So I’m wanting to get into 3D printing but don’t have a lot of money. I think I have decided on getting the Tevo tarantula Dual, auto, large kit as it fits what I want the most. I am not an electrician and am not very comfortable with wiring up the mains to the power supply. Is there somewhere that I can buy an enclosed power supply with the mains wire attached specifically for 3D printing. If not do people know if I can buy just an ordinary power supply and get a DC jack adapter and wire the printer up from that.
This may be a really stupid question but I am new to this.
Not a stupid question at all, and when it comes to electrical stuff, safe is far better than sorry, especially when it comes to mains voltage.
So, to answer your question: It looks like your kit runs off 12 VDC, and looking at the product description, it looks like the power supply is built in. That being the case, it should ship with a power plug that you’d just plug in, so there’s no messing about with mains.
As to the rest of the wiring, 12 volts, DC is generally considered safe to work with. If you make contact with live parts you might feel a shock, but you’re generally going to be okay. A bit of caution is still a good idea, because if you really work at it, you can burn up components and start fires, but you’d really have to work at it.
The power supply is a 12V supply, but the buyer of the kit needs to wire it up themselves. As for getting a standard DC supply you will most likely end up with a supply that will be unable to supply the current needed by the printer. Especially when going dual extruder and large bed. If it is only the mains side of the wirering you are uncomfortable with, you could go with an ATX powers up ply capable of atleast 30 Amps on the 12V rail instead.
There isn’t any electrical required for that unit luckily and all the major work is already done even your beds cables are soldered on you just open the screws on the led power strip power supply and insert the cables and clamp them down with the screw, sometimes you need to replace a connector here or there but friendly folks like me will help guide you.
So I am guessing you got a metal box with a bunch of screw terminals and you don’t know which wire goes where if you do some Google searches, or look at the tevo tarantula Facebook group you should be able able to find a diagram for your printer on how to wire it up. If that still looks to hard or scary for you, you can purchase an enclosed already wired power supply similar to a laptop charger, the only hard part is going to be finding one of those that puts out around 12V at somewhere between 20 to 30 amps (240 to 360 W) if you have a heated bed. There are some people that use modified atx power supplies like what you would find in a desktop computer as well. If you post a picture here of your power supply and what country you are in I would be happy to show you what wires should go where.
Most the of control boards for DIY 3D printing receive a stripped wire end…I am not aware of any control boards that use a standard plug from a PSU. Here is a printer with an excellent build guide and reasonable price. It would be best to start small and learn the basics.
https://www.folgertech.com/products/folger-tech-reprap-2020-prusa-i3-full-aluminum-3d-printer-kit
Take a minute and read the first section of the guide. Hope this helps!
Mark Ingle
