Silencing the loud Aputure C300D

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scotchtape

Active member
The Aputure 300D is falsely advertised as "quiet" 18db fan light. Meanwhile the PSU that has to be relatively close by is probably over 35db. The actual fan is 30db but the way it is positioned in the PSU pushing air through the metal nooks and crannies makes it even louder, not to mention the stock fan whines/hums at annoying frequencies (I got the fan specs direct from the manufacturer, mean well). It's literally louder than my relatively quiet PC (which has 4 fans, the largest Noctua CPU air cooler and a 1080ti) it's about as bad as having a mini fridge in the room...

So what to do? One thing that I did not try is to replace the stock fan with a quieter one. The quietest fan that I found was 23db pushing around the same 20cfm, about 7db quieter. However the design of PSU definitely has no regards to acoustics and I didn't think that would really fix the problem. The other problem is getting that fan would be $20 for a 60mm fan, which I didn't want to pay considering how loud it was.

I didn't think putting it in a box would really help anything since I would need to cut out holes for airflow, and in my preliminary attempts nothing really helped since the sound just leaked out.

What I ended up doing to "fix" the problem was to remove the stock fan and top casing of the PSU, and place it in a toolbox with a very quiet 120mm noctua fan. This makes the PSU even quieter than the head while providing 40cfm vs the stock 20cfm airflow. Do note that the stock setup uses the casing as a heatsink, so I'm not sure what the effects of not having it are. I did test the stock and new setup for 1h @ 100% output and measured the interior "heat sink" part that contacted the case. Stock measured 47C after an hour, modified measured 43C. My ambient is around 24C.

The downsides are of course the fact that you have to make this, and open up the PSU of your >$1K light. Also your PSU is now very large and sits inside a toolbox, which takes up about 3-4 times the space of the already not small PSU, not to mention awkwardly connecting the power cables. On the plus side it has a handle on top now. Also since it's 16 inches I can leave the cables plugged in and store them in the front few inches of space. Not sure where to put it though since it definitely won't fit in the original case.

Here's what I did.
Photos here: https://imgur.com/a/C5aNM
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1) Remove top of PSU (x2)
- Remove the six screws of the black Aputure PSU
- 2 are holding the bar in front of the connectors.
- 4 are holding the case together.
- NOT the small screws near the webbing, that holds the webbing on.

- Then gently peel back the black webbing around the sides of the PSU.
- There are 4 screws, two on each side that hold it together (you will see more screws but it's kind of obvious which ones hold it together, the 2 bigger ones on the ends).
- There is one screw at the top of the mean well PSU near the front grills, peel back the black webbing as opposed to the thermal compound to unscrew it.

Now you should be able to take the top off the PSU, remember to remove the fan connector as the fan is connected to the top casing.

2) Toolbox
- I got around a 16x7x5.5 toolbox. Basically you want it to be big enough for the PSU and fan to fit in, but not too big. Actually you can get whatever box you want, but this was the most economical and functional I could think of (considering custom plastic boxes were like $70+).
- I drilled 4 holes for the 120mm fan mount
- I dremeled/routed out the fan hole roughly (it don't look pretty because I don't have the proper tools unfortunately).
- Obviously on the other end you need an exhaust port and somewhere to plug in the cables.

3) Fan
- You will need to create a connector for the fan since the connector used on the PSU is one of those JST type connectors. If you have no experience with this... well you better buy a whole bunch of them because you're bound to break a few making the connector. The "easiest" way to do this is get a $1 3pin y connector on eBay, or 3pin fan extension cable. Connect one end to the fan, and the other you can use for the JST connector.

The fan I had from a previous build was the Noctua NF-S12A ULN. You can pick a different fan from here: https://www.quietpc.com/120mmfans if you want. This one pushes 43.7cfm @ 8.6DB.
If you need more airflow the Nanoxia ones aren't bad for the price either. The stock is about 20cfm and 30db.

4) Putting it together
Obviously mount the fan so the air blows over the exposed parts of the PSU and secure the PSU so it doesn't move around. I angled my PSU up so there's more airflow over it. To secure it, I simply used the cover we took off as a template and marked off two holes on each side. Then I used M4 sized screws to secure the PSU inside the toolbox (M4 is the size of the existing threads). You will want something to protect the fan, so get a fan grill. Alternatively you could just drill like 50 holes instead of one big fan hole, but I was too lazy and wasn't sure how quiet that would be.


