124 electric fan - Page 8 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Roncallo · #**106** 01-19-2022, 05:38 PM

First set of welding complete. Unfortunately he wont be back until Next week for the next session. But so far looking good. He took the flat pieces for the shroud ring to roll and will be back next week to weld it on.

Roncallo · #**107** 01-20-2022, 11:43 PM

From post 100, I decided to switch back to circuit #2. I have also added the thermister resistors to the board and I believe I am almost ready to have the board printed. I really just need to design the enclosure and place the mounting holes in the board.

Roncallo · #**108** 01-24-2022, 02:55 PM

The motor mount just arrived today and it fits perfectly.

I have also been working on the controller a little. The people on the Arduino forums have suggested a few capacitors to be added on all the sensor and power inputs. Hopefully I will get the ring welded onto my shroud this week.

Roncallo · #**109** 01-28-2022, 05:47 PM

Fan shroud welding is complete. Fits perfectly except there is clearance I need to make for the lower hose. In order to fully install the hose I will need to cut a relief into the corner where the lower hose gets installed. This was fully expected, but I needed to complete it to this point where I could make the modification.

I also completed a soldered bread board assembly of the circuit, That I can use for testing.

Next step is to locate that spider web of motor mounting hardware. The little mounting tabs get clekoed in place and then welded. With the welding complete the ends of the tubes get cut off. At that point the whole assembly gets powder coated and then final riveted on.

Roncallo · #**110** 01-30-2022, 12:20 AM

Some good news and some bad news. All went very well today until I needed to center the motor in the shroud. Good news is that everything goes together like Lego and fits perfectly. I can even remove the fan assembly without removing the thermostat first. I also will not have to weld up the thermostat housing, so that $425.00 bead roller was a sort of a wast. I have more clearance now than I had with my previous fan. The original R129 upper hose fits in place perfectly. I set the fan clearance to the radiator core at about 4mm same as the 211 the fan came out of. The axial deflection of the fan motor is about the same as it is on the 211, but its not even welded at this point.This is probably the first day I feel that this is really going to work flawlessly.

The bad news is that it is impossible to center the motor to the shroud, because the fan and motor has to be removed from the motor mount to tighten the strut bolts. Therefore I need to make a 21.5" centering disk and spacer to center up the motor mount without the motor and fan installed. That's going to cost about $100. Fortunately I have a $60.00 credit with SendCutSend. But I still need to design it and get it sent out. So at least a week before I can do the final welding.

cth350 · #**111** 02-02-2022, 11:14 PM

wait, the centering disk and spacer is a throw away part? And it has to be metal, not wood or cardboard or plastic? -CTH

Roncallo · #**112** 02-03-2022, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cth350

wait, the centering disk and spacer is a throw away part? And it has to be metal, not wood or cardboard or plastic? -CTH

Not exactly throw away but it wont be used as a part. I do have a wood piece but not precise enough. A good router formed wood one would have worked but in the end since I don't have a router it would have cost about the same. Total cost $66.00. Not to bad, especially since I had a coupon for $68.00. I also looked into having it made in plastic but it was about the same price.

Roncallo · #**113** 02-09-2022, 08:24 PM

Printed Circuit boards have come in. But my first try at soldering on a solder type peg board has failed some way and it has a short in it. Hopefully I will get better at it before I consume 3 PCB. I may try another solder type bread board before proceeding. I'm not going to solder the Nano 33 BLE onto the PCB since they are out of stock for them and I don't want to F it up. So I will solder push in headers for it.

I also had to write another program to run on the Arduino 33 BLE, because the program used for the UNO used a special PWM library which doesn't work on the Nano 33 BLE. I found out that these libraries talk directly to the chips and since the UNO and Nano use different chips, I was screwed. So I created a program with the help of the Arduino forums that does not require libraries and there fore will run on all Arduino products.

Centering disks were delayed due to lack of material and just shipped today. Well at least the label has been printed.

I believe I'm on schedule to be back on the road by the end of the month. Just on time for driving season.

260DET · #**114** 02-13-2022, 02:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duxthe1

So this is where I'm at right now. I plan to weld the joints in the frame. I need to get my argon tank filled first.

