Is it possible to configure one of the four replicape fan drivers to run whenever steppers are turned on? I have an 80mm 12V 2W fan I’d like to use to cool the replicape when the steppers are on (because I want to exceed 0.5A), but it would be nice to turn the fan off when the steppers aren’t being driven. (If that’s in the configuration docs, my apologies for missing it.)
Can’t you just put a gcode in your start and end sections of the slicer to turn them on? Either that or make it temp controlled (which it can be done) and put a DS1820(?) on one of the driver heat sinks.
@James_Armstrong The idea of breaking my replicape because I switched slicers and forgot to copy a gcode command doesn’t sound awesome. A DS18B20 is an interesting idea.
My replicape didn’t include heat sinks. Is that a normal add now?
@mcdanlj it is optional. I put heatsinks on all my drivers. Replicape supports the DS temp chips as cold end or other temperature monitors and can Slave a fan to them
Yeah slaving a temperature sensor to the cooling fan is probably the easiest thing. Heatsinks are not provided, but a good idea if you’re wanting extra effective cooling
Heatsinks arrived and installed. Should I use silicone adhesive to stick the 18B20s to the stepper driver heatsinks? Can I sync 5 18B20s to a single fan so that it turns on if any stepper driver is warm?
I think so yes.
Not enough space to glue the sensors to heat sinks on drivers, I find. I think gluing just one sensor to the heat pad on the bottom of the board under the Y stepper driver makes sense.
Then I think I’ll solder it directly to the Dallas pins on the bottom of the board, rather than run it out to the header, to leave the header free to monitor the cold end temperature.
Ugly soldering job, but it’s not bridged.