Now it's quiet as a mouse and quieter than the fans in the head of the unit, but with the aforementioned downsides. Depending on your needs this is might not work due to the extra care needed when handling the PSU. Works for me in my one man band since I know I'll take care of it.

I'm pretty disappointed with Aputure mainly due to the marketing. Yeah the light is mostly fine despite the green tint on the side issue, good output, price, light quality yadda yadda, but what the fudge is with the false advertising. There is NO WAY this light is anywhere CLOSE to being QUIET. This is the last time I'm buying Aputure stuff early. Why couldn't you guys just make a slightly bigger PSU casing, and basically do what I did except 100x better? And then why did you advertise this light as being close to silent when that is definitely not the case? You know a lot of us small guys don't have the budget for a crew, so making our lives even harder by trying to deal with the noise issue is not helping us!

//References to the 18db have been scrubbed from the newer marketing, fine, but initial marketing had this all over, news shooter old post still references this, and other retail sites as well. Also still marketed as "quiet"

I get that if you're shooting outside or with a big crew or big studio it's not a big deal to work around this issue, but I bought it specifically thinking it was going to be "18db quiet" to use for close lighting corporate interviews. Was not expecting +35db PSU unit.

Sorry for the angry rant but if I had known it was going to be this loud I would have looked for a different option and saved myself the trouble. I bought this early on eBay and can't really return it. Tried selling it on CL but zero inquiries after a week and I just gave up and "fixed" it myself.

Parts list:
Toolbox ~15 (or more, up to you depending on quality and material)
Noctua Fan ~20
120mm Fan grill ~7 (4 for $7)
Connectors ~5
Various screws etc, M4 size for case screws.
I used 1.5inch 6-32 machine screws to secure the fan and grill

Tools:
Drill and bits
Dremel and router bit

Other notes:
Stock PSU is Mean Well RSP-320-27
Presumably if you can find another 27V powersupply >320V that is silent that could work too.
I tried looking but couldn't find a good option.
Fan is Minbrea 2404KL-04W-B30
It's a 12V fan so basically any computer can should work since they're mainly 12V.
Might consider adding noctua fans to the head as well.
 
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I got a longer 20 foot 4-pin XLR power cable and moved the ballast far away from the fixture and microphone. I generally get a longer AC cord but did the opposite for the 300d. Now the Ballast is by the wall socket. I also put a blanket on top of it. Works in a studio enviroment fine . Wont need the blanket if i'm shooting in a location with other sounds going on.
 
So you only need a really long cable and a blanket, then you can reap the rewards of a non-wall powered solution? It's almost as if it goes against the supposed LED philosophy of cleaning up those "dangerous" power cables.
 
rob norton said:
So you only need a really long cable and a blanket, then you can reap the rewards of a non-wall powered solution? It's almost as if it goes against the supposed LED philosophy of cleaning up those "dangerous" power cables.
Click to expand...

Ha! Well the battery option is nice to have and if you go with batteries then you don't need the Ballast or the two cables, but I can't run all my lights on them. I would be charging $2K worth of batteries all day.
 
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Erik Naso said:
Now the Ballast is by the wall socket. I also put a blanket on top of it.
Click to expand...

It really needs the airflow to stay cool though so I'm not sure covering it up without sufficient airflow is a good idea!
But it if that does work maybe just putting it in a quiet box would work too.

Once they figure out that edge lit stuff and make it portable I can forget about all this.
Those panels are too big for me to carry around, if they made a modular circular one that would be amazing.
 
Wow for real? Is that necessary for a $1k light? I'd return that thing if it needs such a hack to be worthwhile. Next time I come by one I'll have to look for the controller noise. Are you totally sure this is normal operation? Did Aputure confirm you don't have a faulty unit?

Definitely sticking with my cheapo HMIs for a while I guess.
 
nyvz said:
Wow for real? Is that necessary for a $1k light? I'd return that thing if it needs such a hack to be worthwhile. Next time I come by one I'll have to look for the controller noise. Are you totally sure this is normal operation? Did Aputure confirm you don't have a faulty unit?

Definitely sticking with my cheapo HMIs for a while I guess.
Click to expand...

I think it is necessary because it is a $1k light.

Powerful, good, inexpensive. You can have any two but not all three.
 
