30mm fan specs?  

Re: 40mm fan specs?

Hi Sascha

Which fan is this? Part fan or PSU fan?

If it's the part fan, then I don't think there are many options available, other than to adjust the speed slightly from within the slicer.

Peter

EDIT: It is the PSU fan then you need to go by the current draw, which would be on the label.

Re: 40mm fan specs?

It's the extruder cooling fan I'm thinking of replacing. The one that starts spinning when the nozzle goes above 50C

Re: 40mm fan specs?

That's a 30mm fan...

These small fans do run very fast and can give out a high-pitched sound. There is a 40mm version available from E3D here: http://e3d-online.com/Electrical/Fans/40x40x10mm-12v-DC-Fan that you should be able to print a duct for (or amend the extruder housing. That will probably runs slower than the smaller version. Be aware of the spare limitations though.

I think I would try simply replacing the original fan first as it may simply have a piece of dust in its bearings.

Peter

Re: 40mm fan specs?

Oh, I just assumed that it was a 40mm fan.

My printer is fairly new, so I doubt it's dust. And it's not like the noise has changed since I began using the printer.

But I'm guessing that, if it is a 30mm fan, then I could get any 60mm with decent performance and assume that a nicely constructed duct would increase the airflow enough for the cooling block to get a decent performance. Would that be sufficient?

Re: 30mm fan specs?

Sascha

Personally I wouldn't go above 40mm due to the space available. But I would try a different 30mm fan first.

Peter

Re: 30mm fan specs?

But if you design a duct that places the fan not directly centered, but a bit higher and further out from the X-rods. Wouldn't that be enough for it to have enough clearance? I'll check it out when I'm at home and I'll see if something could be made.

Re: 30mm fan specs?

Yeah, it would probably need to go around a 90 degree angle, decreasing the fan'e efficiency, but it should be OK. Then there's any additional mass you add to the X axis which would need to be moved, possibly requiring slower X axis speeds and lower acceleration/jerk parameters.

I remember when older PCs had small fans on on (I think) the Northbridge chips. They were terribly noisy when they go a bit of dust in them. I still think that could be the problem.

When I took my extruder apart the other day, I was amazed at the amount of dust inside after only a week's use since cleaning.

Peter

Re: 30mm fan specs?

Sascha

There is one more option that has occurred to me and that is to slow down the fan slightly.

In the firmware, change a line in the file Configuration_prusa.h:

#define EXTRUDER_AUTO_FAN_TEMPERATURE 50
#define EXTRUDER_AUTO_FAN_SPEED 255 // == full speed

Set the fan speed to 225 which should make very little difference, especially if you are printing PLA. Try a variety of settings until you find one which works for you.

Peter

Re: 30mm fan specs?

Oh, nice. Never thought about tweaking the firmware myself. I'll look in to it. Otherwise I might upgrade to just a 40mm fan to get a lower rpm/noise that way. Thanks for the suggestions!

Re: 30mm fan specs?

Sascha

There is one more option that has occurred to me and that is to slow down the fan slightly.

In the firmware, change a line in the file Configuration_prusa.h:

#define EXTRUDER_AUTO_FAN_TEMPERATURE 50
#define EXTRUDER_AUTO_FAN_SPEED 255 // == full speed

Set the fan speed to 225 which should make very little difference, especially if you are printing PLA. Try a variety of settings until you find one which works for you.

Peter
Hi Peter,

I wanted to try changing the parameters, but I can't figure out how to load the configuration file from the printer. I tried googling, but even though I have installed the Arduino software anad the USB driver, I can't see how I'm supposed to read the config to the computer and then modify it. How do you do it?

Re: 30mm fan specs?

Sascha

In that case, it's probably better if you replace the fan...

Changing firmware can be very dangerous; it is possible to break the printer, so if you don't know how, it's best that you go and learn about what you need to do.

See this thread: http://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/software-f13/firmware-help-t618.html

Peter

Re: 30mm fan specs?

Sascha

In that case, it's probably better if you replace the fan...

Changing firmware can be very dangerous; it is possible to break the printer, so if you don't know how, it's best that you go and learn about what you need to do.

See this thread: http://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/software-f13/firmware-help-t618.html

Peter
I'm quite confident in my skills as I have tampered with a lot of firmwares in my years. But from what I can understand, I can't load the config from the RAMBo into the computer, but I have to download it from github(?) first, make modifications and then upload and overwrite the current one?

Re: 30mm fan specs?

Sascha

You have to download the firmware source, amend and compile it and upload to the printer.

The source is available from GitHub. Arduino IDE from arduino.cc. You then need to ensure that the RAMBo drivers (from PR) are installed and the RAMBo board definition installed in the IDE (do a search on my posts for "repository" for how to do that.

Peter

Re: 30mm fan specs?

Alright, thanks. I'll give it some research then. This explains why my searches for only modifying the config file straight in the RAMBo didn't yield any results!

Re: 30mm fan specs?

Sascha

There are some versions of Marlin that allow more configuration changes than others, but the extruder fan is not used with many extruders, so it is very unlikely that it would be changeable (in fact I think fax speed is hard-coded in the firmware, hence not changeable).

It really is not difficult to make changes to the firmware, once you know what you are doing.

Peter