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5 Volt fan for coldend cooling

stevemastevema Posts: 6Member
edited October 2018 in Modifications & Upgrades
In order to silence my printer (its placed in the living room ;-)), I thought about how to replace that annoying coldend fan. Best solution would be to have one of the beloved noctua 40x10 mm 5volt fans up there. I found a fan adapter at thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2934120) to attach 40mm fans. I already have the 50mm radial fan upgrade, its great. Last thing would be to get 5Volts up there to the cold end. In my opinion there are at least to ways:
- get a step down converter and bring 24 volts to 5 somewhere on the way up to the extruder
- or, find the place where the coldend fan cable is attached to 24volts and change that by plugging it into one of the boards 5 volt connectors.
The second solution would the easiest I think. What do you guys think? I have to admit, I wont prefer any solutions including throtteling the colendfan. Noctuas fans are super silent, no matter at what speed they run.

cheers SteveMa

Post edited by stevema on

Comments

  • Samuel PinchesSamuel Pinches Posts: 2,997Administrator
    edited October 2018
    I would probably prefer to put the 24 -> 5V step down in the main chassis. Easier to install or insert inline there I reckon. Too many cables/moving parts near the head....
    Post edited by Samuel Pinches on
  • Samuel PinchesSamuel Pinches Posts: 2,997Administrator
    edited October 2018
    Oh, and welcome @stevema ! :smile:

    Post edited by Samuel Pinches on
  • stevemastevema Posts: 6Member
    Hi Samuel, thanks for the quick reply :-)
    Thats a good point as there is much space in the main chassis. I'm wondering if I have to use additional components like a step-down at all, i mean there are 2 5Volt outputs on the mainboard. I am using one for an additional fan to cool down the new stepper drivers. My Plan was to unplug the coldendfan cable form its 12/24v connector and plugin it in the second 5 volt connector on the other side of the board.  On the other end of the cable up at the coldend I simply would have to solder my 5 volt fan and attach it so my modified coldend duct?
  • Samuel PinchesSamuel Pinches Posts: 2,997Administrator
    edited October 2018
    A fan is normally 0.05 to 0.1A, so at 5V that would be 500mA max. The 5V regulator on the motherboard is not designed to power fans and moving parts, primarily just LCD's and other low power peripherals.

    That being said, I expect you could probably get away with it. :wink:

    If you have time, I would encourage using a step down, even just for the personal challenge. It also gives you an independant 5V source to run other accessories down the track, like a raspberry pi that requires significantly more current to operate.
    Post edited by Samuel Pinches on
  • stevemastevema Posts: 6Member
    Ok, that sounds right but as for the fans at 5 volt connectors I am following @DaHai s recommendations. So far no problems with the first fan there :-) Hope I can get away with that.
    For step down converters there are some pretty nice and easy to use ones ;-). And the raspberry pi has dedicated power, it has got some work to do as the printer is off too ;-) Thanks a lot, I will report about my adventures hopefully next time with an even more family-peace-keeping 3d printer. :D  
  • sasasasa Posts: 36🌟 Super Member 🌟
    edited November 2018
    You can also purchase 5 volts BEC like this one:

    After my stock cooler on hotend failed, I replaced it temporary with 12 volt cooler using 24 to 12 v BEC mounted inside protective tube, it it is a bit bigger but still fits. Now I got replacement fan and  the BEC is moved inside to power stepper drivers cooling.

    Post edited by sasa on
  • stevemastevema Posts: 6Member
    Hi guys,
    after some trouble with a broken stepper driver (thx to JGAurora support for guiding me through all the tests and sending me a new one!) my printer is now runnig again as smooth as never before. I'm using the two 5v outputs of the board for two noctua 40x10 fans. One for cooling the stepper drivers the other one as coldend fan. Last source of annoying noise is a beep at certain lower pwm speeds from my hotend fan. Perhaps there is a solution for that too. When I have to open my printer the next time, I'll take some pictures of my work. Keep on hacking and fixing your low cost printers!

    Cheers
  • Samuel PinchesSamuel Pinches Posts: 2,997Administrator
    Woo! Thats a win. Thanks for the update @stevema !

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