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I recently switched from Bang-Bang to PID controlled bed heating. The stock firmware pulsed On/Off with about 5 seconds each cycle. Now with PID, my bed keeps its temperature much more stable, the frequency is around 7Hz.

Although the total amount of energy used for heating should be less now since the heating is more efficient and doesn't waste energy by cooling down, I am a bit concerned of the fast pulsing of the rather high amperage (around 13 Amps in my case).

So I was wondering, do the faster cycles cause more stress on the components (I am thinking MOSFET on the board and components inside the PSU) or is this negligible? I am particularly curious since this is a rather low budget printer (Anycubic i3 Mega, $350 printer with a generic unbranded PSU) and I don't want to push its limits too much.

The only thing I can observe is a very faint noise with the same frequency as the pulses. Might have been the same on 5 second cycles, I was just not paying attention to it back then.

I'd be very glad if somebody could chime in on this.

Thanks in advance.

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    $\begingroup$ Although I understand where the question is coming from, isn't it best to ask this at the Electronics Stack? That community must have more knowledged people in the electronics department to help you find a correct answer. Good question, I'm very curious to learn from the answer! $\endgroup$
    – 0scar ♦
    Dec 18, 2018 at 6:58
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    $\begingroup$ mosfets can switch in the megahertz, so long as they are rated for the amps you're fine. $\endgroup$
    – dandavis
    Dec 18, 2018 at 20:33
  • $\begingroup$ I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is better on the Electronics.SE $\endgroup$
    – Trish
    Jan 31, 2019 at 10:42

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The frequency of the cycle shouldn't affect the efficiency as such, however more might be lost due to physical properties. Fast should cause less stress on the printed part, unless it hits a resonance frequency, which it unlikely.

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