Note some fan noise is due to vibration coupling. If you put rubber washers between the fan and the sheetmetal in the power supply you may find a substantial decrease in high pitch noise.

So, the way you go about this -- with the buck converter -- makes people think they need like a dozen buck converters. Since all of the fan, hot end, etc inputs are NPN transistors, you actually just need to lead a positive lead to everything that needs to be switched at a lower voltage, and then tie the negatives of those devices to the switched end of their respective ports. This will allow you to use 1 buck converter for your _whole_ system rather than a bunch. Edit: Nvm - you KIND OF cover this later on with the PWM fans, but maybe people will figure that out.

For anyone wondering about connectors, switches, relays etc and the markings for the pins, NO, NC, C, O (normally open, normally closed, closed, open). Normally open means its open until you use the trigger mechanism, which closes it (allows current to flow), and normally closed usually allows current to flow but doesnt when triggered. C and O (closed and open) means they are permanently open or closed. Often you find C and NO next to each other, meaning you can have power connected to NO and the thing you want to switch connected to C, or the other way around, to control it. This took me far longer than necessary to understand, so I figured I'd take a shot at helping anyone else who got confused by it

I bought a 15€ 4020 fan from sunon, which is supposedly maglev. Works extremely well, moves a silly amount of air while remaining extremely quiet

@dasauto7346

2 жыл бұрын

Where do you recommend buying sunon fans?

@crowaust

2 жыл бұрын

@@dasauto7346 I got the ones that I got from Mouser Electronics.

@VincentvanVelzen

2 жыл бұрын

I don’t like the Sunon for parts cooling since it has to run at 100% Al the time, otherwise it will wobble! Will swap it soon.

@PureRushXevus

2 жыл бұрын

@@dasauto7346 I got mine from some german ebay seller, sadly I don't really have any other options than aliexpress or ebay here in norway..

@PureRushXevus

2 жыл бұрын

@@VincentvanVelzen I noticed with the two cheap 5015 fans I use for part cooling on both my printers, they don't even start spinning unless they're on 30-40% power :p but the sunon fan is for heatsink cooling, which is on 100% all the time

If using relays, and especially if using the power from the configurable pins to run the relay _and_ supply power for the load (fan) - make sure your pins are actually rated for the current draw you're hooking them up for.

Biggest THANK YOU for showing me a way to finally use buck converters with PWM.

IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR SO LONG THANK YOU SO MUCH MICHAEL!!!!!!!!!

Been using that same 12volt nactua fan on my ender 3 plugged right in running @24 volts, a year later and still working great 👍

This is a great comprehensive video on this topic.

Very good video, as always!!! Thanks, Michael!!!

I'm so happy you showed the negitive being put through the board and the positive from the supply voltage, I fried the MOSFETs from my BTT E3 V2 wiring them through the board completely, thankfully I was able to replace the MOSFETs with a little digikey searching. The fix was to do what you showed, the negitive is what's being PWMed.

Exactly what I was looking for - thank you.

Thank you. I was running my hotend and stepper fans on permanent for no need. quick Klipper config and move the 2 fans. and Im alot quieter on idle now. I can now look at maybe a couple of fan upgrades.

i love how this video comes out as im filming my video making the quietest cr-10 :) anyways thx for the COOL** tips Michael!

Just what I needed. Thanks!

it`s very interesting!! taking note to my new build. Thanks!!!

Very informative video, thank you.

"unrefined in regards to silence". That's true for every machine I get my hands on, cars and bikes included.

Brilliant video. Good content!

I went the Alexa voice controlled power board with my 3d printer and OctoPi plugged into it. Also if you want to just upgrade the 24V fans then I recommend the Sunon MagLev fans, they come in a variety of models, but there were ones that had higher CFM, lower noise and the same size as the ones that I was swapping out on my Creality CR10v3.

Thank you Mike

I can confirm that Stefan's noise/vibration reduction setup with a concrete block and some heavy foam works wonders. I'm skittish to do a lot of wiring or firmware hacking, so if there are any others like me out there you still have some easy options for noise reduction.

It's my dream to have a compact and quiet 3D printer on my office desk. I'm thinking Voron 0.1. The suggestions in your video are perfect. Cheers.

