Im looking at buying a 500Wh Jackery Solar power bank linked below. Anyone ever ran their P1P off one of these. I take my printer to craft fairs and flee markets to demonstrate how they work and would like a quiet power option when a outlet isnt available. Any thoughts on if this will be big enough to power this printer!
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The blurb on the generator says it can provide 500W. That seems like more than enough to power the printer… but for how long?? 
Next print I make I’ll hook it up to a total power measuring device.
I’m looking for at most 6 hours out of it. That’s exactly my thoughts as well. I was sure it would run it but i don’t know how to calculate an estimated length of time based off Wh usage
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Running a test print right now for you.
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A lot of that probably depends on filament and the hotend/heatbed temps. Would be interesting to know the differences.
If need be i could always buy the cool plate and print pla on that to save power, Im sure the heated bed eats most the power usage
Alright. Test complete. Before we talk results, let’s quickly cover some EE. “Power factor” is how well the current draw of a device matches the input voltage. A PF of 1.0 means they’re in sync. The PF of my X1C is 0.70, which is not great. This means that we’ll get different readings for Watts as for Volts*Amps. This affects how the generator does its job, so to be safe, we’ll take the worse of the two values above: VA.
The test involves:
- Turning unit on.
- Loading filament into the AMS
- Starting print of the Cali-Dragon, including bed levelling test (but skipping extrusion calibration)
- “Generic PLA” and “0.20mm Standard” profiles selected, with the Textured PEI plate.
- Waiting until print is finished, and bed is lowered.
The model is this one: Cali-Dragon @ Printables
Results:
- Total test time from power on: 41min
- Total time during bed-levelling and print: 35min (estimated)
- Total time for print only: 28min 20sec
- VA (Watts proxy): 280VA during full bed heating, 170VA during printing. 35VA during idle. So, it looks like the device can power the unit fine.
- Total Energy Used: 0.08kWh (=80Wh). So, assuming this number doesn’t need fiddling, it means you can print roughly 6 Cali-Dragons.
Sounds like a go-er!
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For a 100ÂşC bed, my X1C draws 1kW at the start of the print (not sure what power factor it had during that time), so make sure your battery can handle it.
Also, for default PLA settings (35ºC bed, but I might have bumbed it up to 45ºC by that time already) I measured 50-70W during printing. Weirdly different numbers…
I appreciate your input and definitely wasnt expecting this detailed of an answer. For that you are amazing
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Was this power draw also including the ams? I would be not using one out in the field.
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Yes, it was… but I think the power draw from that is fairly minimal. The biggest draw is definitely the bed, then the collection of motors as second, possibly tied with the nozzle heater.
Holy ■■■■, that’s… a lot. My quote of 280VA (*0.7 to get W) was (likely) with the bed heater on a 100% duty cycle as it heats up. So… no idea how it’s bumping up to 1kW. What system were you using for measuring? I was usiing a Kill-a-watt device, which I tested to be “okay accuracy” against another device I knew the draw from.
I might have to look into the cool plate for off the grid printing lol
The bed draws closer to 900W when fed 240V. On 120, it is in the 300 range as @chmarr notes.
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Well well, isn’t that interesting. You 240V folk must get some brutally-fast heat-up times!
(I’m an Aussie living in the US. Oh how I miss 240V)
Indeed - some on 120V run their printers through transformers to get the higher wattage bed heat. Unlike the rest of the printer, the bed heater is powered directly by the mains voltage and not the 24V from the power supply.
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When keeping a bed at a constant temp the long-term power consumption has to be the same independent of 240 vs 120. Power == heat.
Yes, steady-state the bed power is fairly constant, low, and independent of voltage. The difference is only when first coming up to temp.
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