Sidewinder X1 simple MKS board cooling

thingiverse

There are some excellent and highly sophisticated MKS board cooling solutions available, but I designed a very simple one that gets the job done. I had some leftover Sunon 5V 4010 fans from an old project that I wanted to use. First, I tried to use them in series, but this won't work with Sunon and possibly all on the market fans - they'll shake a bit and then stop moving. So, I wired them in parallel and used a LM2596 DC/DC converter from China or Amazon. This will fit into many of these housings: https://www.thingiverse.com/tag:lm2596 I used a very simple one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3843639. Before connecting the DC/DC converter to the fans, measure the output voltage - it'll be extremely high and you'll need to adjust it by turning the screw on the potentiometer until the output voltage reaches 5-5.5V. Unfortunately, there are no 24V versions of 40x40x10 available from Sunon, so if another brand produces them, make sure they'll fit into the mount! Before opening the bottom cover, switch off the main power and unplug the 230V line - removing the bottom cover will void your warranty. It's fixed with six screws, so remove it carefully and unplug the 24V connection to the bottom fan. Now let's talk about the fan-mount. I used PLA for making it, and the bottom is 3mm thick while the fans are 40mm high - this is the maximum height between the bottom and the housing of the Sidewinder X1. I mounted them with three 7mm (3mm high) power magnets. Any other magnet will fit if you drill a wider hole, but you'll need a 3mm high type. After printing the mount, you may need to widen the opening for the magnets with a 7mm drill - since the magnets I used are 7.1mm, they hold very well within the holes without any glue necessary. The bottom of the Sidewinder is made of steel while the housing is made of aluminum. If you want to use screws for mounting, place two or three boreholes and use a countersink with countersunk flat head screws. The three fans fit tightly into the mount - you may not need M4 screws for fixing them, but if so, one for each fan will be enough. Place the cooling board between the main fan and the MKS board, mount the LM2596 anywhere, and connect it to the fans and the power supply (24V). Then plug in the main fan into the MKS board again. Now carefully close the bottom cover and check that no cable hits the fans, especially not the main-fan. What direction should the fans blow? I preferred to let them blow against the heat-sinks of the motor driver, but you can also let them blow towards the main-fan or turn the main-fan so it blows into the housing - if you have a magnetic solution, it'll be easy to change. It's also a good idea to cover the air intake on the display side if you have a version 4 of the Sidewinder. I see no need for this opening.