Replacing fan in lipo charger - Venom Pro Charger

[iamsuperbleeder]

First off, no flaming on the overpriced charger It's a little more expensive than some others, sure, but other than this noisy fan that's on it's last leg, it's an awesome charger.

Now I did some searching and see that the fan is an ongoing problem for these chargers, and apparently contacting Venom customer support can get me a new fan free of charge, but I don't want to go that route because then I'll just have another fan in it that's going to quit in a couple of months again. I'd rather just by one somewhere else of a different brand and install it.

But my question is, has anyone every taken apart one of these chargers? I've taken all the screws out so the end panels come off, but the top seems to "snap in" to the top and bottom walls, and the only way to get it off to replace the fan is to jam a screw driver in it and pry the thing apart... There's got to be an easier way, right?

[ThunderVP]

Once you take the side panels off, the top plate should slide out sideways.
If it does not move by hand, lightly tap one side with a rubber mallet to get it to move. They may have added a dab of glue to hold it in place.

[Charlie-III]

Cool thread.....I have 2 of the green Venom ProChargers (bought new over a year ago) and 1 red one (bought used last fall).

One of the green ones also has a noisy fan. The 2 green ones get a fair amount of use, one for me & one for my son

Since they came with a AC power supply, all sorts of adapters & a balance board, I DON'T consider them too expensive. By the time you add up some of the "other bits" to "cheaper chargers" there is not much difference. They can also do direct DC as well.

I need to open mine up and see what it has for a fan, maybe I can source one from DigiKey that is better but not real expensive.

[iamsuperbleeder]

Originally Posted by ThunderVP

Once you take the side panels off, the top plate should slide out sideways.
If it does not move by hand, lightly tap one side with a rubber mallet to get it to move. They may have added a dab of glue to hold it in place.

the problem with that is the buttons. they stick up through the top panel and if you start to try to slide the panel (it does move a little) the buttons kick sideways and stop it from moving. I'm sure if I force it it's going to break either the buttons or maybe even the PCB under them. I'd tried to push them and slide the panel out, but they don't push down far enough to make a difference. then there's the problem of getting them back together when it's all said and done, lol

I also though maybe the PCB and panel could just slide out together, but if I remember correctly last time I had it pulled apart, it looked like it had some of the voltage regulators that are soldered to the PCB screwed to the casing as a heat sink... but that was about a month ago, I'm about to pull it apart again and have another look. It's putting a lipo in storage mode right now, so at least it is still working. Better if my lipo mode is in storage, at least if I break it and I have no charger for a week or so, I don't have to worry about my lipo going bad

[iamsuperbleeder]

well I figured it out

if the side panel by the fan is taken off, the fan can actually be removed without pulling the face of the charger off









unfortunately my lack of patients has gotten the best of me again... I tried to pop the fan out of it's housing and ended up snapping the housing










just tried a local computer shop and they pretty much laughed and made fun of the size of the fan, lol, and the smallest that this Radio Shack here carries is a 40mm. I did however find out that Radio Shack carries cheap $10 servos, which might be good in a bind



so I guess it's time to do some online shopping

[iamsuperbleeder]

oh now I feel really retarded... just figured out that the plastic buttons literally just pop off... which then allows the face to slide off...

[Charlie-III]

Cool.....Radio Shack is fine for some stuff......DigiKey is a much better source......

[iamsuperbleeder]

digikey has one 25mm x 8mm 12v DC fan, and it's $26... yeah I'm going to look elsewhere, lol

http://search.digikey.com/us/en/prod...2452-ND/441224

[iamsuperbleeder]

25mm x 10mm seem to be a LOT easier to locate... I'm thinking that a fan that's just 2mm thicker might fit fine. there's plenty on digikey for around $10, I only need to decide what max RPM I want; I don't want one that's going to be stupid loud, lol

[iamsuperbleeder]

This one may be a winner

maybe dual ball bearings will make it last a little longer

[mahgninnuc1]

Ebay is a great place to find fans this small, fans starting at $3, ball bearing fans starting 8.99. Any fan that small is going to be noisy, bearings just make it last longer. Your local computer shop should keep at least a few of these in stock, they are used on the northbridge and southbridge on motherboards. I have a couple instock at my shop, they are good for esc fans too.

[iamsuperbleeder]

well like I mentioned above, nobody local had any, so I ordered the one I linked to above

it came in today, and it works fantastically!





the stock fan is 8mm thick, this one is 10mm thick







of course I needed to put the plug on the new one






the all important polarity picture before I remove the pins to put them on the new fan, lol






and on the new fan






EXTREMELY tight fit, but there's a little room to spare. it fits fine once in place, but it has to be slid in over the balance port; it wont fit over the charge output ports, lol






I did find out really quick that the original screws that hold the original fan in are too large for this fan... or maybe Venom pre-threads their fans somehow... regardless, I put the first screw in the new fan and the housing cracked... it didn't fall apart, but it did split a little

so I dug into my spare PC screws stash and pulled out 4 tiny machine screws that work perfectly (original on the left, new ones on the right)








the fan works GREAT! It's a little more noisy than the stock one (that is, when the stock one was good), but it moves a LOT more air it feels like. we'll see how long it lasts. it's got to outlast the original one, lol