My brand new A20M is trying to join the SpaceX program.

[Inkless]

Hi, to make things simple to get: J̨͙̦̥̑ͪͣ̊̇̓Ê̚҉̸͙͚̟̺̰̀T͉͑͋͡ ͙͔̭̼̲̬͂ͫͥ͠E͗̌̉͛҉͖͙͍̟͓̮̯̥͠N̶̟͓͔͚͉͈̞̄̿ͯ͆̈́́́͋Ġ̴͕̣͓̘̱̥̔̏̿͑ͩ͒I͖̩̺̘̼͔̯̼̯ͦ̔ͨ̉ͦ̈́́N̴̵͖̜̤̺̬̝͍̘̠̓̍͂̇̚È̸̷̢̤͇̖͙̻͇̋ ͆ͮ͒̚҉̨̘̙̣̺̹͚̕Ḧ͕͓͖͚͎̘̱͚́̐̌̀͑͜Ả̸͈̜̯̃̓̌͗̂͛P̸̯̙̜̭̯̂̌͊̈́ͫP̴̶̣̜͙̒̒ͮY̨̖̼͎̰ͥͯ͠ ͛͏̵̣͍̖̞͇̭̻N̙̥̮̬̲̆̏͆̏̑ͮ̊ͩO̷̩͑̀̊ͧ̾ͬ̍͌͟I̶̥̒͌̎ͬ͌͛̑̄ͥS̷͈̝͍̲͙̠̬̞̒͂͂̇́Ë̥̮̙́͋̓̅͂ͧ̾̿̕͡S̟ͥ͌̄ͪ͢

It seems to be the 'new' model: X axis chariot ear that will soon meet a dremel since it forbids a purge bucket, and a metal-protected underbelly (which is a durability perk).

And as long as it's "online", as in, not printing or anything... just powered, it managed to make more noise than my whole server rack, populated with DELL R720 and R220II and Lierbet 2200VA UPS, as in... tuning its hum completely OUT even when I was half a meter away from the rack, and 2 meters away from the printer.

Even if I can "hear" the stepper motors, I wasn't actually able to notice a difference of noise floor between powered&printing and powered&notprinting.

As I was planning to have it online 24/7 as to keep an octoprint server running (and it needs the printer to be powered to be able to start), this situation is problematic to say the least.

The "mad fan" seem to be the mainboard one, located at the right underside, as an intake. And it's running full tilt.

I'm new to geeetech products, and I basically assembled it, powered it, made the test print to at least be sure it "worked" when it comes to printing (it does), but I actually have a anticipative-headache just thinking of flipping on the switch again.

I saw the FAQ about fans, but it was on an A10, and in 2018, so before diving into that, I prefer to ask for updated advices. Thank's ahead!

Ah, and yes, my anglich is wonky because I'm not a native speaker. Sorry for your eyes, and Shakespeare spinning in his grave.


Edit: Also, it's not an issue of ambient temp. The room was at 21°C during the tests (metabolic requirement for me), corroborated both by the AC unit, UPS intake probe, server intake probe and a mercure thermometer. So no, the printer wasn't in a Saharian climate. And before you take time telling me, yes, I know, cold ambient and AC are bad for 3D print, don't worry, it will run in an enclosure.

[William]

Hi，do you mean the printer makes a lot of noise? And is the motherboard cooling fan inclined? Can you provide related videos? You can upload compressed files here.

[Inkless]

The phone's mic seems to REALLY tune out the fan-noise, but in person it way more present, and really overwhelms the other noises which seem louder in the video, but here you go:

https://streamable.com/pi264q (it didn't allowed me to upload any video format in the attachments)

Basically, as you can see, from the moment I flip the switch, the cooling fan under the right side runs full tilt.
But on closer inspection, apparently it's both the underside fan AND the hotend cooling fan that are running full tilt.

Everything else seems to behave properly, but that one fan really makes a ruckus, and basically forbids me to use the printer as I was intending to, aka, both having it powered but just idle and be able to hop onto octoprint on my phone or laptop from outside my home, to remote start/manage prints, nor either having me be able to exist in my room with it powered, because of the noise it makes.

I can hear it through the wall of the corridor in my building, with my flat's door closed.



To give you less subjective measurement though, a bog standard decibel-meter app on my samsung S20 basically lets me measure my place at an average noise level of 38-40 decibels, second floor of the building, windows closed, with a street and traffic, and the server rack running.

Flipping the 'on' switch on the printer makes it jump to 57-60 decibels. It sounds like a R720 server at 80% fan speed, just less ominous.

[William]

I'm sorry I can't view the video. If your fan is particularly noisy, you can contact the salesperson to replace it

[Inkless]

Well, is it considered normal behavior that everything but the print fan is running full tilt all the time, even at idle?

Back in 2018 someone basically solved the issue for themselves in the firmware on the A10. Would the procedure be the same on the A20M?
Because the post about it is about one and a half years old, and several board revisions ago.

And how come that the last officially supported marlin for it is a version from Dec 25, 2017, out-dated since july 2018? Isn't that the kind of annoying issue that could be precisely addressed from the factory, shipping the printers with a less than 2 years old firmware?

Some upgrades have been made to the hardware since it came out in 2018. New board, underside cover, cable management tweaks, the dreaded caddie-ear that we have to dremel off to have a purge bucket... all these changes, but can't have them shipped with a firmware that isn't plagued by a 2 years old issue that have been reported on an other model of the same series and troubleshooted for you by an user?


The fans aren't defective per say. They sound like fans running full tilt.

The issue isn't that the fans are noisy when running full speed.

The issue is that they are running full speed all the time instead of having some kind of adaptive curve, which is ridiculous in a machine packed with many heat sensors.

[William]

Hi，you can upload compressed files here or provide pictures to better understand your problem.