Cooling fan stops after print is completed

Hello,

Because I'm printing quite a lot of parts, and because I don't always want to wait for the heated bed to warm up,
I chose to leave the heaters (both bed and extruder) on after a print has been completed.

However, the fan just above the extruder heater (the fan which cools down the metal block, where the extruder heater is mounted onto)
always stops spinning after print completion! This is really bad because the heat from the printhead will start heating up the extruder motor.

I could not find any setting for this on Slic3r, or in the Repetier Host software.

How can I keep it enabled?

After many frustrating times of disassembling the extruder/heat brake/hotend to remove jams, I wired my extruder fan to my RAMPS board on the 'spare' 12 volt connection pictured below. It is still protected by the 6A fuse and is on the whole time my power supply is on.

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-David

Find me online at:
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Check out my FolgerTech Prusa i3 (plexi) at MindRealm.net

Mindrealm has the right idea. The G-Code controlled fan is for the printed object. To cool the hotend, wire up an always-on fan. Like him, I connected into the "spare" 12V header near D2. Note that this header was not installed on my RAMPS - I had to solder one in myself.

I added the pins as well. I didn't want to commit the connection with solder

---

-David

Find me online at:
Thingiverse
Instructables.com
LinkedIn
Facebook

Check out my FolgerTech Prusa i3 (plexi) at MindRealm.net

I also added a switch into the circuit so that I can turn the fan off - such as when printing ABS

Ah thanks for all the replies!

I just followed the assembly manual that came with my 3d printer;
so basically they connected the hot end fan to the pins that were intended for a part cooling fan :O

I'll change this, thanks for the suggestion MindRealm! It'll be a lot better if it is always on.

Oh, and G code controlled 12v also seems awesome!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2015 06:45PM by FalloutBe.