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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Hacks & Mods → Fan installation
It's good for when layers are too small to have time to cool and firm up before the next layer is printed on top of it. Also it helps with bridging. If the plastic is cooled as it is extruded, you can pull it over longer distances without bridging. Slic3r can be configured to turn the fan on in both instances. If you print PLA, you need constant cooling for best results.
I have bought myself a 40mm fan and a 240v to 12v adaptor.
the adaptor i bought off ebay, is actually meant for a led light system of some sort and it has come with a little connection that goes on the existing plug. That connection/adaptor has a positive and negative terminal.
My question is, can i simply connect the red and black wires from the fan to the positive and negative terminals on the adaptor plug and it should be fine to plug into a wall socket and go?
Ive attached a picture of the adaptor and plug.
sorry but my knowledge of electronics is minimal at best.
I know some of you are hooking your fans directly to the solidoodles board but for now and the sake of destroying my new printer when i get it ill stick to just plugging my fan in when I need it.thanks guys
This is awesome. I'm surprised you kept the screw adaptor. We would love to eliminate those entirely.
works a treat :-)
works a treat :-)
Nice workspace!
Hi,
What's your experience once the fan is installed?
For me, it's cooling to much and the actual model warped on me.
(although i waited a few layers before turning it on)
I will now try to add a trim-pot with a resistance of ~120ohm (12/0.1) at center-position to run half speed.
Although I think it might it will get to hot .... we'l see what happens.
@The rest of you who tried
What temp are you running on nozzle (ABS), also what temp is the bed?
Cheers
Warping from the fan goes against the theory. You can either wait until the layers are thick enough that it has structural integrity or turn on the fan right at the start so the cooling is consistent.
Also, having the case on will lesson the impact of the fan.
I've add the fan also and have seen minimal improvement from using it w/ABS, actually a little bit the opposite.
I have it controlled from an on/off switch and run with the case on. I am going to add a potentiometer to try to slow the speed down and better control the air flow.
When the fan is on from the start the first couple of layers print ok but then I start to get lifting on the corners. When I switch on the fan after the first couple of layers you can see a distinct difference in the surface quality from that point on. Not really any better just a different 'grain'. I also get a little more blobbing here and there with the fan on.
With the stock settings on my SD w/o a fan, I am getting perfectly printed parts with a nice, even surface texture and totally flat corners, even on more difficult prints. I am printing on glass w/ a light Hair Spray mist.
Maybe I just got lucky and got a good one out of the box........ Your mileage may vary. 
With ABS, the fan is really only for cooling small layers and bridging. You don't really want to run it for an entire, large print. It could in theory help with warping by cooling quickly, but it can also hamper layer adhesion.
Warping from the fan goes against the theory. You can either wait until the layers are thick enough that it has structural integrity or turn on the fan right at the start so the cooling is consistent.
Also, having the case on will lesson the impact of the fan.
I disagree. The layers coming out of the extruder are roughly 190C. If the next few layers down are near ambient from the extruder fan, you introduce stresses. Due to thermal expansion, (for ABS, alpha=0.000073m/mK) you have pretty significant contraction which by my calculations, is 1.89mm for a 150mm strip of ABS.
Ideally, the entire volume (ambient air and extruded plastic) would be at the highest temperature possible without adversely affecting the structural integrity of the print. Look here, page 9:
http://www.stratasys.com/Services/DDM-G … eport.ashx
Young's Modulus for ABS drops pretty sharply after 80C. I'd say printing with "ambient" (and the extruded plastic) at a uniform 75C would be best.
Doing this would reduce the inter-layer stress by about 40%.
Do you have the source files for the fan duct and mount? I would like to adapt them to use a 40mm by 20mm fan that I have lying around. Also maybe change the size of the holes for the magnets (I'm not sure how easy to find 1/4inch magnets are in a metric country).
I don't know how to use any 3D software beside openscad (which is useless if the thing wasn't designed in openscad) but I'm optimistic
Here is the Sketchup file the STL is exported from.
I have realised I will have to redesign this to suit my new hot end which is due any day.
