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"T-Balancer Intelligent Fan Controller TBAN-SL4"
SUMMARY: Very versatile fan controller with sometimes obtuse instructions.
The good guys at mCubed were nice enough to send a sample of their T-Balancer TBAN-SL4 intelligent fan controller. Right off the bat, be assured that this is NOT a simple rheostat fan controller - it's far more than that (Data Sheet HERE.)
Let me also state up front that for most of us, it will take some playing with to effectively use this product, but the benefits may well be worth the learning curve.
The package contains
Fan speeds are adjusted using a technique called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). Instead of regulating voltage, PWM sends 12 volt bursts to the fan at varying intervals - the longer the "off" interval, the slower the fan runs. This allows setting fan speeds to levels that are impossible with voltage regulation.
The T-Balancer uses a USB port to interface with Windows. From the control panel, you can adjust each channel's operating characteristics, as we'll show below. I should note that some are using this unit to control lights as well.
For some reason, I could not get the T-Balancer to work with Windows 98, even after using updated software. I can't say this is typical, as m-Cubed was able to run it on a W98 platform. The tests below were run on XP no problem.
The TBAN-SL4 is the internal version of this product - it fits in a PCI slot but does not plug into it:
The tach outputs are used so that if the motherboard requires a positive indication that a fan is running, a signal will output to the board. The sensors that ship with the unit are rather large:
The sensor includes an LED which lights when it's correctly installed; if it does not light, you must rotate it 180º. There are additional add-ons which allow you to use the thin sensors that can be placed next to the CPU's core for temp monitoring - these can not.
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