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Recently, my 3D printer power supply broke. It runs at 9.2A, 24V, and 221W. I then proceeded to hook up a power supply that was much more powerful and runs at 24V, 14A, and 400W.

Using this caused the printer head to print up way hotter and burn through material. Is there any way I could lower the amperage on the power supply without any voltage loss?

Daniel
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888rt
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    The problem is definitely not the current rating of the supply. – Eugene Sh. Oct 26 '17 at 20:34
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    Possibly your PSU broke because of another issue with your printer. Then with a PSU capable of providing more current the other issues caused other problems. Could be a faulty thermistor (or connection). No way to tell without more details or a crystal ball. – Wesley Lee Oct 26 '17 at 20:37
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    In general, the current drawn by a power supply providing a fixed voltage is set by the load, in this case your printer. If two different power supplies provide the same voltage, then the current drawn by the load should be the same. Based on your information, it is quite possible that the printer had a fault, tried to draw more current from the supply and caused it to fail. When you connected a more powerful supply, the printer was able to draw more current causing it to fail, or at least malfunction. You probably need to have your printer repaired. – Barry Oct 26 '17 at 20:43
  • This is like your car engine is over heating but you try to dilute gas with water. – user3528438 Oct 26 '17 at 20:44
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    SIGH... "Recently my 3d printer power supply broke". Power supplies **rarely** break. Much more likely, something broke in the printer and caused the fuse to blow in the power supply. Upping the supply, bigger fuse, is defeating that safety feature and letting your printer cook... – Trevor_G Oct 26 '17 at 20:55
  • The company diagnostics pointed to bad PSU, so we tried to fix it ourselves, and it seem like the more powerful power supply should have worked. I might as well just order the PSU from the company and hope that it works. – 888rt Oct 26 '17 at 21:04
  • It's NOT the power supply 888rt. if you order a new one from the company it's fuse will probably just blow too..... And yes I am sure the diagnostics took you there, unfortunately, the diagnostics cant tell you WHY the power supply stopped working which I guarantee was not a fault in the power supply given your other issues with the replacement. – Trevor_G Oct 26 '17 at 21:07
  • Sorry, I wrote and posted that before I reloaded the page and saw your comment. I guess I'm just gunna diagnose more and see what I can find. – 888rt Oct 26 '17 at 21:13

2 Answers2

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It runs at 9.2 A, 24 V, and 221 W. (Note capital letters for abbreviations of units named after a person.)

9.2 A x 24 V = 221 W. That part is correct.

I then proceeded to hook up a power supply that was much more powerful and runs at 24 V, 14 A, and 400 W.

No, it is capable of supplying 14 A at 24 V = 336 W.

The power supply will draw whatever the load requires up to the limit of the power supply.

Think: if I plug a 100 W lamp into the 5 GW (5,000,000,000 W) Irish national grid how much power do you think the bulb will draw? (Answer: 100 W.)

The problem is somewhere else.

Transistor
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The problem is likely to be in one of three places: (highest probability first)

The thermocouple, thermistor or temperature sensor is damaged and unable to regulate the temperature The MOSFET that switches the heater is damaged and is now shorted The 3D printer controller or firmware are somehow damaged (unlikely, but did you upgrade the firmware recently?)

Wiring shorts are also a possibility but not likely. I have seen all these failures in 3D printers and never seen a power supply failure.

Using a higher wattage power supply will never cause a problem unless the 3D printer is very poorly designed. This is extremely unlikely as this kind of design error would cause all kinds of problems in normal operation.

If you post the brand/model of the 3D printer and what symptoms lead you to believe the power supply was bad originally someone can make a better/more informed guess.

T

Dean Franks
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  • We reinstalled the firmware when we were first diagnosing, to make sure that was not the issue. It was the Ultimaker 2, and we originally were getting a heater error about 10 min into a print and it would stop. The company support told us it was a bad PSU. – 888rt Oct 26 '17 at 21:26
  • When you received the heater error, was the temperature too low or too high? (too low would usually leave gaps or results in poor layer adhesion, too high will leave stringy bits and possible black scorched bits of plastic) – Dean Franks Oct 26 '17 at 21:35
  • I reread the question, the temp was too high. I have seen this twice with the Ultimaker 2, both times it was the thermocouple. A bad power supply will not cause overheating (and in my experience, the ultimaker tech support is pretty useless). – Dean Franks Oct 26 '17 at 21:41