Hi all! I’m very new to this, so I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place. Anyway, as the title says I need some advice with a power supply for an ancient 3D printer. It’s a RapMan 3.2 (from 2011, as far as I can tell) project that I inherited from a neighbor who was moving out. It’s mostly finished, but one crucial bit is missing: the power supply.
Best I can tell, I need a 12V 20A supply. The port on the control unit is a standard round plug like you’d find on any home electronic device. A quick search on ebay reveals that the 20A/standard plug combo isn’t really a thing, and I’d preferably not break out the soldering kit before I have some assurance I’m not gonna burn my apartment down once I plug it into the wall socket (I’m not new to electronics, but I’ve never dealt with currents like that before). Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
Some pictures of the parts could help.
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From what I can tell, there is no heated bed so it’s just some stepper motors and a hot end. The round port is possibly a 5.5mm power jack. If that is the case I think you could use one of these
But as said without pics it’s hard to be 100
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Also not to dissuade you if you like challenges, but a new chinesium Pinter like the creality is Hornung to be vastly superior to this printer in every way. Acrylic is a really bad choice for the frame of a printer
Some things to watch for are:
Is the jack on the machine center pin - or + (negative or positive).
The round pin ports are usually “sized” as in the center pin size can vary depending on the power ratings. This way a power supply for a small transistor radio type device will not be able to fit the jack on a device that requires much more power.
3D Systems has the spec sheets for the RapMan components here: https://www.3dsystems.com/shop/support/legacy/downloads
Look for"RapMan Data Sheets", and there’s a “Power supply data sheet” link.
That data sheet specs a 12VDC, 5A (60W) power supply with a 5.5 x 2.1 x 12mm jack plug. (Presumably 5.5 mm OD x 2.1 mm ID x 12 mm length, assuming that’s it’s just a normal 2-conductor barrel plug.) The spec sheet doesn’t say how it’s wired. There may be a symbol on the housing for the control board that shows the polarity of the outer barrel and center pin. Or, you’ll have to look closely at the control board and look for a screen-print that shows the polarity of the plug. Or, you could probably call 3D Systems and ask them which power supply to use (and maybe buy one from them). If all that fails, you can inspect the control board circuit to figure out which side of the jack supplies power and which supplies ground.
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Thanks guys! Can’t believe I missed those data sheets when I checked the webiste… I did contact the manufacturer, but they weren’t able to give me anything useful. Also I need to refine my Amazon/Ebay-foo, apparently.
