UM: Mainboard fan's eventual death

[valcrow 144]

Hi,

So the mainboard fan on my UM1 has finally bit the dust. It's been making grinding death noises since month 2 or so and increasing in mechanical agony until it has now stopped altogether. It'll spin a little bit, but most likely not fast enough to push any air through. I tried some nano oil pulling off the sticker a bit, it helps only momentarily, then back to not working.

So my question is:

Are there any fixes?

Iis it safe to run the printer without the cooling of the mainboard fan? It's pretty cold nowadays.

Where can I get a replacement that isn't shoddy? I'm pretty sure if I get it from UM I'll have the same issues in another month or so considering how there's many threads on failing/noisy fans.

Thanks!

 

[nick-foley 4]

This was happening to my fan; I assumed it was mechanical failure. In my case, it turned out to actually be an electromechanical failure - one of the power wires was frayed where it entered the fan. Resoldering brought it back to new. Also oiled it a little.

 

[jonnybischof 59]

There are numerous brackets for standard axial fans on thingiverse. I'd recommend putting the printer on some feet or vibration dampeners to increase the fans' ground clearance. Axial fans need much more clearance in front of them than radial fans in order to get a good airflow going.

Or you could of course take some DC motor and print a radial fan for it. I thought about that but haven't gotten around to do it yet - too much other stuff waiting in the line.

If you've ever analysed the fans in a PC case and noticed the front fan isn't actually making much more than just a lot of noise - it's the same thing...

 

[hreedijk 4]

Iis it safe to run the printer without the cooling of the mainboard fan? It's pretty cold nowadays.

 

Definitely not safe! The stepper drivers become very hot and really needs cooling.

Like JonnyBischof said, there are some axial fan brackets, like this one:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:55910

And another one:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:28498

 

[valcrow 144]

Thanks for the suggestions, will try to find some computer fans lying around and replace. I already got some feet dampers and it's raised roughly an inch off the ground.

Computer fans can plug in without modification? (I'm an electronics noob) Soldering anything is not recommended for me...

 

[tommyph1208 53]

Thanks for the suggestions, will try to find some computer fans lying around and replace. I already got some feet dampers and it's raised roughly an inch off the ground.

Computer fans can plug in without modification? (I'm an electronics noob) Soldering anything is not recommended for me...

 

You should be able to just replace the plug of a standard PC fan with the one sitting on the UM main board fan (they aren't soldered but kept in place by small "hooks" you have to push out with a screwdriver or similar)

I did this with the printhead fan and it worked flawlessly... of course you should check the recommended voltage/amps of the fan you are replacing it with. It should roughly match the specs of the original... I don't know what those are, but maybe it says on the fan itself or possibly its marked on the electronics board where the fan is connected?

 

[lohiaprateek 0]

funnily enough, mine died last night, I pulled the plastic blade part all out, put some machine oil in the bearing and put it back in. Works as smooth as silk. Needless to say I did clean some dust off the fan

 

[jonnybischof 59]

You can use any 12V computer fan. But as far as I can remember, the UM uses only 2-Pin connections (V+ and GND).

Computer fans usually have 3 wires (V+, GND, and tach signal).

(source: overclock.net)

In case the link doesn't work: http://cdn.overclock.net/1/1f/1fe7802a_cpufanpinoutlabeled.jpeg

(one of the first hits on google anyways)

Typically you'll have a black (GND) and a red (V+, always the middle one) cable, and the third cable is any other color (tach).

You only need to connect V+ and GND. The tach signal can be left unconnected. You should be able to plug the 3-Pin connector into the 2-Pin socket of the UM (no confirmation though, don't have time to look right now), just need to get the right pins.