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Cooling fan for Arduino and RAMPS

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by Denys Dmytriyenko, May 7, 2014.

  1. Denys Dmytriyenko

    Denys Dmytriyenko Active Member

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    Here's a variation on the cooling fan for cooling the electronics on the bottom. I would have positioned it along the side (bottom of the attached picture), if the air flow wasn't blocked by LCD cables... Hence, ended up placing it in the middle of the printer between steppers, pointing at an angle.

    rampsfan.jpg
     
    #1 Denys Dmytriyenko, May 7, 2014
  2. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    And this allows you to run a 100C bed?
     
    #2 Mike Kelly, May 8, 2014
  3. Denys Dmytriyenko

    Denys Dmytriyenko Active Member

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    Shouldn't it go all the way to 120C by default even w/o a fan? I haven't tried 100C, only needed 80-90C so far...

    The fan is mostly to avoid RAMPS overheating and crashing, which only happened to me once or twice, but some other people had more severe conditions (e.g. Barnacules had a video on this, where his would crash after just several layers)

    I also had my LCD go all wonky during long prints, where text would become unreadable and full of garbage pixels. It won't stop or affect the build though. I was suspecting overheating issues and am hoping this would also help alleviate the problem.
     
    #3 Denys Dmytriyenko, May 8, 2014
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I have run 100c bed (actually 110c is the hotest I have done). With just an exhaust fan next to the RAMPS board (see my thread from way back with pics). Hours and hours of printing--no worries.

    I did buy all the parts to upgrade the RAMPS board, but was waiting for the replacement bed to bother doing that.
     
    #4 mark tomlinson, May 8, 2014
  5. warlocke

    warlocke Active Member

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    After I updated my Polyfuse and MOSFet I have been able to run a 100c bed with no RAMPS fan.
     
    #5 warlocke, May 8, 2014
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  6. Steve pointon

    Steve pointon New Member

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    Denys, I had the same issues with the lcd and i thought like you it was overheating, so i got the same fan and intend fitting it tomorrow befor i get printing my own design if fillament reel holder
     
    #6 Steve pointon, May 8, 2014
  7. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    The bed on 12v only has around 130W of power. At around 35-40C ambient you need that much power to run the heater at 100C. You could probably get to 110 if you had a higher ambient around the heater, but barely.

    It was fun telling my 24v heater to get to 175C in like 2 minutes.
     
    #7 Mike Kelly, May 8, 2014
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  8. Denys Dmytriyenko

    Denys Dmytriyenko Active Member

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    Do you run 24V PSU in addition to the normal 12V or did you make other mods and use 24V power for everything else too?
     
    #8 Denys Dmytriyenko, May 8, 2014
  9. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    I have a buck converter for running 12v. I have too many fans and lights to just jump to 24v solid.

    Though I went overboard and got a 750W 24v supply and a 200W 24v-12v converter. It's a bit overkill considering the converter has enough power to run the stock setup, but I wanted plenty of power for lights etc. The bed on the stock heater draws 400W but I'm getting a second one that only has 200W of power but at 200x250mm.
     
    #9 Mike Kelly, May 8, 2014
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  10. Denys Dmytriyenko

    Denys Dmytriyenko Active Member

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    Nice! I'll consider this for my future mods :) Probably not there yet though...
     
    #10 Denys Dmytriyenko, May 8, 2014
  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    It is Florida, always hot. :)

    As for the 24v heater--Grrr! Now I want to do that.
     
    #11 mark tomlinson, May 8, 2014
  12. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Yeah it was fun trying to run my printer at 100C in a 8C garage. Even with the enclosure my ambient around the printer only reached 40C.
     
    #12 Mike Kelly, May 8, 2014

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