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Printer steppers causing lights to flicker (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've noticed for awhile now that whenever my Ender 3 S1 Pro is running, some of the lights on the same circuit will flicker seemingly in time with changes in X or Y stage movement. I'd guess that it's a combination of these stages causing minor voltage spikes/dips when they accelerate, and certain cheaper LED bulbs don't tolerate those spikes/dips well.

Has anyone else experienced this and implemented a good fix? It seems like some kind of power smoothing/conditioning filter plugged in between the printer and the wall would help isolate it. Most of those devices seem designed to isolate the device from fluctuations in the mains, and I'm not sure if it generally works both ways (seems like it should...)

Googling around most people are blaming similar issues on poor wiring, which I suppose could be the case even though this is a newer house. But I see very little in terms of actual proven effective fixes, even though it sounds pretty straightforward on its face.

Advice / thoughts?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So it's probably not bad wiring but cheaper wiring. Newer houses tend to have fewer circuits, so more current draw on each circuit and more noise. I had a similar issue when I tried switching my kitchen bulbs to cheap LEDs, which caused flickering whenever the washer would turn on. My solution was to switch to some better Phillips branded bulbs (EyeComfort branding I think) and the flickering went away. If I were you, I would try replacing one of the bulbs with a better one to test.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Swapping out the LED bulbs is probably the easiest option, it just feels like a bit of a bandaid compared to fixing the source of the problem. But after reading up a bit more, I don't think that much shy of swapping out the printers power supply would get me anywhere.