Quiet Fan Upgrades?

[Dave]

Has anyone modified their FT-5 to use quieter fans?

The 40mm system fan, hotend fan, and part cooling fans are not terribly loud, but the big fan on the power supply can sound like a jet taking off when the fan speed ramps up.

Part of me wonders too if better ventilation of the electronics enclosure might lessen the need for the power supply fan to run at the higher speeds. A related question is whether the power supply fan on a name-brand power supply (such as a Meanwell unit) is quieter than the original power supply...

[Ron]

Yes, I put an 80mm low(er)-speed double ball-bearing fan in the rear hatch along with an 80mm exhaust grille right over the PSU's fan exit.
The new fan is pretty quiet and because there is a lot of fresh air passing through the enclosure now the PSU's fan never seems to turn on any more.

I also added stepper damper mounts a long time ago (which make a huge difference).

So the loudest thing by far and away on my printer now is the dinky 30mm fan on the E3DV6 hot end.
I have an adjustable 12 volt regulator that feeds it and can adjust its speed, but generally I leave it running at close to full speed.
I tried adding a velocity stack to it but it didn't really help.

Also, I have a MeanWell 24V PSU in my printer now.
It is indeed quieter than the original no-name 12V unit ever was, even when its fan was running.

[Dave]

@Ron, what is the part number of your MeanWell supply?

I did the TMC2130 upgrade a few days ago on my X, Y, and Extruder steppers... skipped the Z to balance cost/benefit. Holy cow what an upgrade. I could print in a library now without anyone noticing... or at least, I could up until the power supply fan kicked in. I don't have any stepper motor dampers or the squash ball feet or anything else.. couldn't imagine needing them after how much these stepper motor drivers quieted things down. I was shocked at the difference.

I'll probably do the power supply upgrade... It seems like putting a better fan in the cheap power supply would be throwing good money after bad. For the peace of mind, I'd rather have a better PSU. The difficult question then is whether I do a 24V upgrade at the same time. I have the white heated bed, which from what I've read, is not suitable for 24V. So a 12V PSU would be a drop-in replacement, but a 24V would be... PSU, heated bed, hotend heater, all the fans... Don't want to waste an opportunity though.

Do you have any pictures of your 80mm fan? Is it blowing straight on the controller board?

[Ron]

I tried the TMC2100 sticks a while back and they were not happy running at 12 volts.
Glad to hear you have had better luck with 2130's.
After changing to 24 volts and adding the damper mounts, the steppers are so much quieter that I haven't bothered to try the 2100's again. Maybe one of these days......

I did post photos of my enclosure fan setup a while back.
Here is where I posted them-

Control enclosure cooling fan

I wasn't sure where else to post this as it is related to a couple of other threads including fried power supplies, fried power entry modules and fried control boards. I upgraded the cooling in my FT-5's electronics enclosure using an 80mm double ball bearing fan. The result is quite dramatic. The original 40mm fan was making lots of noise and was completely inadequate flow-wise. I was measuring temperatures through the air "grille" near the power supply fan in excess of 50C during extended …

Yes the fan blows straight at the controller board and the exhaust grille is more or less centered over the PSU's grille.
I even posted airflow measurements using a commercial air velocity gauge to show how effective it was.
If you would like the .stl file for the fan adapter (to mount the fan embedded in the cover as shown) I can locate and post it.

My 24 volt PSU is a genuine MeanWell SP-240-24 (24 volt, 10 amperes) that I had left over from an earlier project.
They aren't all that cheap, but they are quite good.
It is overkill wattage-wise for the motors, fans and hot end heater.
Of course I am running an AC mains-powered bed heater (500+ watts) so that does not come into consideration for the PSU loading.
As for your other fans, just run a cheap step down voltage regulator from the 24 volt bus.
You can get them on eBay for less than $5.
That's what I did for the hot end fan and part cooler fan.
My enclosure fan however runs at 24 volts.
You should definitely change out the hot end heater for a 24 volt unit though because of its power draw.

If you want to keep a DC-powered bed heater and also change to 24 volts, just buy one of the current R2 heater beds from FT (they are 24 volt compatible) and a MeanWell (or other) 24 volt PSU in the 360-450 watt range.

[Dave]

That looks like a good upgrade! One big fan, eliminating the 40mm case fan in the process, and positioned so it flows through the PSU to keep airflow through it. Looks perfect. I'll have to dig through my parts boxes and see what I have for fans to make something like that work.

[Ron]

FWIW, I might also add that recently I leaned some poster board panels up against the sides and back and draped a tablecloth across the top while printing a large ABS part.

It was mainly to reduce drafts of course, and I will make something more permanent later.
But a side effect was that the printer became much quieter.
Surprisingly so in fact.
I have it in a work room at present, and with all the other changes I had made previously (as noted above) I really couldn't hear it down the hall any more.
Now I can hardly hear it across the room.
So shields and noise absorbing material might also be an effective solution for your situation.

I noted the Noctua NF-A4x20 mention in your other thread.
Sadly, they don't seem to have 30mm versions of it.
Seriously, that little bugger is by far and away the loudest thing on my printer now.

I might try one of these-
f310r.pdf (74.6 KB)
(the F310R-12LLC specifically)
They are less than $10 and per the data sheet only run around 14 dB.
I generally don't like sleeve bearing fans though.

[toledogeek]

I created a back plate for 2 120mm fans, here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2831103
if you use one of those adjustable voltage regulators, and quiet 120mm fans, you'll have it near silent, with far better cooling of everything. You'll be able to remove the 40mm fan and the power supply cover (and its noisy fan). Once You've done that, You'll notice just how noisy the steppers are, and then you'll want silentstepsticks too. the extruder cooling fan isnt very loud at all, and you can control its max speed.