@futuremapper_

2 жыл бұрын

Sooooo?

Good work

If you keep your Pi running then you can power on the printers (smart plug) after you upload from Super Slicer. That is my workflow, upload to moonraker/mainsail , which turns on a switch and adds the job the klipper queue and executes it. Before moving to klipper octoprint also does this. I have some always on computers near by the 3d printer so I run klipper/mainsail on docker on that machine which sorts all this out.

Hey Michael, thanks for the video. Good information. You mentioned you had eight 3D printers behind you... Would you consider doing a video comparing them to one another, what you typically use each one for, which is/are your favorite(s)? Upgrades done, upgrades planned and why? When searching out info for a second 3D printer (after an ender3) the choices can be mind boggling. Thanks for all you do!

The wiring shown for the variable part cooling fan did not work on my v2. I had to run both positive and negative through the buck converter. Any ideas why? I dialled in the buck converter by setting the fan speed to 100% in my slicer and then adjusted the buck to output 12V at full speed fan.

Just a little info on the noctua fans. I use for part cooling a special fan duct with 2 axial noctuas one beside the other wired in series giving me 24volts. I tried it with the 20mm thick ones: it does not really work, because they only switch on at 50 or 60%!!! i use for 2nd layer 10% and adding 10% every 2 layers. On the otherhand it works very well with the 10mm thick ones!!!! wired in series they switch on at 5% (ok.. that is very low and you can see them turning) but they are perfect at 10, 20, 30, 40.... % . so i think it is important to test the fans at different percentages. I think with the buck converter it will be the same, the 20mm one not switching on below 50%.

jesus... i just bought fans for my ender3max, perfectly timed video

My custom build is 400x400 with 4xNEMA steppers, Volcano hot end, two standard fans, SKR 1.4 turbo main board, TMC2209 and a 240v AC heated bed controlled via SSR. This may not be for everyone but I measured the current draw with the printer in full operating. It registered 1.6amps average and it never approached 2amps. My PSU is rated at 24v 10amps and I personally believe this is overkill. I am looking to swap this out for a fanless unit rated at 24v amps to reduce noise and will monitor a long print to see how the temps fair up.

That's a great guide, thanks! I'm currently in the process of converting my Ender 3 Pro into a silent printer. Will you be making a video about the new BTT SKR mini e3 v3.0? I bought one for my Ender 3 Pro and I don't see many tutorials online about installing it on a Ender 3 Pro. Thanks!

Use an ATX supply; run the pi off the 5vSB line and wire power button into the pi GPIO. Run everything else off the main outputs. This way the Pi can turn off all power when idle. Also gives you built in 5v outputs so you don't need any step downs.

@felipenavas

2 жыл бұрын

Most modern 3d printers are 24V

@NightShade7926

2 жыл бұрын

Was looking into this but my ender 3's are 24v. ATX doesn't play nice with that

I was having issues not being able to regulate speed with buck converters, I like this idea, my solution was dual 12v part fans in series off 24v, so far it's working out great, been getting better results with petg now

I use a wifi plug at the moment, but when I get the silent board fitted, def going to be looking at the fans… need more CFM on the steppers too .. driving dual Z steppers is causing issues!

Literally trying to get PWM control on the partcooling fan for days after upgrading to Klipper. I had no issue with the traditional buck-converter set-up with MARLIN, I had PWM speed control. Never would have thought to back-route the negative to the mainboard is the solution in Klipper. (Or At least I know what to try out tomorrow) Thanks!

@gaborhuszar4452

2 жыл бұрын

And it did the trick! Thanks again!

Would be interested to see how the concrete slab and foam method affects resonance compensation

It's hilarious you say the steppers used to sound like angry robots. That's how my mom described the sound of my Ender 3 Pro, she was as surprised as the rest of us to hear the silent drivers in the V2 after that.

Linear advance makes stepper noise despite the stealth chop. I actually don't mind it as it reminds me that LA is on.

With octoprint and one of jneilliii various smart outlet plug-ins, you can have the outlet commanded off with the printer disconnected, and have it turn on the outlet and start printing on upload. So printer is sitting off, no power in. You hit upload, it uploads, turns on printer outlet, and starts printing.

