How to power E3D V6 fan?

[shadowfiend 9]

Hi all,

I have baught an E3D V6 1.75mm bowden verson and managed to get it installed with a modular hot end mount. A had to make a gizmo out of polycarbonate to keep the smaller coupler from popping out of the old wooden extruder, but now all I need to get up and running is the littile 12v fan to be powered from somewhere.

I have spoken to Joshua at E3D and he was kind enough to talk me through setting the firmware to accept the 12v heater cartridge and thermister settings. However he had said that I need to wire the fan in series from where the 19v comes into the UMO (1.5.7) board, together with a resistor to step down the voltage. I went to maplin and got a 90 Ohm resistor, but after checking the calcs again, I got 101.4 Ohm, is this going to be too small?

He also pointed me here:-

http://forum.e3d-online.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2&p=2

After reading many posts on this topic I am still none the wiser and dont know the best place to take the power from, as I don't like the idea of trying to wire a resistor onto the main power terminal of the board. The other thing of course is that the fan needs to be 'always on'

Many thanks in advance.

Ian.

[macua85 52]

I just used a variable voltage converter on the main board cooling fan connection, and set it to 12v. This is on all the time as soon as the machine is turned on. I think I got it from readymaderc or hobbyking.

[shadowfiend 9]

Hi Macua85,

Thank you for your suggestion, what would the circuit look like and how would you control it?

Sorry I'm not good with electronics :c/

Many thanks.

[jonnybischof 60]

I'd just use the resistor - for a small fan (12V, less than 70 mA or 0.84W) this is no problem, and you don't lose much energy.

If you have a larger fan with more than 1W power rating, then you should either take a fat (1W+) resistor, or use a DC/DC voltage converter.

Example for small fan:

12 V fan, 40 mA (0.5W power rating)

Input voltage: 19.5 V (UMO power supply)

So, you want the resistor to take away 19.5 - 12 = 7.5 V from the fan, at 40 mA.

That means you need a 7.5 V / 40 mA = 187.5 Ohms resistor.

Nearest Preferred E-series value: 180 Ohms.

Resistor's power rating: 7.5 V * 40 mA = 0.3 W (use a 0.5W resistor)

Of course you need to adjust the values for your particular fan.

You can also turn the calculation around and see what happens if you take "any" resistor value:

Same example fan as before:

12 V fan, 40 mA (0.5W power rating)

Let's say the fan were a resistor (approximation), then it's value would be:

12 V / 40 mA = 300 Ohms

Now, we put your 90 Ohms resistor in series to that 300 Ohms fan, which means we have a total resistance of 390 Ohms.

Powering this from the UMO power supply, we get:

19.5 V / 390 Ohms = 50 mA

The fan's portion of this would be:

300 Ohms * 50 mA = 15 V

and the resistor's portion:

90 Ohms * 50 mA = 4.5 V

Now, back to the power ratings:

Fan: 15 V * 50 mA = 0.75 W

Resistor: 4.5 V * 50 mA = 0.225 W (still recommend a 0.5W resistor)

Our example fan should be able to take that overload without any problems, as long as it doesn't exceed any mechanical rpm limits. (Read: You shouldn't overdrive fans that already run at very high speeds above 10k rpm).

/edit:

About wasting energy: In the first example, we had 0.3W power on our resistor. This energy is wasted (turned into heat). But it's not much. If you use a DC/DC converter instead, you get around 85% efficiency, meaning the converter would waste around 0.075W for a 0.5W fan. This is less (meaning more efficient) than using a resistor, but we're talking about very small amounts of energy which can be neglected.

Hence: Prefer the simpler solution. Note that using a DC/DC converter can be simpler than using a resistor, because you just have to hook it up, no calculations whatsoever.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Guest

[shadowfiend 9]

Hi jonnybischof,

Thank you for your very detailed infomation :c)

THe E3D small fan is rated at 12V 0.15A.

After working through the numbers I worked out that there would be 1.55W going through the resistor, which is rated at 0.6W, would this handle the extra load?

Also as far as I can see, the only way to power the fan is to de-solder the power socket from the UM board and wire the fan in series, does anyone know of a better way to do this?

Many thanks and kind regards.

Ian.

[jonnybischof 60]

Hi jonnybischof,

Thank you for your very detailed infomation :c)

...

Ian.

You're welcome

I can't reproduce your 1.55W, though...

You're using:

19.5 V UMO power supply

12 V, 0.15 A fan

90 Ohms resistor

right?

So, the "equivalent resistor" for your fan is 12V / 0.15 A = 80 Ohms.

Total resistance: 80 + 90 = 170 Ohms

19.5 V / 170 Ohms = 0.115 A effective current.

Resistor's portion:

90 Ohms * 0.115 A = 10.3 V

10.3 V * 0.115 A = 1.19 W

Fan's portion:

80 Ohms * 0.115 A = 9.2 V

a) Your fan is underpowered in this situation. It might suffice to cool the E3D, but it's not an ideal solution

b) 1.2W is definitely too much load for a 0.6W rated resistor. It will get very hot, possibly up to the point where the soldering tin might melt.