[Ron]

Well, if you run the original 40mm hot end fan perhaps.
But the ones provided with E3DV6 hot ends (the 30mm ones on the little plastic clip shrouds) run extremely fast to get the necessary airflow and as a result are quite loud.
I think that I will try an F310R-12LLC because it is rated at such a low acoustic noise level.
Or a ball bearing version if I can locate one.

My 80mm back hatch fan is rated at ~30cfm and though you can hear it, it isn't at all objectionable.

The rubber damper mounts work wonders for the motors too and are cheap.

[Dave]

I might actually have to get to this sooner rather than later. I powered up my FT-5 last night, and the hotend fan started howling. It will run fine if you stop it a few times and let it get past its resonance point, but it looks like the bearing is worn out.

If I put a larger fan on the case, I'll conveniently end up with a spare 40mm fan.

[Ron]

And that is why I don't like sleeve bearing fans........
"Maglev" fans are OK, but in general I prefer ball bearings and of those preferably double ball bearings.
But you usually can't get doubles in 30mm frame sizes.

My dinky 30 mm hot end fan is loud simply because it is running at about 9500 rpm.

Update-
I just ordered a F310R-12LLC and also a "maglev" version.
Both are rated at less than 20 dBa noise levels.
So it will be interesting to see how they compare in noise levels and also how well they hold up in actual service.
I already have a home planned for the loser.

[diarx]

Took to my backplate with a jigsaw and mounted a 120mm fan with filter externally directly over the board, also went non standard with the power supply and used a Hobby PSU generally used for charging RC batteries, mounted externally as it was too tight a fit inside. It runs very quiet, but saying that I don't use a heated bed at all so no idea if it would get much louder under heavy load.

Planned on replacing the hot end fan with a 40mm Noctua too, but after building a heavy 16mm MDF enclosure for the printer it went from being able to hear it in the bedroom on the level below to not being audible at all. Of course it's still audible when you're in the same room, but nowhere near as distracting/noisy once the enclosure door is shut.

The bottom of my printer has turned into a tool storage department until I have more time to think up a good tool storage system though, but thankfully the door hides most of the mess!

[Ron]

I am planning to do something similar to your pedestal when I move my printer out to the garage later this spring.
It is not so much a noise issue as a smell issue (particularly with ABS).

I like the 120mm fans that you and @toledogeek have used.
They will certainly keep things far cooler than the wimpy, poorly installed original enclosure fan.
I chose my 80mm fan strictly on an airflow basis (25-30 cfm).
The goal for me was to have at least one complete internal air change per second.
Per actual measurements it does far better than that.

Interesting choice for a PSU by the way.

I should be receiving my quiet 30mm fans early next week.
They should make a major difference in the overall sound level of my printer.

[Dave]

I should be receiving my quiet 30mm fans early next week.They should make a major difference in the overall sound level of my printer.

Which 30mm fans did you find? I searched earlier, and found a LOT of people disappointed in how limited their options were for quiet fans in the 30mm size. 40mm, no problem, but 30mm just didn't have much available...

[Ron]

Hi Dave,

They are-
Sunon HA3010V3-0004-A99 (maglev bearing, 17.6 dBa), Digikey 259-1615
Nidec/Copal F310R-12LLC (sleeve bearing, 13 dBa), Digikey 563-1127

Both are 30mm square by 10mm thick and move around 3 cfm of air.
Both are also 12 volt fans, yet another issue when selecting 30mm fans (a lack of 24 volt options).
I already have an adjustable step-down regulator that supplies the hot end fan, so that isn't such an issue on my particular printer.

As I had mentioned earlier I generally don't care for sleeve bearing fans, but with the Nidec's ultra low noise level I just couldn't resist trying one.
I have had some experience with maglev bearing fans and they have been OK, however I have only used them in stationary applications, not at the end of a rapidly accelerating printer hot end.
So between the two, who knows what will happen?
Hopefully I will receive them today or tomorrow.

UPDATE- I received them today.
They are both extremely quiet and move a decent amount of air.
Of the two I already prefer the Sunon HA3010V3-0004-A99 because although marginally noisier it also moves noticeably more air.
I did not have time to actually install and run it on the printer but I will in a day or two.
I am mainly concerned as to if it moves enough air to keep the E3D heat sink cool.
However, I can say for certain that either of them are far quieter than the one that is on it at present (a night and day difference).

[Dave]

That's good news!

In terms of noise, how do these new 30mm fans compare to the factory 40mm hotend fan?

[Ron]

In general they are noisier because to move sufficient air their rotors run at higher speeds.
I don't recall the original 40mm fan on the stock extruder as being particularly noisy at all.
But when I changed to the E3DV6 hot end a difference was immediately obvious.
I suspect that the 30mm fan I am running has gotten even noisier over time, but since I put it in almost a year ago it is hard to make a comparison.

UPDATE-
I also bought an 80mm fan to replace the relatively noisy one that I had installed in my controls enclosure.
It is a Sunon MF80252V3-1000U-A99 "Maglev" fan and it is amazingly quieter than the one it replaced (a ball bearing fan).
Also, the HA3010V3-0004-A99 (30 mm) fan is working well (so far) on the hot end.
So the overall noise level of the printer has been reduced by quite a bit.
I won't say it is whisper silent, but it is a lot better.
Only time will tell how they hold up in service.

Another minor update-
So far so good with the new fans.
No odd behavior or other quirks so far.
I didn't have anything to compare the FT-5's fan noise level to until recently.
With the new fans as listed above, it is much quieter than the other printer I currently have on hand (a stock Ender-4).
The 30mm hot end fan is so quiet that I have to feel for airflow to reassure myself that it is running.