Quiet 3D printing guide: Noctuas, buck converters, relays & firmware tricks

If your 3D printer is too loud for your liking, this video guide is for you. We cover how to make it quieter while it is printing, as well as making it completely silent when idle. In my case, this means I can have most of my printers sitting in wait for a print job to be sent to them wirelessly.

The guide covers using quiet Noctua fans using a buck converter, even with PWM control, as well as relays to switch off unneeded fans and power supplies. With firmware instructions for Marlin, RRF and Klipper, your particular machine should be covered.

0:00 Introduction

0:38 Quiet contents - plan of attack
Previous WIFI conversion videos:

1:20 Quiet stepper motors

2:50 Quiet vs standard fan noise comparison

4:01 Quiet fans pros and cons

5:19 Using Noctua/quiet fans with a buck converter

6:42 PWM/variable speed fans (part cooling) buck converter wiring

7:58 Using relays to switch fans and PSU

10:33 Firmware changes for automatic hot end/electronics fan control

11:46 Noisy power supplies

12:48 Printer vibrations

13:14 Conclusion

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[ThantiK]

So, the way you go about this -- with the buck converter -- makes people think they need like a dozen buck converters. Since all of the fan, hot end, etc inputs are NPN transistors, you actually just need to lead a positive lead to everything that needs to be switched at a lower voltage, and then tie the negatives of those devices to the switched end of their respective ports. This will allow you to use 1 buck converter for your _whole_ system rather than a bunch.

Edit: Nvm - you KIND OF cover this later on with the PWM fans, but maybe people will figure that out.

[PureRushXevus]

I bought a 15€ 4020 fan from sunon, which is supposedly maglev. Works extremely well, moves a silly amount of air while remaining extremely quiet

[dennisfahey]

Note some fan noise is due to vibration coupling. If you put rubber washers between the fan and the sheetmetal in the power supply you may find a substantial decrease in high pitch noise.

[liveen]

For anyone wondering about connectors, switches, relays etc and the markings for the pins, NO, NC, C, O (normally open, normally closed, closed, open). Normally open means its open until you use the trigger mechanism, which closes it (allows current to flow), and normally closed usually allows current to flow but doesnt when triggered. C and O (closed and open) means they are permanently open or closed. Often you find C and NO next to each other, meaning you can have power connected to NO and the thing you want to switch connected to C, or the other way around, to control it.

This took me far longer than necessary to understand, so I figured I'd take a shot at helping anyone else who got confused by it

[succuvamp_anna]

I'm so happy you showed the negitive being put through the board and the positive from the supply voltage, I fried the MOSFETs from my BTT E3 V2 wiring them through the board completely, thankfully I was able to replace the MOSFETs with a little digikey searching.
The fix was to do what you showed, the negitive is what's being PWMed.

[prxZen]

If using relays, and especially if using the power from the configurable pins to run the relay _and_ supply power for the load (fan) - make sure your pins are actually rated for the current draw you're hooking them up for.

[timha]

Biggest THANK YOU for showing me a way to finally use buck converters with PWM.

[mvdesigncustomworks]

"unrefined in regards to silence". That's true for every machine I get my hands on, cars and bikes included.

[squidmissile]

Been using that same 12volt nactua fan on my ender 3 plugged right in running @24 volts, a year later and still working great 👍

[justinchamberlin]

I can confirm that Stefan's noise/vibration reduction setup with a concrete block and some heavy foam works wonders. I'm skittish to do a lot of wiring or firmware hacking, so if there are any others like me out there you still have some easy options for noise reduction.

[Behold]

Thank you. I was running my hotend and stepper fans on permanent for no need. quick Klipper config and move the 2 fans. and Im alot quieter on idle now.

I can now look at maybe a couple of fan upgrades.

[tfmg]

i love how this video comes out as im filming my video making the quietest cr-10 :) anyways thx for the COOL** tips Michael!

[manojavsridhar]

If you keep your Pi running then you can power on the printers (smart plug) after you upload from Super Slicer. That is my workflow, upload to moonraker/mainsail, which turns on a switch and adds the job the klipper queue and executes it. Before moving to klipper octoprint also does this. I have some always on computers near by the 3d printer so I run klipper/mainsail on docker on that machine which sorts all this out.

[NathanBuildsRobots]

This is a great comprehensive video on this topic.

[corynardin]

It's my dream to have a compact and quiet 3D printer on my office desk. I'm thinking Voron 0.1. The suggestions in your video are perfect. Cheers.

[Know-Way]

Hey Michael, thanks for the video. Good information.
You mentioned you had eight 3D printers behind you... Would you consider doing a video comparing them to one another, what you typically use each one for, which is/are your favorite(s)? Upgrades done, upgrades planned and why?
When searching out info for a second 3D printer (after an ender3) the choices can be mind boggling.
Thanks for all you do!

[henryjk]

I was having issues not being able to regulate speed with buck converters, I like this idea, my solution was dual 12v part fans in series off 24v, so far it's working out great, been getting better results with petg now

[Marco-ykkp]

IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR SO LONG THANK YOU SO MUCH

[FreeEnergyNerd]

Just a little info on the noctua fans. I use for part cooling a special fan duct with 2 axial noctuas one beside the other wired in series giving me 24volts. I tried it with the 20mm thick ones: it does not really work, because they only switch on at 50 or 60%!!! i use for 2nd layer 10% and adding 10% every 2 layers.
On the otherhand it works very well with the 10mm thick ones!!!! wired in series they switch on at 5% (ok.. that is very low and you can see them turning) but they are perfect at 10, 20, 30, 40.... % . so i think it is important to test the fans at different percentages. I think with the buck converter it will be the same, the 20mm one not switching on below 50%.

[johnhutchison]

Use an ATX supply; run the pi off the 5vSB line and wire power button into the pi GPIO. Run everything else off the main outputs. This way the Pi can turn off all power when idle. Also gives you built in 5v outputs so you don't need any step downs.