Fan bearing sound on the electronics case fan

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sprior
Posts: 384
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2014 8:37 pm

Fan bearing sound on the electronics case fan

Post by sprior » Sun Apr 13, 2014 11:15 pm

When I first power up my M2 the electronics case fan sounds like it has a defective bearing, pretty bad. The only thing that makes me think it might NOT be defective is that once I connect to the printer it quiets down. So it seems to be that either the fan is defective or the power it receives on power up is chopped in some way that causes it to make that noise.

Has anyone else seen (actually heard) something like this? If it's bad I'm sure Rick will replace it no problem, but don't want to make an unnecessary claim. I am less comfortable leaving something unattended if it sounds like it's got faulty cooling.

jsc
Posts: 1864
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:00 am

Re: Fan bearing sound on the electronics case fan

Post by jsc » Mon Apr 14, 2014 1:07 am

Is it a sleeve bearing fan? My understanding is that MakerGear has moved to higher quality ball bearing fans. Sleeve bearing fans don't like being mounted in a horizontal position like that. You should try to get them exchanged for some of the newer model fans. I dealt with it by ordering some Noctuas off Amazon. You will need a matched pair for the 40mm fans (electronics case and extruder) so that they draw the same current.

Toby
Posts: 330
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:44 pm

Re: Fan bearing sound on the electronics case fan

Post by Toby » Mon Apr 14, 2014 2:12 am

My electronics fan does that most of the time. It's the non-ball bearing kind so it was expected. Rick offered to replace it if I felt it was defective, but since it still worked I opted not to do that. Next time I order filament from Makergear I plan to add two of the new 40 mm ball bearing fans and replace both the extruder and electronics fans.

jbarnhardt
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:56 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Fan bearing sound on the electronics case fan

Post by jbarnhardt » Mon Apr 14, 2014 8:08 pm

My electronics case fan has started doing this also, but only since I upgraded my firmware to Curtis' Marlin fork. Interestingly, if I tap the top of the electronics case firmly a couple of times near the fan, it transitions to "quiet mode", where it stays until the printer is power cycled. I've decided not to worry about it for now. I agree with your suggestion that it is likely related to the way the power to that fan is being modulated.

-John

jsc
Posts: 1864
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:00 am

Re: Fan bearing sound on the electronics case fan

Post by jsc » Mon Apr 14, 2014 8:25 pm

I rather doubt it has anything to do with the firmware. Those fans are run at 100% duty cycle, so there is no PWM going on. I had the same symptoms with the stock firmware, and the issues entirely went away with different fans. I think the root cause is "cheap sleeve bearing fan mounted horizontally".

jbarnhardt
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:56 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Fan bearing sound on the electronics case fan

Post by jbarnhardt » Mon Apr 14, 2014 9:50 pm

jsc wrote:I rather doubt it has anything to do with the firmware. Those fans are run at 100% duty cycle, so there is no PWM going on. I had the same symptoms with the stock firmware, and the issues entirely went away with different fans. I think the root cause is "cheap sleeve bearing fan mounted horizontally".
I can only report that on my machine the case fan didn't make any noise with the stock M2 firmware, and the first time I fired it up after installing the Curtis/Marlin firmware it did start making noise (and has continued to make it for a brief time upon each subsequent startup). To be clear, I don't think this is a problem, I love the newer firmware, and I wouldn't dream of switching back. But it does seem to correlate to the firmware switch in my case.

-John

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