I find the Briss Moto is the best for air flow for these fans.

i just cut the cables and connected the noctua fan to the old cable, havent had a problem yet. im using the 12V noctua fan

I've often wondered how good a cooling solution you could get by using some silent, high-static-pressure fans mounted to the frame and pipe the air to the head. That would remove the size and weight restrictions, but I'm not sure how well having a large hose attached to the cable chain would work. It would be a good idea for an experiment, I think. It would be content, even if it wasn't better than mounting fans on the head.

@Spiderslay3r

2 жыл бұрын

Some of the fastest speed boat benchies are printed using an air compressor and tubing part cooling system. Neat stuff

Great Video!!! but you could have made a scene about wirind dual cooler fan 🤔😅

I'm 1.5 years late, but ... there's a 12V Noctua fan that you can use instead of the 5V Noctua fan ... It's called "NF-A4x10 FLX", EAN: 4716123314691 (4500 RPM, 4.2 CFM, 17.9dBA, 40x40x10mm, 12V, SSO2 bearing) (and it seems it's a little cheaper than the 5V variants) The Noctua fans even come with adapter-cables to change the 3-pin into 2-pin, so if you're lazy or lack equipment, you can just use those wires.

Another factor is that the bearings of blower fans wear out quickly when they shake along their axis with the print head. I modified my print head so that both blowers are now facing me with their flat side. This saves the bearings.

@MetalheadAndNerd

2 жыл бұрын

@@--Nobody-- No, but unfortunately KZread deletes all comments containing URLs.

🔥💕👌👍

If you want to use some lower voltage fans (es noctua 12v) maybe its cheaper to buy a power suply that can handle more fans and use the same wiering for the fan control than 5 or 6 buck converters to do the same thing

Any ideas on how to connect a fan to tune on when print is finished to cool down the bed more quickly? Setting up continuous printing and it take more than 10 minutes for the part to cool and drop off the bed.

Where do you get the crimper and connectors for the boards? I've got some replacement fans but can't find any connectors (and tools to crimp them) for a reasonable price, and I'm not keen on soldering wires together.

What about sunon fans for the hotend? They come in 24v and the static pressure is a bit higher than the stock one.

@ianbertenshaw4350

2 жыл бұрын

I watched a video from a guy in the U.S.A that sells printers and parts , he said he doesn't sell noctua fans because the performance was crap and instead sells Sunon fans - less noise than the original fan and more airflow than the noctua .

Also, another question. The prusa blower fan are 5v. Is one enough for aprt cooling fan or would i need two of them ?

you can use a lm7812 voltage regulator to get a 12v volt rail to connect all your 12 volt fans and whatnot

@kimmotoivanen

2 жыл бұрын

That's inefficient way, but with few fans it would work. Regulator needs cooling - in fan airflow 😉

@andreivoinescu9364

2 жыл бұрын

@@kimmotoivanen a buck converter has a voltage regulator that changes the output voltage based on the value of a resistor. A 12 volt voltage regulator has less components. You can add capacitors on the input and output to smooth out the signal

I own an ender 5 pro with a silent board. The printer is located in the cellar, so i dont mind about the fans 😉

Id like your input on the new skr mini E3 v3

Idk if you mention this in your video but what are your thoughts on using quieter linear bearings? I remember that polymer bearings are supposedly far quieter than ball bearings.

@HuFlungDung2

2 жыл бұрын

I doubt you're going to get much noise from a linear ball bearing because it just won't have enough time to get to a high speed on an average printer, before it has to slow to feed speed. Rather, what will make much more noise is the timing belts running over the pulleys. This is literally a 'zipper' sound.

I want to make the fan for my motherboard quieter, would turning down the voltage using a buck converter work? Or, will it damage the fan?

Please!!! make a video on BL touch installation for delta 3D printers.

Noctuas are lower CFM airflow. Since we're buying a PWM anyway, why not just reduce voltage to the existing fans to reduce noise?

I wanted to do what you mentionned in the video, and make the hot end fan active above a certain amout. When in marlin, i set E0_AUTO_FAN_PIN to PC6, as I'm using a skr mini e3 v2, and it then give me an error :#error "You cannot set E0_AUTO_FAN_PIN equal to FAN_PIN." Any idea what I am doing wrong?

