Adding another fan to my Prusa
I've been dealing with heat creep lately and looking for a solution. From what I have found, it's possible to add another fan (or even 2) to cool down the extruder motor to prevent clogging with PLA (I'm not printing in an enclosure or hot environemnt, but after 2-3 hours, it always clogs with my galaxy black).
I am trying to hook up this modification to my Prusa, and the links in the description point to a 5v fan which is what I purchased. Now, however, I can't find anything on how to hook it up. I opened the board up and don't see anything there to plug it in. Am I missing something? Do I need additional parts?
I'm kind of a novice when it comes to working with the innards of electronics, so please be specific if you're going to throw out suggestions. Thank you.
RE:
I would either connect the stepper fan in parallel to the hotend fan (starts at 50 degrees C.) or use a separate power supply for permanent use.
(second fan without pwm connection)
wbr,
Karl
Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.
RE:
Thank you for the diagram, that helps me understand.
If I wanted to connect it to the other hot end fan, what tools or supplies do I need? I have a heat gun, and electrical connectors that I’ve used in the past. This approach seems like it needs some sort of splitter. I have no idea what that is called or where it find it.
And if I wanted to supply permanent power to it, do I need a special adapter since it's only 5v? The noctua fan I've ordered doesn't have a way to hook it up to an outlet or anything like that. So what's the normal way to supply permanent power to a small fan like this?
RE: Adding another fan to my Prusa
For separate power you need a power supply, e.g. Meanwell RS 15-5 (also suitable for operating a Raspberry), otherwise you can use a Y-splitter like this one with suitable connectors. Another alternative would be soldering.
wbr,
Karl
Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.