Adding active cooling and need your inputs.

I want to add some active cooling to my printer to help with my prints.

I recently printed the following file and found it will work on my printer:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:295317

I just have a lot of questions about the 3rd fan. I want my printer to control the speed of the fan and turn it off and on at different layers if I need to. This leaves me with trying to hook up the third fan to my machine. Something I have never done and since I am running a prototype printer there are really no notes about its hardware.

The other option I have is to run the third fan from a DC power supply preferably a small one that I can adjust myself.

Anyone have any comments or help on that? I am running a makerbot clone it looks like so is there a way to add a third fan? If not is it possible to run the third fan in parallel with the #1 fan as I really only use one extruder.

Finally if I should run a DC Power supply any suggestions on a small power supply?

I flipped my machine over and found the motherboard and circled where the fans are attached.

The red box is the fan for extruder #1 and the blue box is for extruder #2. If I buy a fan would I be able to just directly wire the 3rd fan to the extruder #1 fan location?

I don't see why you couldn't wire the fans right there to get power. The fans would behave as an extruder though. As long as power was being provided by the board to the extruder the fans would be on and when power is withheld from the extruder the fans would be off. There are other headers on the board where you can draw power and it would be discrete and allow you to turn the fans on and off with code.

I think that to the right of your picture is an unused output. It will need a transistor probably but that is all, you can use that to power a fan once you sort it.

What I did to achieve the same thing was to turn the head fans round and print something to direct the air onto the nozzle.

This picture is with them fitted, I haven't sorted the nozzle direct pipe yet but will in a few days I suppose.
http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...4191#post24191

If you want the Freecad files then let me know. The right one does not work as well as the left one because of the way the air is moving, ideally the right one needs a baffle inside.

Or you could simply use the existing power leads to the head cooler fans. Just take a short length from the existing wires.

It's something I've been thinking about as I have real problems with very small detailed models in abs (and I do mean small). It just doesn't cool enough before the next layer, plus it's close to the bed which keeps it soft anyway so the whole thing just ends up a molten mess.

Not sure how it would effect warping - but then I only need it for tiny prints, so that wouldn't be an issue.

Might try just blowing a fan on it before fitting an actual system.

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Originally Posted by RobH2

I don't see why you couldn't wire the fans right there to get power. The fans would behave as an extruder though. As long as power was being provided by the board to the extruder the fans would be on and when power is withheld from the extruder the fans would be off. There are other headers on the board where you can draw power and it would be discrete and allow you to turn the fans on and off with code.

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Any idea on where the extra header would be?

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Originally Posted by Mjolinor

I think that to the right of your picture is an unused output. It will need a transistor probably but that is all, you can use that to power a fan once you sort it.

What I did to achieve the same thing was to turn the head fans round and print something to direct the air onto the nozzle.

This picture is with them fitted, I haven't sorted the nozzle direct pipe yet but will in a few days I suppose.
http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...4191#post24191

If you want the Freecad files then let me know. The right one does not work as well as the left one because of the way the air is moving, ideally the right one needs a baffle inside.

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I have thought about doing that but could not find a file to print.

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

Or you could simply use the existing power leads to the head cooler fans. Just take a short length from the existing wires.

It's something I've been thinking about as I have real problems with very small detailed models in abs (and I do mean small). It just doesn't cool enough before the next layer, plus it's close to the bed which keeps it soft anyway so the whole thing just ends up a molten mess.

Not sure how it would effect warping - but then I only need it for tiny prints, so that wouldn't be an issue.

Might try just blowing a fan on it before fitting an actual system.

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I have tried blowing a tower fan onto the print and it does help I just want something that is internal. Also with the tower fan it helps but ultimately I need more cooling.

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Originally Posted by BLKKROW

Any idea on where the extra header would be?

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What board is it and maybe I can help you find headers for the fan?

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Originally Posted by RobH2

What board is it and maybe I can help you find headers for the fan?

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I will have to check once I go home after work. All I know off the top of my head is that it is white and it says "Based of Replicator" on it.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...3d/lnNsbRH_xZM

is probably what you want.

Sorry for the delay. I get off of work late and I had to start a 3 hour print after that was finished I was able to check under the hood.

This is what I have found in the attachments below. The only place I could find an open place for a fan is attached also. Would it be safe to hook up a fan to this location?

Also it is missing the terminal block where you can screw the wires directly onto the board. Does anyone have an idea of where to purchase this piece or what it is called?

Finally, the fans on the extruders are rated at 24V should I purchase another fan at 24V or would a 12V or 5V work also?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BLKKROW

Also it is missing the terminal block where you can screw the wires directly onto the board. Does anyone have an idea of where to purchase this piece or what it is called?

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"Pluggable terminal block" is how I've looked for similar parts in the past. In the USA, Mouser and Digikey would be where I'd start. In the UK, someone like Farnell. You could inspect the orange plugs for any kind of markings that might suggest a brand. Judging by appearance, the orange ones appear to be WeidMuller BLZ 5.082 a ways down on this page at CPC/Farnell - http://cpc.farnell.com/1/3/terminal-...w-socket-block. Can't help with the other questions.