Adding simple chamber heater to X1C

Bambu Lab X1 Series User mods
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I am having serious warping issues with Bambu PC and even some aftermarket PC. However prior to this printed maybe 30 spools of bambu PC without any warping issues. I think the formula changes. Anyhow, I am thinking to try and get my printer up in temp to 55 to 60C and considering adding an internal heater. I know a towel over the printer can do it, but dont want to add anything external if I can avoid it since it already shakes like crazy with the isolation feet.
I have two ways I can do it and curious if anyone tried either.

Simple would be to buy an ender 3 or ender 5 heatbed with the aluminum plate and place it on feet and set it on the bottom of the machine and run it with a temp control pcb. Downside is its below the bed and moving bed could crash into it.

Other option is a small PTC car fan heater and they are available in AC or DC versions. To add this I would drill a hole in the side panel and screw it in. Upside to this is nothing at the bottom of the printer for the bed to crash into but I am worried it may heat too much since I just need a little help and a heat bed should do it.

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There are a lot of options for temp controllers but I would like to find one I can access with my phone or computer over WIFI if possible. I have not looked for one yet, so curious if anyone has a suggestion.

Thoughts on all this.

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Your topic title says “simple”. Abandon all hope of simple.:rofl:

I researched this topic heavily when I was looking to create a thermally balanced chamber for my P1P. The P1P lends itself to many more options because of the open frame nature. Note that the X1C has the same frame as the P1P but then you have to get over the mental hurdle of discarding one of the “pretty” side panels in lieu of a chamber modification if you go the route of an external venting system with a heater supplement. I ended up doing neither because it wasn’t needed when I found the right filament. But I digress.

Filament

While I digress. You mentioned you having problems with PC but it doesn’t sound like you’ve exhausted the filament option. I am a big fan of PC for precision parts. It isn’t really useful for making artistic model but for a filament that can be machined or tapped, there is nothing else. The filament I found that works well for me is marketed under various brands CC3D, HZST3D and now SHINA on Amazon. The seller is sketchy has hell in that they change names every few months indicating that they are hiding from bad reviews. Their PLA sucks but their PC is best in class when it comes to performance, albeit, not pretty.

You have to look for spools with this diamond pattern to know that they came from the same factory.

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Passive Heating

On the subject of heating. You have two ways you can go, you can do passive heating by insulating the interior. That works and I’ve used bubble wrap insulator for that purpose. The silver bubble wrap works well because it insulates for both radiant and convective heat. Alternatively, I’ve used the bubble wrap envelopes that build plates come in. They are the perfect size so don’t throw them away.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=thermal+bubble+wrap

Active Heating

Or you can go active which you cited above. There are hundreds of solutions that are internal to the chamber that will do a better job than the car heater you showed above. These are purpose build for the task.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=3d+printer+enclosure+heater
I’ve not found a small space heater that is wirelessly controlled and if you think about it, the use-case for such an item is so narrow, there really isn’t a market.

Thermostatic control wired and wireless.

However, that’s where thermostatically controlled outlets will serve the purpose.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=wifi+outlet+thermostat

X1E upgrade

And last but not least. You could go through the effort of retrofitting the X1E chamber heater to the X1C. I hate Bambu’s approach. The only advantage is that it utilizes the chamber control logic. Their use of blower fans is one that you will quickly hate. If you have no experience with blower fans, they blow air 90 degrees. Not surprisingly so does your hair dryer and that’s exactly how loud a blower fan can get at full speed so unless you love noise, stick with a larger fan.

Convective heat plate

You mentioned putting a heater in the bottom of the chamber. I hadn’t though of that but that could be made to work and possibly work well. Most filament dryers and food desiccators use these pads as part of their system. It wouldn’t take much to fabricate a blower fan to circulate air underneath the pad and just ensure that air is moving internal to the chamber. Either way, it would only cost you a few bucks to find out.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=reptile+heat+pad

And of course, they can be controlled via a cell phone.

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Y5JDYFY/

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Wow thanks for the well informed post. I just had a look at that filament and it is 50% PC, 45% PETG and 5% other materials. That seems like a blend with very low PC percentage hence the ability to resist warping. I need high ambient heat survivability and 110C is a bit on the low side. I may still order some and give it a try. The Bambu PC has a softening temp of 119C so this material at 110C may still work.

After reading your post, I think I am gonna try installing an Ender 3 or 5 bed on feet and wire it to a power supply and some sort of temp controller. I am sure I can find a WIFI temp controller that is DC. I will need to have it on a timer as well since much of my printing is done when I am away so would want the secondary bed to turn off after the print is done. Or if on a network I turn it off remotely from my phone. Timer is an easy option so may just do that. I only need 15C or 20C help so I may not need a fan and just heat rising could do it. Worse case I implement some DC computer fans on the sides of the heat plate. I will order everything today and post back on how it works.