Power ratings should never be exceeded, unless you know exactly what you're doing.

The correct resistor for your fan would be:

(19.5 V - 12 V) / 0.15 A = 50 Ohms (nearest E24 value: 51 Ohms)

7.5 V * 0.15 A = 1.125 W --> Next standard power rating: 2 W

So, you should get a 51 Ohms, 2 W resistor (5% or better tolerance).

The resistor will get quite hot still, so as I mentioned before, the resistor solution is not too nice for fans above ~ 70 mA. A power converter (DC/DC) is preferrable here.

-------------------------------

Wiring:

 

...

Also as far as I can see, the only way to power the fan is to de-solder the power socket from the UM board and wire the fan in series, does anyone know of a better way to do this?

Many thanks and kind regards.

Ian.

(It seems to be impossible to quote your first post, this forum is plain awful -.-)

I overread this the first time, but now it struck me that there's a serious error in the instructions Joshua gave you. He told you to wire the fan in series to the power input, but he meant to say that you need to wire the resistor in series to the fan, and put that assembly directly on the UMO power supply input.

So, please do not desolder your power socket!

I made a sketch for the correct wiring:

I'd recommend you use the marked points for soldering. They are large and well accessible.

[shadowfiend 9]

Hi jonnybischof,

I have success, well kind of. I took note of your comment about the resistors getting hot and since I already had a 100 ohm 2W resistor, I decided to buy another one and run it in parallel giving 50 ohm as you suggested.

I measured the resistors after soldering and they come out at 50.1 ohm. I have hooked this up as per your diagram and tried it out. I think the small fan may be inaccurately rated or something because I am reading 14.5V across the fan when everything is running. I have also measured the input voltage at the board socket and that gives me 19.44V

The fan is running fine, if a bit noisy and the two resistors are just getting slightly warm but not hot. According to the E3D article, the small fan is rated from 7v - 13.8v so it looks like I am pushing this.

Am I right in my assumption that the fan is the dubious component here? I cannot understand how the voltage can be so high.

Many thanks again for your super detailed information :c)

[jonnybischof 60]

You're right about the fan - Calculating the equivalent resistance from the nominal values (12 V, 0.15 A) doesn't give you any precise results.

Well, now that you have the fan running, you can re-calculate the fan's actual equivalent resistance.

We have 19.44 V - 14.5 V = 4.94 V on the resistor. 4.94 V / 50.1 Ohms = 98.6 mA current.

14.5 V / 98.6 mA = 147 Ohms for the fan.

That means the fan actually draws less current than nominal. This is not unusual, simple manufacturing process thingy.

The difference is higher than I'd have anticipated, but then again it's not an expensive, high quality fan...

I don't think it's a problem to run it at 14.5V, other than the fact that it runs noisier this way. The E3D fans aren't exactly quiet, even at 12V.

/edit:

By the way: If you hook up the resistors in parallel, then you divide the power dissipation between them. Two 2W resistors in parallel equal one 4W resistor. You can take two or three resistors with a lower power rating using this trick

Edited June 2, 2015 by Guest

[shadowfiend 9]

Hi jonnybischof,

I set a 2 hour print running the other night and everything worked great :c)

In the morning the print was done the e3d hot end had delivered the goods, the little fan was still running and nothing went wrong :c)

So thanks to your help I am in business again.

After being quite frustrated with the whole thing a week ago, I've developed a new found interest in electronics, your help with the calculations was great.

So many many thanks and happy printing :cD

Ian.

[jonnybischof 60]

You're welcome

[Username123 0]

Would this also work at an Ultimaker Original with the E3D V6 fan ?

https://www.reichelt.de/Spannungswandler/M-020/3/index.html?&ACTION=3&LA=2&ARTICLE=74411&GROUPID=4955&artnr=M+020

[jonnybischof 60]

This is an automotive part. The datasheet says 24..30V input voltage -> UMO power supply is 19V (Maybe UMO+ has a different one, don't know...).

So that's out of spec. Output voltage is 13.8V which is also out of spec for a 12V fan.

I would use a normal 24V to 12V DC/DC converter (5-10W) for a single fan, if you want it to run from the UMO power supply.

One of the cheapest methods however is to just use some cheap 12V power supply. For example, an old external harddrive power supply adapter. These have more than enough power for a fan.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Guest

[edis 0]

Guys, you could also use the PCB cooling fan circuit with 7812 voltage regulator, just split output to 2 fans and it will work fine. As long as the total current use is no more than 0.6-0.8A you will be fine.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Guest

[tommyph1208 55]

Guys, you could also use the PCB cooling fan circuit with 7812 voltage regulator, just split output to 2 fans and it will work fine. As long as the total current use is no more than 0.6-0.8A you will be fine.

I was about to point this out as well...