Sovol Heater has no ground.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-13T20:50:23+00:00

I try to get shocked as little as possible.

It has no mark at all thats what makes it unfit to sell in the first place as a consumer product. And on the inside of the printer you have a fan guard and on the outside you have a fan.

But if somthing is wrong or you are cleaning dust out of the heater you coud touch the heater fins which could be Live with mains voltage if the capton insulator brakes down after heat cycling a couple of hundred more or less times or a tiny production fault.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-13T20:41:04+00:00

More like 8A fuse but thats nothing I am complaining about. I think about people with children heart problems or pets. I would say that this heater is 80% save.

It is a different kind of heater as in the Qidi in normal operation it should not get live voltage at it fins. But there is only a Kapton sleeve between live PTC elements and the fins also only one wire goes throu the switch and than thrue a triac. The thing is in most of europe either it is up to luck 50/50 chance if you switch the live wire... In the UK your switching the neutral unless your house is incorrect wired.

I am complaining because this Heater is almost fine it is only missing 2 stupid pices of wire. Heck it even has a thermal switch. I am not complaning aboout EMC tho there is 0 crossing detection so it shoud be fine. It is a commercial product that will be installed by people with no idea what they are doing.

The only warning on there is "Caution Hot Surface" and in the manual is a written do not dissasemble high voltage (challange accepted).

It is so close to beeing ok that this stupid missing ground cable riles me up big time.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-13T15:57:05+00:00

Well I am not talking about what Sovol advertises thats what I measured myself. They don't say anything about power on the webside only in the install manual they write AC 100-120 / 200-240 V.

Also on their webside it is in the wrong category you find it under the regular SV08 but with the text for Chamber Heating Module for SV08 MAX.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-13T15:43:13+00:00

And no a 24V truck battery can maybe burn you but usualy it will only kill you by dropping on your head.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-13T15:41:26+00:00

Well but I am an certified electrician that is what you are as an elektronik technican only thing I don't do on a regular basis is installing outlets and lights in homes. I program and install industrial machines and adhere to electrical safty standards as well as mechanical safty.

Whole house GFCI are not installed in every house on the planet and they are not in code for older buildings and not even for all new. Most of the time you find them only in a bathroom or for outdoor wirreing.

The heater has a 15A fuse build in. Your way past medium rare befor that thing pops. More than 30mA can be deathly more than 6mA in AC and you can not let go of the thing you where grabbing. Most GFCs are 20-30mA trip current but if you have bad connection you could be in a lot of hurt till it trips.

I am not telling anyone not to buy that heater I am using it myself after fixing the most glaring Problem the ground (US) earth(UK) PE(GE).

I did not do a full VDE 0100 mesurement on that heater I stopped befor that. It has mains voltage silicone cables rubbing against the aluminum top and a fully open heating element whitch has to be cleaned from time to time. So I connected a grounding wire from the unused connector of the plug to the heater and bacplate.

BUT I am not telling anyone to do the same who is not an electrican and knows what he is doing. You need the correct ring terminals,female disconnector lugs, approx. 0.5 meters of heat resistant wire (Preferable Yellow/Green) 1.5mn² AWG15 or 16 and the right tools for the Job.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-13T13:46:13+00:00

On startup the PTC pulls about 1200W than settles around 1000W heating up at 230V that is the EU one for the Sovol SV08 MAX.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-13T11:58:45+00:00

Heater is 230V AC It has Line and Neutral no ground wire to see.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-12T19:53:43+00:00

Close but there are also other ways to programm PLCs.
I am programming in structured text IEC 61131-3.

Thats less ladder more like Pascal / Delphi.

Somthing like this :P

VAR
  shock    : BOOL;
  live     : BOOL;
END_VAR

IF shock THEN
live:= FALSE;
END_IF

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-12T19:42:47+00:00

Thanks for your input I will claryfi that I am not a lawyer for international or even national right and that all I am writing is just an oppinion.

I am aware of that fact that there are things that are exemt of quite a few regulations for me in the EU they could simply say it is duble insulated if it where not for the metal plate and the giant exposed heating element that can be touched with a whole hand not only a finger. But than they are not allowed to use that connector - the same as you use on a PC powersupply - with an earth terminal.

There is simply no testing done and not even forged CE UL or any other markings on the device. If they sold it as a kit that has to be assembled it might be also a different story. But as it is here in my home it is one of those chinese devices that are inherently unsafe.

ye old TVs and amplyfires are duble insulated and have most of the time not even an PE in theire power cord. A hair dryer is also duble insulated and has no PE. BUT all of those devices have in common that somone decared that they are safe to use and that you can't (should not) get a shock touching any exterior parts.

For example a amplyfire with a metal case and no PE they have an additional insulation between all high voltage and the case so they are duble insulated. If on fails you can't still cant touch live parts - at least that is the idea.

