Controller board fan duct

thingiverse

Motivation My four Trinamic stepper motor drivers get scorching hot. I run them at a relatively high current level (0.9 A RMS). To cool them down, I could create and install an inline cooling duct. However, this leaves the last driver in line with warmer air than the first one, and the exiting air is not utilized further. I wanted a cooling duct that generates parallel cooling flow. As a side benefit, the exiting air is directed over the rest of the board, providing some cooling to the processor and power FETs. Design and printing I split the duct into two parts for easier printing. Support is included in the design; only the 'Driver fan duct start' requires some support below the mounting tab. I manually placed it with Simplify3D. I uploaded the g-code file for this part, but it didn't print very well due to stringing and under-extrusion with some single-extrusion thickness walls. The result is still quite usable though. I designed two mounting points (one on each part). However, the one on the 'Driver fan duct end' broke off. It was still usable with only the single mounting point. Mounting the fan can be done using M4 screws or simply 4 zip-ties. Installation Just make sure it sits snug against the drivers. Happy printing!