For the smart Prusa enclosure project I’m working on, I’ve been looking at alternatives to control the two loads (fan and lighting) that will go in the Prusa MK4 enclosure. I believe I have finally settled on the final components we’ll use to drive the loads; we are going to use a MOSFET module for the energy-demanding loads in our circuit — the fan and the LED strip.
A MOSFET (short for metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor) is a sort of “amplifier of logic gates”. You feed its low-voltage inputs with a small voltage that crosses a specified threshold, and they immediately open up to let a much higher voltage through their outputs. You cut the power to the inputs, and they shut off the higher voltage path. The control voltage is usually logic level (3.3 volts or 5 volts, with the control current in the milliamp range) but the controlled voltage and current can be much, much higher.
Come check out the entire build, reproduce it, and help me improve it!
Glad if you make suggestions in the comments of this thread.