February 14, 2024
Description
This quest was to reduce the background noise in the room that is my office. When the printer is idle there is a huge amount of noise coming from the power supply fan over my music listening. If a print completes overnight everyone gets to hear that fan until morning. Much too much idle fan noise.
Just addressing the idle fan noise coming from the power supply here. There are some nice solutions to handle the hot end. Search up OrzOrzOrz (https://www.printables.com/search/models?q=orzorzorz&ctx=models). The cabinet fan is certainly tolerable and does not run continuously, and fan bar is under your control.
Opening up the power supply is not for everyone. If you have no idea what happens with the incoming AC line voltage and manipulation as it is turned into a relatively safe 24 volts DC, then don't go in there. If you do, remember to unplug the printer first.
There has been NO EXTENSIVE TESTING behind these suggestions. My printer is not driven very hard, going 200 speed tops. It is in a air conditioned room and the humidity is low. There is a reason behind a noisy fan in the power supply, and that is to cover more use cases than a nice slow office environment. Keep that in mind before dropping fan voltages, or replacing fans.
These models may only apply to the Cheng Liang power supply I have unfortunately. The power supply is not an Elegoo part. Expect at any time they could switch vendors or power supply revisions which potentially could make the models not fit.
Would suggest giving each a try as they go from least effort and expense to most:
Unacceptable - Hard to be in the same room when printer is idle
- This is probably where you are now with the stock configuration. Entire house can hear it. Close a door.
Bearable - If you take your mind off it
- Easy to get here, trim out center of fan guard with some tin snips, see pic. Reduces back pressure noise.
Tolerable - You can probably hear yourself think after this
- Drop the fan voltage to 12 with a DC to DC converter outside the power supply cabinet. Note
the leads to the fan are +24 on the red wire, and the black is ground (normal). The pinout on the power supply connector may mean the wires need to be reversed if you are putting a different 24 volt fan in or attaching a converter.
Acceptable - Listen to some music while the printer is idle
- Use the Noctua NF-A9x14 92mm fan, DC to DC converter, and one of these models. Not saying this makes things silent. There will still be the whirr of a fan running, but at more favorable pitch. Both models achieve the same results but expect power supply variations to make one or the other fit or perhaps not fit at all. Either lid extends another 2.5mm towards the table so the fan will clear the internal transformer. Make sure nothing is underneath.
Did do some spot testing to see if these changes would cause more heat to be trapped within the power supply cabinet than the original. Placed a probe along the wall where the old fan was closest to (see pic). Doing an hour long print usually means 31 degrees C plus or minus 3 degrees with any of the configurations above, which was interesting. Sitting idle the temperature seemed to hover at about 25. A 4 hour print was more towards 35. The power supply case is a heatsink for the active components on the walls, and the iron core transformer is another heat source, both with very long cool down times. There is not a large temperature swing between printing at reasonable speeds and sitting idle which was also interesting and good to know. All this was unscientific observation and your results will vary.
License:
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