DISCLAIMER: I'm not responsible for anything happens with your printer or anything if you decide to follow steps in this posts. Modifying your printer will always carry certain risks. It can damage your printer, it can render your printer useless, it can even lead to burning you entire place. Don't modify your printer unless you're aware of the risks and have taken safety measures.
This post is a continuation of my previous post about extending Anet A8 v2 with optocouplers.
As you may have already know, Anet A8 v2 does not come with hotbed, but there's a way to add a hot bed to the printer. It won't be a perfect solution since it'll be hard to find a heater that matched perfectly for thr printers bed.
For my hotbed, I use the followings:
A round MK2Y PCB heater with 220mm diameter. I chose it because it will cover most of the bed area and I can position it in a way that it doesn't block the bed adjustment screws.
Thermal sticker to bind MK2Y PCB heater to the printers' aluminum plate.
Foam insulator to help the heating.
A thermistor.
3d printer MOSFET for accommodating the high current for the hotbed.
12V power supply.
To use these components you'll be needing appropriate cables, AWG 22 for my case. I don't use the power supply from Anet A8 v2 because it's 24V and it wasn't designed for powering both heater for the print head and for the hotbed.
If you're planning to add hotbed to your printer, make sure you take measure of the safety factors first. The legend about Anet A8 causing fires are the perfect example of when you don't consider safety measure seriously.
When all the hardwares, power supply and the cables are gathered, the only thing left is to wire them. Again, please consider safety measures, i.e. use cable shoes/lugs, use appropriate cables, etc.
As mentioned in my previous post, you need to configure your pin definition in Marlin too.
That's it for now, until next time.