Crazy idea time: I plan to have a heated build chamber,

3D Printing
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Crazy idea time:

I plan to have a heated build chamber, but I got an idea.

Instead of using a stand alone temperature controller, could I use replicape and a thermistor located in the printer hooked up to extruder 2/heater h, plus a fan for circulating the air, and control the linked heating element and expect it to work?

At 24v and 20A I want to believe replicape can handle an output of 480w through heater h, but I am not sure I could just wire this heater directly as it says it is a 500W. Is that 20 watts going to trip the fuse - or - I could I just use a relay?

I have a 50A 24v power supply so I got some power to play with. My heated bed is 450W (18A), so I would certainly be using all the power supply can handle with everything pulling a draw, but once up to temp it shouldn’t be too bad.

Anyways, trying to avoid more controllers, and waiting for the Reach Rev B to allow for more extruders!

Thoughts?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B016EBRRBI/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl

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I think you would be safest to go with a relay. I always like to leave a bit of wiggle room when it comes to fuses and the like. You never know when a little spike can upset things. Unfortunately you are then left with bang-bang control, which may be fine for a heated chamber as there is a lot of thermal mass that will smooth things out. Replicape + Redeem should be able to handle that setup without any problems.

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Thanks for the input!

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Also with a chamber, the heatbed will also significantly help keep temp up in the chamber, so your chamber heating won’t be nearly used as often, and bang-bang should be ok in that use-case…