PLA Cooling fan.

[3Dmigos]

Right, after the amazing response I got to my question about a glass bed, I’ll ask the other thing on my mind.

I picked up a 50mm fan at Maplins and printed this: Flashforge creator 50mm fan mount by davinci85 - Thingiverse. It clips on and off as necessary, quite a good fit, falls off sometimes.

But I’m powering is separately via an external power adapter for 12v. Is this the best solution?

I use Simplify3D, and part of the advanced options seems to control the fan speed. Is this the main print head fans, or an additional?

Best solutions for PLA cooling fan please.

Cris.

[JohnKo]

i would connect the fan to you’re arduino e.g motherboard,

let the software determine when to cool the print when necessary , you can adjust this later.

i don’t have any experience with Simplyfy3D, but i can assume that you can tweak when and how it will cool your print.

i use Kisslicer for the Gcodes and RepetierHost for controlling my printer, here i can adjust the setting for example bridging.

this works out very nice for me.

hope you found an answer in this.

Cheers

[3Dmigos]

Just saw this on Facebook:

[todd_k]

hello,

While plugging the fan into the motherboard and having the software control the fan is a good idea, it isnt necessarily ideal for the creator.

From what ive heard on the google forum, this may lead to a short of the motherboard.

I personally use an external power supply, and witht that i hve also added other addons to the printer such as lights.

-Todd

[Laird]

It depends on the motherboard. If the controller is already wired to control a cooling fan, like the FlashForge Creator Pro, then it’s an easy matter to hook it up. That’s idea, because then it’s under software control so you can have your slicer control the fan, so it can be on for PLA prints and off for ABS prints. There’s no particular risk to doing this. Watch the video that 3DAmigos printed, and if that looks scary to you, don’t do it. To me, it looked like 15 minutes work - the hardest part is running the wiring up the guide tube!

For other controllers, such as the Makerbot Replicator, the controller board could drive a fan, but you have to solder a chip to the board, so that’s more work (and risk of damaging the controller). Some controllers don’t have any capability to control a fan, in which case your only option is to power it externally.

[Laird]

It depends on the motherboard. If the controller is already wired to control a cooling fan, like the FlashForge Creator Pro, then it’s an easy matter to hook it up. That’s idea, because then it’s under software control so you can have your slicer control the fan, so it can be on for PLA prints and off for ABS prints. There’s no particular risk to doing this. Watch the video that 3DAmigos printed, and if that looks scary to you, don’t do it. To me, it looked like 15 minutes work - the hardest part is running the wiring up the guide tube!

For other controllers, such as the Makerbot Replicator, the controller board could drive a fan, but you have to solder a chip to the board, so that’s more work (and risk of damaging the controller). Some controllers don’t have any capability to control a fan, in which case your only option is to power it externally.