As I am a high school student, it is very rare that I get to mess around with industrial tech (I love tech lol ). But today I struck lucky and my dad brought home a FLIR thermal camera/thermometer for me to mess around with… well not really, he needs me to teach him how to use it. As soon as I saw it I immediately thought of making it watch my 3D printer. (For those of you that are interested) the pics below show an image takes from the thermal camera taking the instantaneous temps of 3 spots, the heatblock, power supply, and heated bed. What I found interesting was that the temp was rather consistently 60 degrees off from the temps shown by cura, I wonder what would sub for that difference? Anyways just though it was interesting to share with all of you.
(if this is spam let me know and I will remove it : ) )
IR camera temp measurements are only accurate if the surface emissivity is calibrated properly for the material you’re measuring. They’re mostly useful for checking relative temps (e.g. hot spots in electronics or uneven heating of the print bed).
You could easily be off from poor thermistor calibrations and the difference in where temps are measured from. The thermistors are buried a lot closer to the heaters.
@Ryan_Carlyle @Thomas_Cox ahh both make sense, thanks! What it might’ve also been is the IR camera has a limit which I may have surpassed when I tried to push it too far.
@Branden_Coates yes they are a set of wires and ive always had that concern myself. Its the same one i got from prinrbot when i bought the heated bed upgrade and it “should” be fine. Regarless i never print without being present because of a fire hazzard. They do get really hot though, i cant keep my hand on them for more than a few sec without having to remove them (ive worked in a kitchen so i can handle hot things well 
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@Branden_Coates should i just get a better power supply?? That one is rated for 350w so im thinking like 500w??
The power supplies that printrbot supplies with the heated bed simple are very bad. I am on my second and both of them have coil whine. You could always pull out the pins and double up the wires. As long as you match the colors the voltage is the same on all the different connectors.
@Thomas_Cox alright thanks, ill give it a look!
We have changed sources several times on ATXs, they are getting harder to find. We do have some smaller form factor 12V supplies now we will put them up for sale.
For the wires: can you send me your address? I’d like to send a heatbed w double the wires - we will start making them w double the wires like the big heatbeds. We changed the heatbed design a few months back so I’m wondering if double cables are needed, or bigger gauge. I’d like to improve it.
Brook@printrbot…
@Brook_Drumm good to hear it! Ill send my adress to you via email, thanks
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