I guess that's true, it's relatively cheap compared to the competition but it is the fanciest light Aputure makes, and they upped their game in the past year or two, you'd hope their big new flagship didn't have any big drawbacks..

Guess it'll be a while before I can replace my $200 575W HMI pars, they seem to have all three in a way that's pretty hard to come by. Can't be battery powered or smoothly dimmed though or packed up until given a few minutes to cool...
 
Unfortunately, this style fixture came from the photography side of the business where noise is not such an issue.

I know you mentioned putting a grill in front of the fan, but do yourself a favor and place a filter on both the input and output of the toolbox. You don't want a bit of metal getting in the box and shorting out the power supply.
 
I've been waiting on the sidelines for this light after buying a few panels and wanting a fresnel source to go with. Given this, I think I'll pass. Besides the fan noise, that stupid controller box just kills it for me. I'd rather pay a bit more and get something that doesn't need a hack just to be OK. What were they thinking? Besides, every week, LED lights are coming down in price.
 
Some day...... some day... someone will come, and make the one true light, that has all the bells and whistles.... and he will sell it for little money! *diminishes into naive oblivion*
 
Erik Naso said:
Ha! Well the battery option is nice to have and if you go with batteries then you don't need the Ballast or the two cables, but I can't run all my lights on them. I would be charging $2K worth of batteries all day.
Click to expand...

Of course, my mistake. I shouldn't be so hard on these LEDs!
 
legrevedotcom said:
Some day...... some day... someone will come, and make the one true light, that has all the bells and whistles.... and he will sell it for little money! *diminishes into naive oblivion*
Click to expand...

Some day perhaps... but if you've been buying or following LED tech... that higher output / more watts requires a fan to dissipate heat... in the case of the 300D - it sounds like (pun intended) it is not worth the trade.
 
I wouldn't give up so fast on this light, nor would I buy it in its current condition. Since the green cast is not seen on all lights, it is simply a matter of having the chip vendor screen chips for color quality (which will add some cost to the chips) and they need a way to better remote the power supply. That's two easy fixes that should put the light in good order.

But then there is reliability. While chip vendors claim tens of thousands of hours, I wonder how long the $1000 investment will last. With tungsten or HMI, I change a bulb and I'm back in business. With COB, what happens when if fails?
 
I bought two lightstorm 1s and i got a green color cast on one which required a 1\8 gel while the other required a 1/16 magenta. Antenna for the controller stopped working quickly on both. So QC remains an issue for this company.

Nonetheless, for that price, no other company offered this amount of power in a light panel.

The 300d is the same thing. For that price, no one offers that quantity of power(and battery powered!). However, tons of quirks that create problems... I could have lived with the green thing with a gel but the fan issue is too big to deal with it.

Guess we will see how aputure handles the issue over time. For now in terms of price/power for LEDs, rayrz 7 300w takes the cake(unless someone else knows a better choice?)
 
FrancisT said:
Nonetheless, for that price, no other company offered this amount of power in a light panel.
The 300d is the same thing. For that price, no one offers that quantity of power(and battery powered!). However, tons of quirks that create problems... I could have lived with the green thing with a gel but the fan issue is too big to deal with it.

Guess we will see how aputure handles the issue over time. For now in terms of price/power for LEDs, rayrz 7 300w takes the cake(unless someone else knows a better choice?)
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Just took it out for a job today, worked great in my admittedly cheapo Godox Octa.
Cables a bit annoying but light quality way better than the stupid setup I was working with before (don't know how I got away with it for so long).
Mine definitely has green on the sides as well but once it's all folded in I haven't noticed any issues (yet).
Since I leave the cables plugged into the new psu toolbox it's less annoying than with them all separate.

Honestly all they had to do was make a bigger enclosure with a bigger silent fan and up the price by $100 for their troubles. Maybe even integrate it into the controller so there's only one box to plug into, boom done.
The separate PSU AND controller... why...

I was really considering the Rayzr but there was no easy way to attach soft/octa boxes to I didn't want to deal with scrims.
Gelling the light inside the octa is also an issue that all these current lights face (unless they are bicolor).

Less depressed knowing that I can work with it now though. But my resale value has now tanked.

Next challenge is easily gelling these new COB lights inside of a softbox...
My hacky way is a cut up reflector dish inside the octabox and then gel that, but there's gotta be a better solution.
(the better solution is make all these lights bicolor)
 
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