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Firmware and Additional Cooling Fan  

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todd.t
(@todd-t)
Active Member
Firmware and Additional Cooling Fan

This is both a software and a hardware question, so my apologies for placing it in the software category. I want to add a cooling fan for small PLA prints and found a second fan header on the rambo-mini board. The fan does operate, but I cannot control it via the LCD/firmware. On the LCD, under Control, there is an option for fan speed, and I was hoping that since it had no effect on the speed of the extruder fan, it might control the fan2 header.

What is the proper place to connect a secondary fan, and can it be controlled via the firmware?

Thank you again,

Posted : 23/08/2015 5:20 am
henrik.w
(@henrik-w)
Estimable Member
Re: Firmware and Additional Cooling Fan

Hello todd.t!

//update: fan1 should it be...

The header fan1 can be controlled from LCD. I have measured the output to be 12 Volts and always on when the fan in menu is set to 255. When set to other values below 255, the voltage will be less than 12 Volts going down to 0 Volts. At least it showed declining voltage when measured with a multimeter( the fan1 could be PWM controlled but I do not know, meaning it would have a digital voltage of 12 or 0 Volts switching rapidly). Just watch out when plugging in a fan to have the wires correctly mounted - the fan may not start otherwise and may get very hot within a minute or two.

Posted : 03/09/2015 6:51 pm
petasto
(@petasto)
Trusted Member
Re: Firmware and Additional Cooling Fan

According to building instructions, extruder fan should be connected to FAN2 header and is turned on when hotend reaches 50°C. FAN1 could be used for additional cooling fan and it's voltage could be set from 0 to 12V via M106 gcode (cooling in filament section of slic3r).

Posted : 04/09/2015 7:29 am
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