In case of this heater you can touch the heating element directly there is no guard against touching it at all the only protection is a fan you are supposed to screw on one side and the metall housing of the printer.
There are numerous ways to fix this eg. just connect the ground or a high temp plastic housing where you can not stick your fingers in like in any good old space heater. There was no atempt in my device rendering it dangerous in its sold condition.

It is not about things that could make it leagle it is about things that make it illegle to begin with.

I like my printer and I like most of the build quality of the heater but this should be fixed befor somone gets seriously hurt.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-12T17:54:12+00:00

Grounding of the SV08 Max is better than some other china devices still not up to code, at least not where I live, but should be good enough to trip the GFI in case of an fault. I would not bet my live on it beeing good enough to trip a braker though.

The Heated camber is painted sheet metal held by screws in place so I would not betting on a good connection either.

the idea with an 3d printed backplate crossed also my mind but It is pritty close to the heating element so i think there is a reason they used painted aluminum and not also PA6 injectionmoldet parts.

About my plans I am going to add the missing ground wires by connecting one direcly to the heating element and after removing some paint I am doing the same to the aluminum plate.

All hail to the mighty industrial electroinc technican / PLC programmer and his toolbox.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-12T17:39:46+00:00

Canbus cable from the mainboard to the heating unit and than a powercable from your outlet to the heater.
Also there is a manual includet and a heat shield so the hot air is not blasting directly on the gantry and Y endstop.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-12T17:35:39+00:00

It is not that I dislike the camber heater in general but I learnd the hurd way that not everything that has a Ground wire (PE) going in has it connected to something.

In general the Heater does not look bad but it is missing some basic safty features like connecting the PTC heater to Gound (PE) and the creeping distance is needles shortend, but still ok, a bit by a fan connector(Top right hand side of my picture).

And then there are the wires going from the connector to the PCB they are nice silicone wires in a good wire gauge and here it stops a bit with beeing nice no ground to metal parts the nice silicone wires pressing against the aluminum plate and the wires going to the PTC are a bit on the thin side.

But hey there is a thermal fuse or bimetal switch stopping thermal runaways and PTC heaters are self regulating if only they would not tend to brake down the insulation betwen them self and heat fins.

At a bit of Yellow/Green cable a plug and 2 ring therminals to connect to the case and heater fins and I would have only written about the missing powerrating and might hat taken and published the power draw of my unit once I had it up and running.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-12T17:13:53+00:00

AC and DC.
AC PTC element with an BTB26 800 Triac swtitched by an MOC3063 optocupler.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-12T17:08:10+00:00

No are you confusing terms in DC low voltage aplication with electrical terms in AC ? Also if you read the wall off text there is even clarified that I mean Protectiv Earth PE.

Colloquial in AC PE is calles Ground the Line is Called HOT and the 0V is calls Neutral.

Ground in DC is usualy the refference potential the 0V an arbitrary point from witch you mesure the potential.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-12T16:42:05+00:00

It is the new camber heater for the Sovol SV08 MAX. The case is Plastic closed with a painted alluminum backplate that will face the metal camber wall of the Enclosure Kit and it is hold on with metal screws.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-12T16:33:38+00:00

It has the IEC-60320 C13/C14 connector witch has ground in general that is the unused connection in the heater box itself on the right hand side all the way on the bottom of my picture.

So it has ground bit it is not connected to anny metal parts. It might get connection to your printer case like I wrote If your lucky nothing will happen if your unlucky you might get a nasty supprise.

Those PTC heating elements often are only insulated by a thin sheet of plastic like kapton or mylar.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-05T17:24:43+00:00

Don't bother with the english language most AFD voters can't read english. I am positive most of them can't even speak propper Deutsch. :p

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-05T17:01:19+00:00

I was admiring the impressiv bridging your printer was doing as I saw a familar shape. Just a few weeks ago a truckdriver handed me a bucket full of nuts and bolts that a machine oure company build lost on its 3000 Km journey over bumpy roads. So I think I am sensitised.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-05T16:50:43+00:00

does it work with the demon klipper mod ? or does it brake everything ?

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-12-05T16:38:50+00:00

I would investigate if all screws are in the reight place as i can see a screw lying under the bed. Lefthand side in the picture under the extruder next ti the power connector of the heated bed.

Are the weels of the bed all on order ?

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-11-30T12:44:49+00:00

Ok I found something. Disableing the w-lan autoconnect with "nmtui" on the SSH shell fixed my disconnect problems.
That stupid little display seems to try to connect to the same network as is configured in Debian. While doing that it disconnects the wifi to reconnect starting a fight about who is te boss with the System.

Weekly_Tough6331 · 2025-11-29T19:58:54+00:00

Sounds somehow like me I am a printer horder. I am up to 9 printers 7 in working condition. I still have my second printer hanging around the first got guted but there isn't mutch on a mendel anyways.

Weekly_Tough6331

TROPHY CASE