August 18, 2018

Temperature Controlled Enclosure Exhaust Fan

This is a Temperature Controlled Exhaust Fan I made for a 3D printer Enclosure.  If the temperature in the enclosure reaches a set point the fan comes on to vent the enclosure until the temp drops back down below the set point.

The temperature control board was found on Amazon for around $4. It’s pretty simple to use and can control a fan or a heater.

I’m using it as an exhaust so the board is controlling a 60mm fan that I swapped out of one of my printers power supply.  Power to the Board and Fan is supplied by a 12V 1amp Switching Power Supply Adapter  (not shown) and connects to the board with a Female Power Pigtail Connectors.

The positive lead from Main Power connects to the 12V and the negative lead and ground from the fan connect to the GND terminal. I jumped the Positive power feed to K1 which is one side from the Relay and then the Positive lead from the Fan connects to the KO terminal which is the other side of the relay.

This is how the connections and jumper look before being connected to the terminals.

The leads from the fan exit the housing through the middle of the housing tab connector.

The tab of the Fan housing is connected to a groove in the Board housing by a simple slip fit and it will be held in place by the bottom cover.

The board housing face was designed separate from the main board housing for ease of printing.  I did a filament swap to black after the first few layers to highlight the button markers.

The face was glued in place with some super glue and accelerator.

The button were then inserted into the face…

…and then the controller board is secured with (4) 4-40 x 1/4″ button head screws.

The end of the power plug was also super glued in place.

Next the wires are folded in and the wire for the temperature probe is feed out the hole in the base.

The bottom cover is then secured with (2) 4-40 x 1/4″ flat head screw.

The controller reads in Celsius, the S is the Set button and the other two are self explanatory.  The lettering on top of the housing was just hand painted but could also be done with a filament swap during printing.

My makeshift enclosure is made from Reflectix Double Reflective Insulation and foil tape which is just dropped over the printer when needed.

A small section is cut from the rear of the enclosure…

…which corresponds with the groove designed into the fan housing.

The enclosure simply sits on top and is held in place by the grove. I don’t print a ton of ABS so I have yet to test it out for any extended length of time but it should come in handy at some point. Eventually I will add an adapter to the fan housing for a hose attachment to vent the ABS fumes outside too.

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