@MajorNick2

2 жыл бұрын

I don't know if you're still having trouble with this, but I ran into the same issue myself. The problem is that PC6 is also defined as the part cooling fan. If you comment that out in the pins_BTT_SKR_MINI_E3_common.h file, or change it to a different pin, the error should go away and it should compile.

Probably should have mentioned the BrissMoto fang option too. I run two of the thicker (Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX) fans for the hotend and part cooler, as well as Noctua 80mm (NF-R8) for the PSU and mainboard. Wired exactly the way you have it with fan negatives going to the mainboard instead of to the buck. Makes it nearly unnoticeable while its running aside from a tiny bit of driver noise from my ender 3 v2. It sounded like a jet sitting on my desk before.

I run my Ender 3 V2 in a creality enclosure that has a small fan and piping to move any fumes outside the house and i find this also deadens the noise of the fans . I never understood the fascination some have with trying to make a totally quiet printer especially now we have silent drivers - the sound of any type of machine running is music to my ears and i would rather listen to a noisy printer than the next door neighbours dog barking !

@mrfoxycracker4836

2 жыл бұрын

In my case it's not because of me, but because of the girlfriend

I can hardly sleep anymore without my printer whrr-ing and zipping away in the corner of my room. Good to know there's options though.

Don't you think that a relay to switch a fan, is a bit overkill?

what silent PSU do you recomend to get with a relay?

It's been almost a year that I got nozzle clogged and tryied everything. Now by looking at your vidéo I discovered that it could be due my noctua fan not blowing enough air...

A lot of fan noise are generated because cheap fan are not balanced. Try stick some layers of tape to the one blade. When noise are increased unstick the tape and add it to oposite blade. When decreasd try out change number of layers (increase or decrease) With try and error method You can find minimun vibrations and noise. When fan works with minimum vibrations the fan livespean will increase because bearring stress is minimal.. For help you can use decibel meter or vibration/acceleration meter (G sensor) application for cellphone.

By 'not that long ago" you mean like earlier this year? When I bought my Ender 3 Pro, I ordered with a glass surface and metal wheel/spring upgrade. I got two tests prints in before i stopped and waited for silent board because of that angry robot noise.

I did everything like said but my fan when i set at any speed lower than 90% will move the fan then stop. it only works from 90%+ to 100% and yes at 90% it is slower than 100%. buck converter gets power from power supply red 12 v out from converter to Fan Black or negative from fan to motherboard blue or negative. Any ideas as to why.

Does Prusa sell that radial fan to any customer or just to accounts that have already bought a corresponding printer from them? I find most of the items in their 'spare parts' section are unavailable to me.

@MrBlackmidi1234567890987654321

2 жыл бұрын

Prusa now allows any customer without prusa machines to buy spare parts

Hello, could you post a Link to the Fan shroud for the noctua hotend Fan please?

I'm very careful when choosing buck converters to drop voltages from 24v to 5v. Some of the cheap ebay versions without heatsinks can get stinking hot because they're not designed very well, and the advertised specifications can be downright lies. The higher the voltage drop between supply and output, the hotter they run. I recommend running a spare fan from the proposed buck converter for 1/2 an hour, and check it's temperature before deciding whether to fit the converter to your printer or not.

@ef3675

2 жыл бұрын

These devices are generally designed quick&dirty from the datasheet's typical application directly. It's doesn't necessarily mean they are "lying" or "not designed very well", most often than not people don't have the proper knowledge to know what kind of additional limitations these devices have. Yes, the more you buck the more inefficient it gets but mind you that's an unavoidable quirk of switching power converters (24V to 5V at 3A is only 80% efficient, which is quite some heat generated for and SMT component), as they exhibit very strong efficiency vs duty cycle characteristics.

are those relays have backlash protection?

is there a way to quiet the mmu2s without an enclosure? the load and unload high pitch sound is just too much

Would all that work on a Creality 4.2.2 board?

