Upgrading the fan

#1

The included fan is fine, but I had a noctua which is even better. I mashed up an ITX motherboard plate model and a fan spacer model to create a substitute for the top acrylic plate that allows for a definitely not-overkill 140mm fan upgrade.

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At least with the radxa fedora 41 image, there’s no hwmon node for controlling speed, but the default is still silent and still moving way more air than the original fan.

The model is way too thick (3mm), it would have been better at 2mm. The fan screw holes are a bit too small, and the screws into the o6’s included stand-offs are way too small (I drilled both sets out afterward). Some built-in accommodation for routing the fan cable would be good, too. As would rounded corners, and perhaps cut-outs to save material. I can’t directly attach the STL, but you can access it on TinkerCAD here.

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#2

I made a “gen 2” of this for a 120mm fan. It has several improvements:

  • fan screw holes are correctly sized for normal fan screws
  • the thickness and outer dimensions (including rounded corners) match those of the backside acrylic plate, which not only adds some protection, but also allows standing the unit on any edge
  • there are cut-outs for the GPIO and UART headers

The biggest downside IMO is that by matching the backside acrylic, it is too thick for any screws I had to attach to the brass standoffs. Fan screws are fine and get a good bite into the fan, but I had to do some drilling to get the motherboard screws I had to thread. I should have realized that at design time. Instead of the current 4.5mm thickness, something like 2.5mm would probably be just as good and would avoid the issue.

Also, because the ATX standard seems to have been defined in imperial, the mounting holes to the motherboard standoffs are a little bit off. The screw holes are big enough that it didn’t matter for me, but be a little aware there.

TinkerCAD model is here.

Edit: Made tweaks to the cut-outs for headers, screw hole positions and sizes. So it’s version 3 now