Ender 3 Mean Well Power Supply External Fan Cover

thingiverse

<h3>Back story</h3> I recently installed the Mean Well LRS-350 (24V) power supply on my Ender 3 mainly because of the safety, reliability and consumption advantages over the stock power supply, but the noise was also a large part of the decision. Overall, the Mean Well power supply is quieter than stock because the fan isn't always on. However, when the fan is on the power supply is considerably louder and the intermittent nature of the fan being on/off (since it is temperature regulated) is arguably more annoying than a constant hum. I had already made up my mind that I was replacing the fan but couldn't decide which to buy since Noctua don't have a fan that matches the form factor of the one included with the power supply (60 x 60 x 15mm). After not being able to find a suitable solution, I decided to get Noctua's closing offering, the A6x25-FLX, and mount it externally (the fan is 25mm deep so won't fit inside the power supply). To have the fan externally I needed a mount because I didn't like the idea of damaging the fan (more on this later) with the included self tapping fan screws, and a cover to go over the exposed fan blades. Using a pair of M3 30mm screws, this cover serves both purposes. <h3>Installation</h3> To mount the fan, the screws are fed from inside the power supply (see images), through the fan and screwed into the cover. To wire the fan into the power supply, I used some jumper wires to connect the positive and negative wires from the fan to the respective header pins. The wire runs externally in my setup because I wasn't willing to irreversibly deface the fan or power supply. This is also why I chose to use jumper wires (and some hot glue) to wire in the fan. If you choose the run the wire externally as I show in the pictures, it lines up nicely with the V slot on the rear of the Z extrusion so can be somewhat tucked away. You can achieve much better wiring than me if you're willing to cut off the fan connector and drill a hole in the power supply though. <h3>Customisation</h3> I designed this cover with a honeycomb pattern as a matter of personal preference. If there's a pattern that you would like instead that's simple enough, and you don't fancy remixing the provided STL, send me a message and I'll take a look :)