MOAB - MOther of All fan Brackets

prusaprinters

<p>An easy way to generate brackets to attach any fan to any PCB board. A list of pre-defined brackets included.</p> <p>The script was initially meant to generate fan brackets for the RAMPS board but I decided to make it fully customizable: it now allows you to create brackets that take fans of any size, snap onto PCB of any size, can have any height, but probably best of all features is that you can generate both mini-brackets (2 holes) as well as full brackets (4 holes, fully enclosed on two sides), to balance between saving plastic vs. rigidity and improved air flow.<br/> While this was meant for PCBs, feel free to experiment it could probably be used for many other scenarios, for example to attach a fan to a NEMA17 motor or to space two PCBs by attaching brackets back to back, etc.</p> <p><strong>UPDATE</strong> :<br/> It can now generate PCB supports with no holes (example scenario: Raspberry Pi or Intel Galileo feet). Specific changes:</p> <ul> <li>fan cutout (and the screw holes) can be removed entirely now to produce spacers or PCB feet </li> <li>hex nuts resize with screw size (need to validate in practice) </li> <li>cross-brace is configurable and can also be removed<br/> <strong>Note</strong>: If the fan is bigger than the PCB (for example when using an 80mm fan on RAMPS) the bracket will be generated with "wings" and the fan will attach on the outside of the bracket to those wings, otherwise the fan will attach on the inside.<br/> Additional benefit compared specifically to thing 138370: the brackets should now slide along the board without hitting the reset button and should also slide better along Arduino or RAMPs PCBs which have solder joints or connectors really close to the edge.</li> </ul> <h3>Print instructions</h3><h3>Category: 3D Printer Parts Summary</h3> <p>An easy way to generate brackets to attach any fan to any PCB board. A list of pre-defined brackets included.</p> <p>The script was initially meant to generate fan brackets for the RAMPS board but I decided to make it fully customizable: it now allows you to create brackets that take fans of any size, snap onto PCB of any size, can have any height, but probably best of all features is that you can generate both mini-brackets (2 holes) as well as full brackets (4 holes, fully enclosed on two sides), to balance between saving plastic vs. rigidity and improved air flow.<br/> While this was meant for PCBs, feel free to experiment it could probably be used for many other scenarios, for example to attach a fan to a NEMA17 motor or to space two PCBs by attaching brackets back to back, etc.</p> <p><strong>UPDATE</strong> :<br/> It can now generate PCB supports with no holes (example scenario: Raspberry Pi or Intel Galileo feet). Specific changes:</p> <ul> <li>fan cutout (and the screw holes) can be removed entirely now to produce spacers or PCB feet </li> <li>hex nuts resize with screw size (need to validate in practice) </li> <li><p>cross-brace is configurable and can also be removed<br/> <strong>Note</strong>: If the fan is bigger than the PCB (for example when using an 80mm fan on RAMPS) the bracket will be generated with "wings" and the fan will attach on the outside of the bracket to those wings, otherwise the fan will attach on the inside.<br/> Additional benefit compared specifically to thing 138370: the brackets should now slide along the board without hitting the reset button and should also slide better along Arduino or RAMPs PCBs which have solder joints or connectors really close to the edge.</p> <h3>Instructions</h3> <p>I typically print them out of PLA, 0.20 to 0.33 layer thickness. With these settings a bracket thickness of 3mm seems to get the best elasticity to snap-on to a RAMPS board and stay vibration free and still allow it to slide along the board.<br/> Additional parts needed to build a cooling bracket:</p> </li> <li><p>a cooling fan (any size)</p> </li> <li>4x screws and 4x nuts, typically M3 size, but actual diameter and length depends on the fan chosen.<br/> To build PCB slide-on covers or feet no additional parts needed.</li> </ul>