printer, and problem sorted.

Also had the same issue with the clothing iron (3000w), so i replaced it with an eco-iron (1100w) , problem sorted...

now to replace my electric leaf blower with a the petrol variant, as it causes the same issue....

Which sunsynk do you have? 

Can't comment on the 3D printer but I'm running my 4kw geyser from my 8kw sunsynk, a couple of water pumps and aircons without any flickering of lights. 

1 minute ago, Achmat said:

Which sunsynk do you have? 

Can't comment on the 3D printer but I'm running my 4kw geyser from my 8kw sunsynk, a couple of water pumps and aircons without any flickering of lights. 

i have the 5.5kw Sunsynk.

i find that it only does that with things like the 3d printer, clothing iron and the electric leaf blower, which is turned off and on every few seconds...i think the inverter switching time is too slow. 

 

 

I think the heatbed is triac controlled - either by chopping the wave like a dimmer, or by simply switching on and off at a fixed interval (or not - like dithering with Bresenham's line algorithm). The better method to control a heater is to use Bresenham's algorithm slaved to the line frequency. That would mean that it can only turn on a complete cycle but also that it could turn on for a single cycle. All of the above methods will cause interference with inverters. If it really bothers you, the best method in my opinion would be to get a DC heat bed that runs off a SMPS at high frequency PWM.

My solution to this (well, a similar) problem was to develop a box that controls the connection of power from the grid to the house depending on the power consumed. The key is that the reconnect to the inverter provided (battery) output is delayed so connect/disconnect/reconnect ... of a load does not cause constant switching of the bypass.

Power control system

On 2021/04/07 at 12:28 PM, Bl4d3 said:

Is anyone else running a 3D printer on their solar setup?

My 3d Printers are 12V Powered. I run them on a direct connection to 12V battery Bus.

Microprocessors where constantly tripping when Inverter sagged briefly ( oveload or such )

Or through an 24/12V Dc-Dc 20 A converter for a 24 Volt batery Bank.

Greetings