Lawsy- I have ordered the panelolu and have been reading up on soldering the thing together while I wait for it to ship. It seems that A0 is not used by either the Sdsl or LCD- do you think it is possible to use A0 to control the fan?
image below- don't know if I did this right
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J1jFBXC9x1Y/T … /Ports.PNG
from an interesting post regarding SPI and the panelolu
http://blog.think3dprint3d.com/2012/06/ … coder.html
(Comments from Bluemetal at bottom of the page)
Here is the Sketchup file the STL is exported from.
I have realised I will have to redesign this to suit my new hot end which is due any day.
Thanks!
I have an LCD and buttons shield I'm using for another project and the five buttons only use 1 analogue pin. Basically there is a series of resistors so the voltage fed to the pin changes depending on which button is pressed.
The post you mention refers to using a different LCD piggy back module, which perhaps works this way and frees up other pins.
If you went this direction, you would probably be pioneering the method unless you can find some decent documentation.
Lawsy- I have ordered the panelolu and have been reading up on soldering the thing together while I wait for it to ship. It seems that A0 is not used by either the Sdsl or LCD- do you think it is possible to use A0 to control the fan?
image below- don't know if I did this right
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J1jFBXC9x1Y/T … /Ports.PNG
from an interesting post regarding SPI and the panelolu
http://blog.think3dprint3d.com/2012/06/ … coder.html
(Comments from Bluemetal at bottom of the page)
Because of my own shortcummings, I intend to add an LED reminder to this arrangement where as the Anode attaches to a 570 ohm reisitor which inturn attaches to the motor side of the switch. The Cathode end will be attached to the common ground of the small PCB. Anytime the fan is running, I will have an indicator viewable from a distance.
I just bought a fan that has an LED in it. Granted it was mostly to look pretty with the acrylic case, but it makes it easy to see when it turns on and off.
Lawsy- I have ordered the panelolu and have been reading up on soldering the thing together while I wait for it to ship. It seems that A0 is not used by either the Sdsl or LCD- do you think it is possible to use A0 to control the fan?
image below- don't know if I did this right
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J1jFBXC9x1Y/T … /Ports.PNG
from an interesting post regarding SPI and the panelolu
http://blog.think3dprint3d.com/2012/06/ … coder.html
(Comments from Bluemetal at bottom of the page)
Excellent Call! I missed this completley and should have caught it. It is possible to use a TIP121 to control the fan with A0. I wonder if there is register and CPU time enough to set up pwm.
I doubt that any thing else is using SIO protocol, so the A0 could be released from CE funtion on the SD memory, and CE could be hardwired. This would free up a fan control bit. I dont think there would be any loss by making the CE full time. I have not read the code, but surely those involved in development should be able to tell us the impact.
I bought the fan and made the print. But what pin must i connect to my mosfet to pwm drive the fan? How do I set the fan up in the code to make it run with slic3r?
http://solidoodletips.wordpress.com/201 … ruder-fan/
This is Ian's blog that does a great job of stepping through the process.
Questions @ electronics guys...
I want to add a fan to cool my electronics. I plan on soldering it in to the open spot between the steppers like where the LED are hooked up. Would there be enough power to wire 2 12V .1Amp fans in parallel? Is this overkill? I just have two extra fans and would like to use them if it would be ok/help.
Has anyone had issues with clearance? I have two silver screws coming down behind the extruder and the one nearest to the front is directly where the ram duct should sit. Is this something everyone encountered or is this maybe something newer in design. Id really have to notch out the fan duct or cut the screw short. Haven't had s chance to really see what its holding there
I just did the G-Code fan mod for my SD. For a quick and easy Mosfet, I recommend the freetronics N-Drive ( www.freetronics.com/ndrive )
As it is pre soldered to a PCB with nice mounting holes, I just secured it to the perspex sanguino cover that comes with the SD. Will upload a picture tomorrow.
Looks like a nice clean mosfet mod device.
I finally got this hack working.
Is there a solution to the pwm control yet? The fan is either on 100%, or nothing.
Regards
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