Also to help fix my warping issues I bought a Lightyear G10 build plate. I bought the single sided 1.5mm thick one and it seems to resist the part shrinking and then bowing the build plate. It did lift up a bit and brim does not seem to help, but just added some vision miner to it and will try again. I bought 2 plates one black and one white. The black one is great, the white one is faulty with a bubble that formed when heating. Lightyear says legendary customer service and so far no replies to getting a replacement. Also no replies prior to ordering asking if white is better for contrast on the lidar. So I guess its legendary in a we have horrible customer service kind of way…

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Well here’s a tip I stumbled upon with the G10 plate I just purchased. I was seeking a better way to secure the plate and used some Kapton film I had lying around. As it turns out, I ended printing on top of it by mistake and lo and behold, it provided perfect stiction on the G10 plate. Otherwise the plate was a little too slickery for the PC to adhere well even with generous brims. Amazon.com

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I’d expect the X1E to have some changes for cooling. In the X1C, the electronics bay isn’t very isolated from the chamber. If the chamber is only getting to 40-45ºC that might not matter much. But if you go to 60ºC you might end up overheating components that weren’t designed for the heat, which might lead to random or even permanent operating failures.

I’d considered doing an active heater for my X1C but decided I would need to make sure the electronics were isolated from the higher temps first. Haven’t had the time to figure it out.

Also, the Achilles Heel of the X1C extruder is the small gap between the extruder gear and input to the hot end. Too much heat in this area, filament softens and buckles and you get a jam that requires removing the extruder to fix. The higher chamber temp might make this more likely to occur, though it might not matter for some filaments. But I also came up with an idea that might possibly work to keep this area cooler, but I haven’t had the time to pursue this, either.

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Maybe try some glue like vision miner? If it works, it may be the easiest/cheapest option. I read how some people here swear by it.

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Hi.

I’ve never had an issue with BL PC in the X1C, yet the comparison may be unfair as the print design can significantly impact the thermal gradient.

If you feel the issue is caused by low chamber temperature, I would advise trying a passive solution, such as improved thermal insulation. @Olias already shared a few solutions.
You may take other ideas from:
Best practices for thermal insulation? Maximum chamber temperature? - #9 by GekoPrime

If the insulation is not enough or the active chamber a must, trust @Olias as to forget simplicity. The heating system may be simple, but the proper integration into the X1C is challenging.

This would also be my main concern. Even if there aren’t immediately noticeable problems, I expect the electronics to have a shorter lifetime.
You may take a look at some interesting thoughts about the X1C component’s temperature limits:

I would start to design a heat insulation system for the electronics (at least for the ones possible). The main challenge may be the available space, but I guess adding some EPDM-based sheets and a fan for improved convection is possible.

With a properly thermal-insulated printer, the heat demand will be lower.
The ideal heating device(s) should be small for easy installation, allow modularity, and entail some "logic, " i.e., be controllable. A few options will suit the requirements, but I would first look at the printer’s thermal performance after the insulation mods for proper dimensioning.

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I manage product quality for a large electronics company. One of my responsibilities is product reliability. Electronics reliability is governed by something called the Arrhenius Equation, which basically says that the probability of failure increases exponentially with temperature. Some failure mechanisms are purely thermal, like a semiconductor junction gets too hot and melts, or a resistor overheats and burns out. But others are cumulative, where the rate at which the parts degrade to failure increases as a function of the total run time at an excessive temperature. They “wear out” faster.

Most consumer-grade electronics are rated for 0 to 70ºC operating temperature. Stepper motor wire insulation wasn’t something I was thinking about, but that’s a good point, too. Steppers can get quite hot on their own even in an cooler ambient environment. And if the Stepper is 70ºC on the outside, you can be sure it’s quite a bit hotter on the inside.

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At least this one has a thermostat and is capable of going to as high as 85C:

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That product doesn’t really go into what it’s using for its heating technology and what it uses to prevent overheating. Those are some deal breakers for me.

I’m not ready yet, but I may plan on integrating a chamber heater someday. If I did, it would have to be a PTC heater since those are self regulating and, due to their design, limit current flow the hotter they get meaning they “can’t” overheat. It would also have to have a thermal fuse as a backup, just in case things get weird. I wouldn’t want anything less in a printer that will be unattended.

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This is actually an easy project.

Long ago I did this for a resin (SLA) printer with a basic heater and an STC-1000 temperature controller. In my case I used a heat belt for brewing around the resin vat of the printer, but any old fan heater or PTC heater would have sufficed (just that heating the air in a resin printer means you will get hot resin vapour in your face when you open it, so a vat heater is preferred).

You can also use the equipment designed for home beer brewing here. They have a lot of sophisitcated app-controlled stuff for their beer.

EDIT A heated aquarium or lizard enclosure store should also have the stuff; they must again keep a stable elevated air temperature inside a glass box, very similar to a 3d printer chamber.

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If your looking for a consistent chamber temperature you could also look at the HPPS project which is some third party insulated panels compatible with X1C, there’s a discord for this project as well.

Using these panels would require a much less powerful heater and make it easier to manage and keep consistent.

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Those panels seem high priced for what they are. Foamed Silicone is pretty much a Yoga Mat and I could cut up an old Mat I suppose. Might be simpler and much cheaper to buy Manville Foil Lined Foamboard and just take the time to insert it on the inside of the machine and a bit on the outside as well. But the one good thing is it seems 60C or higher is doable with just adding passive insulation over adding a secondary heater.

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I was thinking the same, in that you can buy 1" thick foamular board at homedepot for fairly cheap. However, it is probably a flammable material, whereas what they are selling they claim it isn’t, so it seems to me they are selling fire safety and convenience of having the boards already cut to the exact dimensions. On the other hand, 1" thick foamular would insulate better…