For control I plan to use the PCS transmission controller that is already in the car running a 722.6 transmission. .......................................................................................

A PCS TCU running a 722.6 transmission? Wow, I'm going to search that here

Roncallo · #**115** 02-13-2022, 11:27 PM

Centering Plate came in. All transmission lines have been fabricated. Ready for final welding.

So at this time I have welding to complete. Welder says he will be in Tuesday. I also have one small block to fabricate that holds the fan connector to the shroud. And I have to find a way to hold the cable guide with the wires to the end of the shroud without chaffing. Then painting. And I have to cut the Plastic outlet off the 211 shroud and mount it to the aluminum shroud.

Then of course I still need to finish the control board.

The first program will be very simple and run just like a stock 211. I did notice every model of Mercedes uses a different program. Some of them run the engines very hot. But I have to start somewhere.

I'm going to leave the stock 107 Aux fan in place for two reasons. First its impossible to remove without taking out the condenser. Second I don't know if maybe I will need it. My original setup was 36 Amps of total fan current between the electric fan that was installed and the aux fan. Will one 50 Amp fan do the job? I think it might. But I would rather leave it in and try it disconnected before discharging the AC and removing it.

So I'm still thinking I can be back on the road by the end of the month.

Roncallo · #**116** 02-16-2022, 10:04 PM

Welding almost complete. I still need to cut the stub ends off the struts and weld them shut.

At this time I can put the radiator back in the car and leave it there.

Tonight I will be trying to 3D print a box to hold the Arduino and PCB board.

So whats left is a little welding, painting and wiring.

Roncallo · #**117** 02-18-2022, 11:13 PM

Got the fan running today with the PCB. I'm short a couple of resisters but they will be in Monday. But I was able to test out one channel with a 1/2W resistor just shoved into the hole.

I have all welding and painting now complete and also started to 3D print the case for it. First case crashed and burned but the second one is running well so far after some adjustments. This case is made with PLA to check it out. Next I will be using a more advanced plastic that @andya recommended, called Ninjatek Armadillo TPU. It's expensive stuff, so I hope I can get it to work without consuming a whole roll.

https://youtu.be/1705AgEtq3U

Roncallo · #**118** 02-21-2022, 12:44 AM

All test fits complete. Radiator is now installed back into the car where hopefully it can stay. Last nights 3D prints came out much better. I will be tying to fit the box under the dash somewhere. I may find I have to rearrange the mounting points on the box before final printing with TPU material.

The last fabrication item is now underway. I had to remove the outlet of the 211 shroud from the rest of it to get just the center piece. Quick work with a jig saw, hack saw and pliers to break pieces off got the job done. Now its a couple of days of dremeling and sculpting. Still targeting the end of the month.

Roncallo · #**119** 02-21-2022, 10:20 PM

Completed the PCB board and now that is ready to go. A day of cutting and filling. I got the outlet to fit on really nice. But had to lower one section and consequently fill holes. So tomorrow will be a final day of dressing that up and of course I will have to paint it.

Prior to cutting out all the interior web work, I cut out only those webs that were interfering with stuff to see if it would have been possible to use the shroud as is and not have to make up that steel spider web thing I have. The third picture shows the shroud with the minimum number of webs removed to allow installation. I can honestly say, that may be structurally adequate to do the job but I'm not 100% sure. Its almost like I'm glade I bit the bullet and made the steel mount because if I tried that route I may have just put it on the car like that and hoped for the best. The only thing I do know is that I have a lot more axial stiffness with the steel mount than the plastic one even with all the plastic struts in place.

Its going to be about 1 or 2 more days before I can complete the shroud.

Roncallo · #**120** 02-23-2022, 09:56 PM

Here it is with the shroud now 100% complete. But I do have one issue, The red silicone seals do not adhere to contact cement at all. I think tomorrow I will try silicone sealer in this area unless someone has some good ideas. I figure silicone on silicone should be compatible. A contributing factor is that I was supposed to put the contact cement on both side before bonding, but that is not possible with these seals as they would just get stuck together while waiting for them to setup.

So this 19" 50 amp fan will be replacing the 16" 18 amp fan on the right..

Now all that is left is wiring and printing a suitable box to hold the Arduino.