Quieting the N2

[EldRick]

Apparently some are quieter, but my N2 sounds like a vacuum cleaner when it is running. (Well, not really, but it is unpleasantly LOUD, and almost all of it is moving-air noise.) I flipped it over, assuming that some of the racket was coming from the power supply, but that proved to be pretty quiet.

So almost all of the loud wooshing sound is coming from the fan in the Marlin electronics compartment - it vibrates quite a bit, and is under enough load (due to messy air path) to make a lot of fan noise, and the plastic compartment in which it is mounted lets all the noise out.

I had some soft sticky-back felt from another project, so I lined the electronics compartment and cover and covered the outside curves of the fan with 1/8" and 1/16" felt, with 3/16" in back of the fan to damp it. Nothing is close to the hardware, and there is plenty of clearance in front of the fan intake, so it shouldn't affect cooling at all.

Problem solved! The fan noise is now maybe 40% of what it was, and I'm a lot happier when I'm around the N2.

[Vicky@Raise3D]

If I can ask any picture of your upgrade?

[EldRick]

As you can see, I've felted much of the inside of the electronics box with 1/8" felt, and 1/16" on the outside of the fan. The flat back of the fan has 3/16" of felt to damp the fan against the box.

The cover at left is actually upside down, with 1/16" felt on the part facing the fan intake and 1/8" felt below. Since these pix, I've also put some 3/8" thick rubber foam filling in the upper corners of the box above the van.

I do not think this will affect cooling airflow at all, but it quiets the fan roar quite a lot.

[Vicky@Raise3D]

If I'm not misunderstanding, it means there have some tiny gaps before the fan and plastic box by default. The foam decreases the vibration which causes the sounds you heard before?

[EldRick]

The felt damps the plastic box, so it transmits less vibration/noise outside, and also absorbs fan noise inside the box.
The box certainly leaks air, but that is not where the sound gets out.
It is just an extremely noisy fan bolted to a thin piece of plastic without any vibration damping, and the absorbent material reduces the vibration and the wooosh of moving air.

[Squenz]

Great solution, congrats !!!


I wish, i had your problem, because that's would give something i could do about, but my printer's loudest part is the fan inside the PSU.

[EldRick]

Now that my electronics fan is muffled, the power supply fan is the loudest part. I am going to order some more felt for under the printer, to soak up some of that noise.

It's too bad Raise3D didn't pay some attention to making their printers quiet - it would give a much better impression of product quality.

[Jetguy]

My solution on the N2 and N2 Plus PSU was to add a slow and quiet 80mm fan to the outside of the PSU.
Here is logic on why. The Meanwell PSU has a temp controlled fan. The issue is, it starts completely off, then waits until it's hot, and then kicks on high speed. This on and then off was what was most annoying to me. By adding a constant on slow speed fan, this keeps the PSU cold so it's internal fan almost never kicks in. Then the extra outside fan is oriented same direction so when the inside fan kicks in you get a nice smooth ramp up in airflow, but it's never loud. Looking for those pictures somewhere on this drive. I say that, because I'm not flipping the N2 Plus on it's side to take a picture tonight.

[Squenz]

Jetguy, your PSU most likely is the "old" type with one large fan on the upper side, the cover of the PSU, You can blow air effectively through those fan blades and make things moving.

Mine is the newer style (SP-480-24) which sports two 40x20 fans on the opposite end to the connectors. And they're not temp-controlled. They run on 100% all the time. I had my new N1 laying on it's side and started it up, you can barely notice any difference in noise when you stop the main board fan for a moment with one finger.

[EldRick]

Does anyone know if this same power supply is used in the N2s?
I took a look under the machine, but it did not look easy to mount a differently shaped power supply there. And BTW, it's not inexpensive: https://www.amazon.com/PowerNex-SP-480- ... B01814SPLW

[Squenz]

From what i learned here, PSU is the same on all printers.

I tend to believe, there has been a change of units coming from the supplier, meaning the first kickstarter machines might have the older version fitted.

I have a brand new, spare unit from my old printer lying here. It's from the same supplier, a RSP-500-24V and with one fan instead of the two but also internally temperature controlled. I'm tempted to mount this one, in hope that would allow me to whine about the loud main board fan, instead of the PSU fan. But i'm gonna try isolating the PSU case mounts with rubber washers first.

[EldRick]

Rubber mounts would help, but I've got a 3" 120v fan that should implement Jetguy's solution nicely.

[Squenz]

I'll see how it pans out soon.

[EldRick]

And here's a picture of a 120v 80mm fan grafted on to the outside of the power supply. It is always on, so it makes a small amount of noise all on its own, but the internal fan on the power supply doesn't run as often, so the net is less racket. I can even hear the steppers and extruder now.
I was able to use the internal fan mounting screws to hold on the outside fan, just by removing and replacing them one at a time. I ran power for the fan from the 120v terminals on the PS. A nice quick and dirty upgrade.
I'm tempted to use a dremel and remove the finger protection part of the case over the internal PS fan, which would improve airflow considerably, but I can't figure out a way that wouldn't risk getting metal dust in the electronics.

[Iamkar33m]

And here's a picture of a 120v 80mm fan grafted on to the outside of the power supply. It is always on, so it makes a small amount of noise all on its own, but the internal fan on the power supply doesn't run much if at all, so the net is less racket. I can even hear the steppers and extruder now.
I was able to use the internal fan mounting screws to hold on the outside fan, just by removing and replacing them one at a time. I ran power for the fan from the 120v terminals on the PS. A nice quick and dirty upgrade.
I'm tempted to use a dremel and remove the finger protection part of the case over the internal PS fan, which would improve airflow considerably, but I can't figure out a way that wouldn't risk getting metal dust in the electronics.

Is the metal thin enough to use aviation snips?

[Jetguy]

Is the metal thin enough to use aviation snips?

I did on mine (the older single 80mm version as sent in the Kickstarter batch), but I also took the power supply out, removed the cover, cut the fan guard with snips, filed the edges smooth (knowing full well there is no turning back on warranty after this one), and then assembled with the new fans.

[EldRick]

OK - I'll give that a try.

[Squenz]

I have to correct myself here. Not all r3D seem to share the same PSU.

My N1 has a SE-450-24 inside. I didn't measure the fan yet, but it looks like a 40 or 60 mm fan inside the top cover. I isolated the mount by using thick O-Rings under the screw head and inbetween bracket and chassis, but did nothing. Looks like this fan IS the culprit on my machine. I'll ponder over different idea to improve this. Funny thing is, this loud blaze irks me, big time, but my wife doesn't feel annoyed about. Go figure !

[EldRick]

Removing the finger-guard parts in front of the PS fan should cut quite a bit of noise all by itself. It will certainly provide substantially better cooling.
Not difficult to remove the case/cover that the fan is attached to. Tinsnips worked just fine - it's pretty soft metal.

[mark_3d]

And here's a picture of a 120v 80mm fan grafted on to the outside of the power supply. It is always on, so it makes a small amount of noise all on its own, but the internal fan on the power supply doesn't run as often, so the net is less racket. I can even hear the steppers and extruder now.
I was able to use the internal fan mounting screws to hold on the outside fan, just by removing and replacing them one at a time. I ran power for the fan from the 120v terminals on the PS. A nice quick and dirty upgrade.
I'm tempted to use a dremel and remove the finger protection part of the case over the internal PS fan, which would improve airflow considerably, but I can't figure out a way that wouldn't risk getting metal dust in the electronics.

How did you connect the fan to the power supply port? is there a 12V port?