Upgrading to 3 Layer Fans

[TyeGrady]

I've been working the past few days on easily increasing the number of layer fans from the stock single layer fan to 3 layer fans. I'm at a good enough point that I thought I would post my progress and get feedback.

I aimed to do this upgrade with as little disassembly and as few custom designed parts as possible. I ordered 2 more of the stock layer fans and just printed out 2 more of the layer fan shrouds that are used in the assembly manual. The main hurdle for increasing the number of layer fans is the wiring. I wanted to make the fans easy to unplug and remove so I opted to install a circuit board above the head mount plate on the effector platform to plug the fans into.

The circuit board I ordered from sparkfun and then drilled out the center and cut a section of the side out to allow me to install it without undoing the entire hotend. Here is a link to the circuit board.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8810" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I also ordered these connectors for the fan ends and the circuit board mount.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8233" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8095" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8100" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is a picture showing the finished circuit board. If I redo this, I want to do a better job with the center cutout and the side section cutout so that it looks a little bit better.

I made a custom circuit board mount bracket that uses the existing screw heads on the platform and the screws left over from adding the Astrosyn dampeners to hold the circuit board. The mounting bracket opens up so that it can be installed without disassembling the hot end. There is a picture showing how the bracket opens up below. The platform screws need to be loosened and then slide the mount under the screw heads and tighten the screws back down to hold it snugly on the platform.

Here is a picture showing the board mount attached to the platform. It doesn't obstruct the air flow holes around the hot end or the notch on the side for the wires.

The circuit board can then be installed onto the mount bracket with the screws that I had left over from installing the dampeners.

Here is a picture showing the finished upgrade with the fans plugged in.

Attached to this post is the STL file for the latest version of the board mount for anyone that wants it. If someone else has another circuit board I can modify the design to fit another board.

[Glacian22]

Looks nice!

[eatenbyagrue]

I've also discovered that adding a lot more layer cooling for PLA dramatically improves prints. That said, i didn't want to add a bunch of weight to my print head, so I bought a couple of 4" desktop fans that I point at the bed from 6-12" away. Works great. Right now I'm manually turning them on after the first layer, but I have a relay on order that I'm going to use to control a power strip and do it automatically.

[Captain Starfish]

That looks nuts!

But you've done a really, really nice job of it.