Axial and blower fans aren't that simple. Blower fans do not simply move more air, in fact they move less air than axial fans of similar size. Blowers move air by creating high pressure, whereas axial fans move air through a large cross section but at lower pressures. Axials perform better when there are no obstructions in the airflow path, and blowers perform better with sub-optimal paths. So, technically, by using a fan duct for the hotend, you are constricting the path, but the focused stream of air may make up for the reduced airflow, and thus you do not see any clogs. Moreover, you always see blowers used for part cooling because of the indirect path used to point the air right below the nozzle

I just wish Klipper handled stealthchop better than it does. I've just ended up going to full spreadcycle lately.

I was told a Noctua fan will not push enough air to work as a part cooling fan. Is that true if the shroud is ducted?

@henryjk9419

2 жыл бұрын

I'm running dual a4-10 on my direct drive ender 3, been working out great so far with ducts pointing towards either side of the nozzle, I am considering going to the a4-20s but so far the bridges I do have been awesome

@kc6331gmail

2 жыл бұрын

@@henryjk9419 what shroud are you using? Right now I'm using a Satsana shroud, but found a ducted remix I plan on printing in ABS

To reduce vibration and some noise rather then blocks, I placed some plastic loop pile door matting upside down under the printer, you can use any "rubber" sheeting of around 7MM or thicker. With the Ender 5 Plus I cut an opening under the control box to improve airflow.

3:15 Wait, there is a chromax version of the Noctua A4?

What slicer can you use that will 'talk' to Klipper firmware?

@metal079

2 жыл бұрын

Super slicer supports klipper

What fan shroud is he using for the Noctua fan instead of he standard Ender 3 fan shroud ?

@gedora13

2 жыл бұрын

HeroMe 5

Complete beginner here, have spent about 5 hours struggling to connect the wires on the buck converter, so bear with me. Nor am i familiar with the raspberry pi or the conenctors on the ender 3. First question, is the wiring and end connector the end the same on the buck converter on both ends? So 2 xt60 ports? Also, where do I pluf it in, which part on the ender 3 pro? and to what? ngithmare at the moment. great video, unfortunately not enough clear video on this. great video btw

@srn2529

3 ай бұрын

Also, is this the buck converter that fits firectly to the fans or does this only connect to the raspberry pi? do i need two? so confused

@srn2529

3 ай бұрын

Do ineed a different connector?

@srn2529

3 ай бұрын

I have the silent fans i just dont lknow what does whtat

Noctua has 24v fans available

Off topic. But since you mentioned Superslicer I'd thought I'd ask.. I am having an issue with some prints stopping mid print with Superslicer gcode. This does not happen when slicing and printing with S3D. Do you or anyone know why this would happen? I'd like to move to this slicer as when it does do a full print it makes a much nicer looking print than S3D. Thanks.

@eideticex

2 жыл бұрын

Could be a number of problems. Initially I would look into the minimum layer time in super slicer which I believe is in your "print" settings, it can and will pause your print to wait for an arbitrary time set by that setting. There's also temperature, if bed or nozzle drop too low below the target, it will pause to wait for the heat to rise. I ran into that one when I over-tightened the screw holding the thermistor in place on my hot end. However my machine beeped profusely to alarm me something had failed despite never doing that for any other faults. Stepper motor overheat can be a problem if your machine is monitoring for overheat conditions. As far as I know, this requires the steppers to be connected in UART, otherwise they fail in isolation meaning everything else keeps going as normal. Could just be overloading the firmware with commands. In the "printer" settings you can find a setting called "processor limit" and adjust that downward to lighten the load. Default is 1500 G1 per second, this would be troublesome for say my Ender 3 Pro that only realistically handles 200 G1 per second before it gets overloaded. My Ender 3 V2 however is fine with the default and after a recent foray into paging, seems a very conservative for your typical firmware configuration. Hopefully one of those gets ya on the right path but there is certainly a lot to it. Make a guess, research, perform test based on what you find and you'll eventually arrive at the cause. Forming a solution can be very difficult if it's a firmware config problem and your not proficient in C or C++.

@doondedulin44

2 жыл бұрын

@@eideticex Hi. Thank you for your comprehensive reply. Much appreciated. I'll check those settings out.

Why buck converter rather than simple voltage regulator ic

Controlling a DC fan with a AC relay?

