I bought a bed heater and don't know what to do with it.

[Geneo 0]

I read that to get the print to stick to the glass I needed a bed heater. I bought one from Amazon for my xvico. I got it and my question is.  Does it replace the glass, or does it meant to work in concert with the glass. One side of this thing is printed the other side is aluminum, and the same size as the glass. I don't seem to be able to get a print to stick to the glass. I've tried the glue stick, didn't make much difference. I need help.

 

[Carla_Birch 116]

Hi,

The heated bed goes under the glass, so you will need to remove the glass. Put the heated build plate in and wire it up and then install the glass back on top of it. Warming the glass up will greatly help many filament types to stick better, but still use a glue also because it protects the glass also and helps prints to be removed easy when the glass and print cools back down.

[Geneo 0]

 Thanks for the info. Now when I try to run the nozzle and the bed together the machine shuts off. The power supply won't handle both. I need a controller to run the bed heater independently from the printer. Got any Ideas? I've attached a pic of the heater.

[Carla_Birch 116]

First things first make sure you are not trying to heat up both the build plate and your hot end at the same time to start a print. Most printers don’t have the power for that and that’s why they heat up the build plate first and then the hot end before the print starts. That way less power is used at once.

Edited July 7, 2020 by Carla_Birch

[GregValiant 1,318]

When you slice a part and have Cura create the Gcode file there should be something like this at the beginning:

M140 S50 ;Tell the printer to heat the bed
M105         ;Report the temp to the LCD
M190 S50 ;Tell the printer to wait and do nothing until the bed is up to temp
M104 S205 ;Tell the printer to heat the hot end
M105        ;Report the temp to the LCD
M109 S205 ;Tell the printer to wait and do nothing until the hot end is up to temp

 

As Carla said, only one heater is at full power at a time.  When they are simply maintaining a temperature they don't use as much power.

Adding the heated plate may change your Z.  You might have to move the Z switch up to compensate for the thickness of the heated bed.