Cooling fan control in 3D Printing - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Cooling Fan Control

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a cooling fan system for a 3D printer. The fan helps keep the printer's parts cool during printing to ensure good quality and prevent overheating.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple control setup that turns the cooling fan on or off based on the printer's temperature.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a variable to store the current temperature of the printer.

Create a variable to set the temperature threshold for turning the fan on.

Write a condition that checks if the temperature is above the threshold.

Set the fan status to 'ON' or 'OFF' based on the temperature check.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Cooling fans are essential in 3D printers to prevent overheating and ensure print quality by controlling the temperature of printer parts.

💼 Career

Understanding how to control hardware components like fans based on sensor data is important for roles in 3D printing, electronics, and embedded systems.

1

Set the current temperature

Create a variable called current_temperature and set it to 65 to represent the printer's current temperature in degrees Celsius.

3D Printing

# Create a variable called current_temperature and set it to 65
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a simple assignment like current_temperature = 65.

2

Set the temperature threshold

Create a variable called temperature_threshold and set it to 60. This is the temperature above which the fan should turn on.

3D Printing

current_temperature = 65
# Create a variable called temperature_threshold and set it to 60
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign the value 60 to temperature_threshold.

3

Check if fan should be on

Write an if statement that checks if current_temperature is greater than temperature_threshold. If true, set a variable called fan_status to 'ON'. Otherwise, set fan_status to 'OFF'.

3D Printing

current_temperature = 65
temperature_threshold = 60
# Use if statement to set fan_status to 'ON' or 'OFF'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use an if-else block comparing current_temperature and temperature_threshold.

4

Add fan control message

Create a variable called fan_message that holds the string 'Cooling fan is currently: ' followed by the value of fan_status. Use string concatenation or an f-string.

3D Printing

current_temperature = 65
temperature_threshold = 60
if current_temperature > temperature_threshold:
    fan_status = 'ON'
else:
    fan_status = 'OFF'
# Create fan_message combining text and fan_status
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use an f-string like f"Cooling fan is currently: {fan_status}".