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R1 Plus fan noise reduction mod

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by CJH, Nov 10, 2015.

  1. CJH

    CJH Member

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    Hey guys,

    Just sharing what I did to finally reduce the fan noise to acceptable level. My printer is 3D R1 Plus.

    1. Bottom plate fan. Simply replace it with Noctua 40mmx10mm fan ($16). One additional benefit is Noctua fan come with longer cable and one additional adapter cable. Originally I have to struggle with plugging in the very short fan cable to the difficult to see circuit board while holding on to the bottom plate and torch light. Now I just leave the adapter section to the circuit board and plug/unplug the connector between the fan cable and adapter cable.

    2. Replace the power supply with Mean Well 350W power supply ($51). The stock power supply has no auto fan control so the fan is on all the time. Mean Well supply only turn on when printer is consuming a lot of power. I took a look at the Kill-A-Watt to see power consumption. When the printer is on but idle, 12 Watt, the hot end about 35W, and the heated bed 120W. So the PSU fan will turn on during printing but not before and after cool down. I replace the power supply instead of just the fan because I think Mean Well's power is better quality (better over load/short circuit protection etc). The PSU's fan can be replaced by Noctua 60x25 fan ($13.25) to further reduce the fan noise but at this stage doesn't feel the need to do so. I might change in the future though.

    3. Replace the 25mm hot end fan. I tried several 25mm fan that claimed to be quiet. They are quieter than the stock fan but one break the second day, and the other emit a high pitch screeching sound. These little fan are meant for Raspberry Pi, I believe, and may not be suitable for 3D printer's radical movement. So I printed an adapter that uses 40mm Noctua fan. I've upload the design on thingiverse if anyone is interested in doing the same. (Search 40mm to 25mm fan adapter for ROBO 3D)

    After all these changes, my Robo now when turn on is as quiet as my laptop (when the laptop fan is on). During printing, there will be additional gear, bed movement, vibration sound plus the PSU fan but the whole setup is much quieter than stock and at least I won't have to shout over printer to carry on a conversation.

    Hopfully my experience can be of some help to whoever want to silence the printer.

    Mod On!
     
  2. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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    @CJH, do you have links to the components you bought for this mod? Just for quick reference. I just ordered a 30mm fan this weekend for my extruder fan instead of the 25. I will see if that helps. Otherwise, I will use your adapter with the 40-25 adapter (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1124054). Do you find much issue with the clearance on that side of the X axis when homing? I see you have a screw for you x-axis where I don't. So you might have a bit older model than mine. I do have a plastic standoff on the z-axis end that I could reprint 10mm longer. I was going to try Waldo's design (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:871343) for the fan block that already has the 30mm incorporated. It wouldn't increase the width of the carriage assembly that way. I wonder if we could remix that design further to make it a 40mm. Nice work on completing this mod. It is way too loud when idle and with no heating of bed or extruder. I have heard good things about @Mike Kelly design for case enclosure sold by @Printed Solid reducing noise as well (among other benefits). http://printedsolid.com/collections/accessories-and-upgrades/products/robo-3d-safety-enclosure-kit
     
  3. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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    No wait, you have the aluminum quick release. So is yours the new Robo R1+ Plus model? Didn't know they went to using the screw on the x axis stop for the new model.
     
  4. CJH

    CJH Member

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    Yes, I have the new R1 Plus model. I am pretty new into the Robo3D world so I did not know about Waldo's design. I replace the x-axis screw to be about 1cm longer and everything seems to work fine. My intuition is doing this simply shift the print area 1cm to the right which should be OK. But I can't confirm that.

    Let me know if the design work on your model of Robo3D. I have to go through a couple of design iterations to fit in that 25mm spot.

    Here's are the component I use:

    http://www.amazon.com/40x10mm-Beari...id=1447252655&sr=8-1&keywords=noctua+40mm+fan

    http://www.amazon.com/NES-350-12-Sw...31&sr=8-1&keywords=mean+well+12v+power+supply

    Best luck
     
  5. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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    Again, you did great on designing the adapter. I will print it off and see how it fits, but should be fine since I believe the fan block didn't change on the latest version of the Robo. The only thing you might want to verify is that your slicer knows that you are 10mm shorter on your x axis for when you go to do large prints. You should be fine though. Thanks for the links. The fan is pretty nice. I added the PSU to my wish list.
     
  6. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @danzca6 side clearance was an issue for me, I didn't want to lose any build space, and 30 mm x 30 mm x 10 mm was about as big as I could go without dropping the bottom of the fan closer to the build plate/heater block or extending it further right.

    @CJH Good to see others working on a cooling solution. I hope you could modify this more to regain the 10 or so mm lost on the X axis. I thought about replacing the PS also, as that is the biggest source of noise, removing some of the restriction on the metal casing also will quiet down the fan noise a bit.

    Just an FYI, Noctua is not the only choice, although maybe the best known, there are also quiet fans from Gelid, Scythe, Nanoxia and a few harder to find by Nexus, Papst, Sunon. All available in various sizes.

