Upgrade for my 3d printer BCN3D that I installed this week.
As I am more a software guy than hardware I didn’t want to get into trouble and I bought the hotbed fan kit provided by RepRapBCN for their BCN3D printer.
But in fact designs are published and there is enough documentation to do DIY. I preferred however that the extruder carrier was a piece made with SLS technology, as I have now, so the decision to buy.
The change is simple but it requires to replace the carrier by a new one with a hold for the fan. To unmount!
In this model the hardest thing is to unmount the extruder from the carrier, as it is anchored with two screws with difficult access. There is already a paste extruder, but if someone in the end wants to change extruders frequently depending on the material to print it is better to think on a different anchorage extruder-carrier, like on rallies!
Important. BCN3D has a RAMPS and the fan has to be connected to D9. I confirmed also checking the RepRap wiki because the manual provided does not include the connector name, but you can identify it by the graphic.
And then to update Slic3r setups to activate the fan when you want. It happens that with PLA it is possible to have the fan always on while with ABS it is not advised at all as it can make the piece break down when the plastic cools.
I opted for conditional option.
I lost most of the time to check that the fan worked. Neither from the LCD nor with an object with the “fan always on” option I managed to make the fan work.
I just was in trouble with this until from the LCD I pushed the fan to maximum level (range goes from 0 to 255) and it started working. Discovery…my fan gets stuck. Something to work on this week.
Just by tapping the fan it works, and if I tap again it gets stuck again. Manual control instead of software driven 😛