Didn't even know some printers made noise while idle

I used a WIFI power bar that I can remotely turn on/off so the printer is off when I don't need it. Can't get more silent than off...

I'm new to 3D printing and have been watching your back catalog of videos for the last few weeks, since getting an Ender 3 V2. One thing that has never made sense to me: WHY does the hot end need a fan in the first place? Why do we spend all of this energy getting the hot end up to 200+ degrees, and then run a fan blowing directly on it? I understand the need for the fan to cool the extruded material, but don't understand cooling the part that we're trying to keep hot.

@7897sebas

2 жыл бұрын

That is because the heat from the block can go up the heatbreak and melt the filament prematurely, which causes jams on the hotend, that is why the fan and heatsink is needed

@CueBall909

2 жыл бұрын

@@7897sebas Then wouldn't it make more sense to have a finned heat break and cool that directly, leaving the hot end un-cooled instead? It seems like two opposing forces constantly working against each other here, but it appears to be the standard configuration on most 3D printers I've seen.

@7897sebas

2 жыл бұрын

@@CueBall909 there are hotends like the mosquito or dragon that have something like that, it just has not been popular in pre built printers like the ender 3 and its clones i guess

@gaborhuszar4452

2 жыл бұрын

@@CueBall909 One of my first upgrades was a custom shroud to address this nonsense. You only need to cool the the upper side of the heatbreak with the heatsink on it and not the hot-end. In fact, it would be beneficial to insulate the heatblock. (then PID-tune)

@lobsterbark

2 жыл бұрын

@@CueBall909 Hot ends aren't supposed to have fans blowing on them. There is the heatbreak fan and the part cooling fan, but if either are pointed at the actual hotend then your printer isn't assembled or setup correctly.

Won't the stepper dampers introduce artifacts in printing quality? that's what most people I've seen say at least..

sunon make quiet fans

I just have it in my basement and control it with a smart outlet adapter.

I would spend the money to build an enclosure that would filter the air inside it, before releasing it into my environment. 3D printing, releases tiny particles of plastic into the air, which you then breath in. Much more dangerous than noise.

Just get a 4020 fan, and blower fan 5015 and slow it down to 60%. Comparing to the stock Ender 3 v2, it's supper quiet.

@ILEFTCAPS0N

2 жыл бұрын

I'm still a novice when it comes to this stuff, but I heard that axial fans are terrible when compared to blower fans of similar size, so why not just replace all the axials with blowers?

My 3D printer is silent when idle as I have it turned off 😉

This solution is a pain or impossible for most. I'm not going to add buck converters or relays and definitely not going into messing with the firmware. I have never found 24 volt noctura fans and had no luck finding any other brand that are quite. I need to replace all the fans on my ender 3 and the stepper drivers are the only quite part at this time. Is there any plug and play options for us newbs?

@danielthomas388

2 жыл бұрын

There is no other way to run quiet fans. You will have to either change the mainboard to one that will allow you use jumpers to change the voltages or you will have to use buck converters. Unfortunately, quiet fans only come in 5 and 12 volts. Any fan that is 24 volts will be just as noisy as what you already have.

@carbide1968

2 жыл бұрын

@@danielthomas388 so basically the higher the volts the louder they are?

@danielthomas388

2 жыл бұрын

Yes. The more voltage the louder they are. I've been running noctuas for a long time now. I've never had a problem with clogs. You can even turn down the voltage with a buck converter to quiet the fans even more.just don't turn it down too much.

@omega52390

2 жыл бұрын

I recommend going with sunon fans. they are 24v maglev fans. they aren't as quiet as noctua but they put out the cfm you really need and are much better quality than other 24v options.

@lobsterbark

2 жыл бұрын

If you can't do simple stuff like this, what are you using your 3d printer for? It's a bit odd, like someone with a cnc complaining tapping threads by hand is too involved "for most". Like what?

Never really understood the love for Noctua fans. They're only quieter because they run slower, and push less air, which makes them less effective.

Ecomode

Why would you use a relay? Just get a mosfet breakout board they are way cheaper and don't make any noise when switching.

You didn't make it clear that you are using a relay with drive circuitry - the one you link to is even opto-isolated. Connecting a microcontroller directly to a relay will kill it.