    Just to add one more choice. We always say there are no solutions for quieting down the 25 mm extruder fan. That is not exactly true. If you can/want/need to use 25 mm, you can fork over the big bucks and get a emb-Papst 252 N fan. It is not cheap ...
    http://www.digikey.com/product-sear...t=0&page=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=25
     
    #6 WheresWaldo, Nov 11, 2015
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2015
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  7. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, it took awhile to find a decent 30mm fan. I could find 40s all day long that were quiet. I may go ahead and still use yours Waldo and tweak it a bit. I want to have the wire runs that go by the part fan mounts to be a bit bigger. So I was going to print a new one anyway. Looking at CJH's design, I might be able to shave some mm off of it. I'm starting to learn Fusion 360, but coming from using Tinkercad all the time, CJH did a great job using Tinkercad on this. I designed fan grills for my extruder and part fans for keeping little fingers out (mine included). Would be a good addition to this new 40mm adapter.

    I have a design started to add an 80 mm fan to the ramps and since I have feet on my Robo, I was going to cut a hole in the bottom plate and add my adapter that would raise the fan out of the case a bit to give more clearance for wires and such. I've also heard some folks flip there PSU over so the fan is on the bottom instead of the top to get rid of some noise. That actually makes some sense since I wouldn't want plastic bits and strings getting down into the PSU. It's good to see a refreshed look into cooling and noise with the Robos. I love making mods to this thing.

    $24 for a 25mm fan...wow...I guess...lol
     
  8. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    One of the first things I did to my power supply was remove the metal restricting the fan, it is just a big 60 mm hole in the PS case, Then I cut a bigger hole in the bottom of the Robo and fitted a 80 mm x 15 mm silent case fan. It runs much slower than the 40 mm that Robo installs and is much quieter. I am using a cheap 30 on my E3D, but will likely break down and spend the bucks on the emb-Papst after I finish up a few other projects.

    Sunon makes some nice quiet fans and they are much cheaper, will probably replace the PS fan with this one: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/HA60151V4-000U-999/259-1621-ND/3694188

    They also make a relatively quiet 30 mm, except it is an odd shape. http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/HA30101V3-E00U-A99/259-1583-ND/3466803

    I would also mention that even though Noctua has a huge reputation the emb-Papst are better made fans than the Noctua, and they charge for it too. Noctua, while not cheap, are a better bang for the buck than Papst. But if you really want quiet .......
     
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  9. CJH

    CJH Member

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    @WheresWaldo thanks for the helpful info and kind word. I will definitely keep tweaking this thing.

    @danzca6 what's the quick release you are referring to? Do you mean I can pop out the head in some easy way? Boy if there is than I am going to bang my head on the table. It's so hard to try to stick my head into this thing...
     
  10. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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    @CJH, the quick release is for the hot end. Before there were 2 screws that would go on either side of the top of the hot end to keep it secured to the carriage. Now they come with an aluminum plate. You just loosen the two screws in the middle of the bottom of the carriage (one is under your rear part fan) and there is a tab on the right of the carriage between the main carriage and the extruder assembly that you pull to the right and that will drop your hot end out. It is WAY easier than dealing with the screws wedged into the sides for the top of the hot end. You can see it in your Thingiverse picture right above your adapter and below the extruder assembly (greg's wade).

    IMG_3270_preview_featured.jpg
     
    #10 danzca6, Nov 11, 2015
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2015
  11. CJH

    CJH Member

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    Thanks so much for pointing it out.
     
  12. Todd Wessendorf

    Todd Wessendorf Active Member

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    You mention replacing the hot end fan (25mm fan) with one used on the Raspberry Pi. Most 25mm fans intended for the Raspberry Pi are 5V fans, I believe. Can you use a 5V fan to cool the hot end?
     
  13. Todd Wessendorf

    Todd Wessendorf Active Member

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    Hmm . . . I have the R1+ ordered and delivered last month (Feb. 2016), but my release plate is not aluminum, it is a black printed part. Should it be aluminum??

    T
     
  14. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    All the latest ones are plastic.
     
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  15. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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    yeah, plastic is fine. I printed one for mine and works great. Aluminum is just cooler. Maybe I will CNC one someday for kicks. I don' know why Robo doesn't release the STLs on updates to this open source machine. There are alternates on Thingiverse though.
     
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  16. Todd Wessendorf

    Todd Wessendorf Active Member

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    Any issues with overheating? The Noctua 40mmx10mm fan has considerably less air movement. Have you, or anyone else, had issues using this fan to cool the RAMPS board?

    Thanks,
    Todd
     
  17. Todd Wessendorf

    Todd Wessendorf Active Member

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    Same question, really. Does the noctua fan push enough air in this new setup to cool the stock hot end?

    Thanks
    Todd
     
  18. Cbrown

    Cbrown Member

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    You have a R1+ with an aluminum plate to quick release the hotend? I received mine about 3 weeks ago and it came with a plastic plate.
     
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    They changed it :) Aluminum is more expensive ...
     
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  20. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    As long as your hotend radiator fan works 100% of the time plastic should be fine for the clip. If it stops during a print you will have bigger problems than a clip made from plastic.
     
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