My "New Years Resolution" was to get several of my older designs back on track. Some are updates to existing designs, and some are new (though stuck on the back burner), and one has been undergoing an uh... long term test, yeah, that's the ticket lol. That last design is what I've been working on lately, and the one I want to get released next. It's a Bento Box style recirculation filter, which I've been running in my Bambu X1C for about a year and a half now (without issues). I know, what the heck, right?
I probably should have released it long ago, but in the back of my head, there's been two things which have nagged at me regarding the design, and they are the complexity, and the cost. I've gotten feedback on other unrelated designs, where folks reject the idea that they may be required to buy more hardware than they imagine is needed, and I get that (though I don't always agree). For this filter design however (as I currently run it), I felt that would be a valid criticism, since it is expensive as I've built it. When I calculated the current cost for the parts needed to build the filter, it ended up between $26.90 to $46.95, and that was based on the price for the actual parts only. If building one of the filters, the costs would go up, since many of the parts can only be purchased in packs of 5 or more, so not ideal. The lower end of that pricing is also based on AliExpress prices (the upper end is from Amazon). Add the tariffs, and the fact that the de minimis rule will be going away soon, and the costs are only gonna be going up. The end of de minimis just means the days of buying $20 worth of parts from AliExpress for a project, are going away (tariffs will add some, but a bigger problem is the approximately $30 plus customs "Merchandise Processing Fee" (MPF), that'll get tacked onto each order). Likely prices on Amazon will also go up for many small parts too, since they're often sold by 3rd parties who rely on de minimis to keep prices low.
So due to the high cost of the components, I've been making some changes to bring down the overall cost (at least an an option). I think I could drop the parts cost to a more reasonable $20-ish, if the PWM fan control and fuse were deleted from the design, which are pretty simple changes. Right now, I'm planning on a regular and a low cost build option, where the regular cost version will have all the bells and whistles (like the one I've been running for over a year). The low cost option will use simple 2 wire 5020 blowers, an illuminated rocker switch, and a DC power inlet jack. The WAGO's could be optional as well, if the connections were soldered instead. The lower cost version will still need to be tested though, so I will need to pick up some 2 wire fans (or find some).
Something else that needs some work is the name. The current working name is Koraku, which is a variation on the "Bento Box" theme. I've also thought about calling it MMM for "Marvin the Microparticle Machine", since it looks a bit disappointed with it's purpose in life. I'm not really happy with either of those, so I may need to solicit some better name ideas on Reddit for the design (though that'd almost guarantee it'd be named Filter McFilterFace lol).
I wanted to add some pics, but the version I'm testing right now is still in parts and not done printing, so here are some of the version that I've been testing for over a year now. The last pic of the CAD model is closer to the release version, and will be a bit taller, with a larger 2 tier carbon compartment, and a bit more room for wiring. There will also be some small changes on the low cost version, which will swap the knob control with an illuminated toggle switch.
I probably should have released it long ago, but in the back of my head, there's been two things which have nagged at me regarding the design, and they are the complexity, and the cost. I've gotten feedback on other unrelated designs, where folks reject the idea that they may be required to buy more hardware than they imagine is needed, and I get that (though I don't always agree). For this filter design however (as I currently run it), I felt that would be a valid criticism, since it is expensive as I've built it. When I calculated the current cost for the parts needed to build the filter, it ended up between $26.90 to $46.95, and that was based on the price for the actual parts only. If building one of the filters, the costs would go up, since many of the parts can only be purchased in packs of 5 or more, so not ideal. The lower end of that pricing is also based on AliExpress prices (the upper end is from Amazon). Add the tariffs, and the fact that the de minimis rule will be going away soon, and the costs are only gonna be going up. The end of de minimis just means the days of buying $20 worth of parts from AliExpress for a project, are going away (tariffs will add some, but a bigger problem is the approximately $30 plus customs "Merchandise Processing Fee" (MPF), that'll get tacked onto each order). Likely prices on Amazon will also go up for many small parts too, since they're often sold by 3rd parties who rely on de minimis to keep prices low.
So due to the high cost of the components, I've been making some changes to bring down the overall cost (at least an an option). I think I could drop the parts cost to a more reasonable $20-ish, if the PWM fan control and fuse were deleted from the design, which are pretty simple changes. Right now, I'm planning on a regular and a low cost build option, where the regular cost version will have all the bells and whistles (like the one I've been running for over a year). The low cost option will use simple 2 wire 5020 blowers, an illuminated rocker switch, and a DC power inlet jack. The WAGO's could be optional as well, if the connections were soldered instead. The lower cost version will still need to be tested though, so I will need to pick up some 2 wire fans (or find some).
Something else that needs some work is the name. The current working name is Koraku, which is a variation on the "Bento Box" theme. I've also thought about calling it MMM for "Marvin the Microparticle Machine", since it looks a bit disappointed with it's purpose in life. I'm not really happy with either of those, so I may need to solicit some better name ideas on Reddit for the design (though that'd almost guarantee it'd be named Filter McFilterFace lol).
I wanted to add some pics, but the version I'm testing right now is still in parts and not done printing, so here are some of the version that I've been testing for over a year now. The last pic of the CAD model is closer to the release version, and will be a bit taller, with a larger 2 tier carbon compartment, and a bit more room for wiring. There will also be some small changes on the low cost version, which will swap the knob control with an illuminated toggle switch.
Update 3/21/2025: Some progress-ish to report on the recirc filter today. I decided that it would open up some interesting ways to use it, if the filter had some expansion possibilities. I don't know if these will be in the final design, since I don't have the parts to test them, but it's possible they could be options added later. The base design should support a slide in module though. The pics below show an untested prototype expansion module, which could possibly hold an ESP32-C3 and a DC-DC buck regulator (to drop 12v to 5v for the micro). I think it could be possible to design a PCB carrier board to hold the modules as well, though I'm not planning to mess with Eagle (PCB design software) to attempt that right now.
Update 3/29/2025: I decided to release the original model (which I am currently running) as the V1.0. The changes seen above will be released as a new V2.0 version - which will NOT be backwards compatible with v1.0. I just wanted to get it out now, since it has been ready for a while, but if you like any of the features seen above, I hope to get them out as a v2.0 version soon, which will be a bit taller than v1.0.
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