I have my A1 plugged into a soecial surge protector that provides power to the rest of the outlets if the one trigger outlet draws enough power. So the printer is always on so that I can send stuff to it but doesn’t draw a lot of power. When it’s heating up and printing the power draw increases enough to trigger the rest of the outlets and a desk lamp turns on so I can see what’s being printed better. This is especially helpful at night when the desk lamp is the only light in the small office my printer is in. It’s been set up like this for 2 years and it’s been great.
This morning I was not actively printing anything and I went into the office and the desk lamp was on. I looked at the printer and it wanted to update the firmware, so I did so. Afterward the lamp stayed on. I rebooted the printer multiple times and while it’s rebooting obviously the lamp is off and when it boots back up the lamp stays on.
What is causing this increased power draw? Any ideas or insights?
For now I’m leaving it fully off but I’ll have to manually go in and turn it on before sending something to print which is less convenient.
I’m currently building an enclosure for mine that is double layered with backer board (concrete) and drywall (high inflammability).
also adding in a smoke detector that can cut off the power with a backup thermistor that when triggered will cut off the power and set off an even louder alarm.
my hope is to have it sealed air tight enough that even if a fire were to start, it would quickly run out of oxygen to burn. I may lose the printer, but hopefully I won’t lose my house.
my preference would have been to keep my printing to an exterior building but that’s not possible right now.
I share this in hopes someone might get some inspiration and protect themselves from the inevitable fire that starts from the hobby.