Prusarduino - Fire protection for 3D printers

thingiverse

Hi friends, When I first started exploring the world of 3D printing, I wondered if these compact devices were safe. After all, it's a powerful heating system surrounded by plastic components, sometimes even enclosed in a wooden box. So, I began researching online. You can find just about anything on the internet, but to be honest, reported accidents with 3D printers are extremely rare. Still, having a system that shuts down the printer when smoke or high temperatures are detected would be a great idea. I searched online again and found no easy solution for a beginner like me, except for this page: http://mkme.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=706. The solution is Arduino! Of course, these small boards are perfect for building a full sensing system that can power on and off a printer through a relay. That's exactly what they've done. I have to thank the MKme Lab for this excellent starting point. However, their code didn't work out of the box when I used it. So, I decided to go over it and create an easy solution for beginners. Here is my version. It uses: - An Arduino Leonardo board - A DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor - A MQ2 smoke detector (be careful, as it doesn't detect flames, as you can see in the attached video) - A 5V relay - A power supply for the Arduino board with a switch (around 20€) I also designed a case to hold all the modules together on the printer. You'll find here the .stl files and the Arduino code to use on the board. The instructions to understand the code and do the wires connection are in comments inside the code. You can also use the pictures to help you. Here is also a video that shows what it does: https://youtu.be/ErFAudwb-2c I'll try to upgrade everything as soon as I can. If you find an error in the code or have any questions, please let me know. Happy printing! EDIT: 10/11/2018: I updated the .ino file for the Arduino board. There were a few mistakes in the previous one that I corrected. I re-tested everything and it works fine now!! P.S. If you like the design, consider a small tip. It would help me buy PLA to test my designs.