Fan Controller Designs

Chris · Oct 31, 2002

Can someone point me in the direction of some designs or scematics for a Fan controller, basically so i can go tot he electronics shop and buy all the bits then build it. So that i can switch off some of the fans at night and get some sleep

Monaco · Oct 31, 2002

Check this place out:

http://www.fanbus.com/

Cliff designed the first real fanbus for PCs, and he has tons of schematics for many different types- all of which he offers FOR FREE! A great place to look around, especially if this is the first bus you are building

Chris · Oct 31, 2002

wow thats great! i'll head down the electronics shop in town this week and pickup some components. Do many other people around these forums make there own or buy?

Monaco · Oct 31, 2002

it seems that most folks USED to make their own, but nowadays a lot of em buy them. They're just so cheap and readily availible now that they are popular. Plus it's hard to make a really proffessional looking 'bus.

But if you build it, you know your are 10X cooler than those poor f00lz who bought one, lol

And you can design it to do practically anything, only your imagination holds you back.

I always build stuff like this myself, personally.

Stumpjumper5200 · Oct 31, 2002

I bought mine from FrozenCPU.com.
They installed it and everything on a black Lian-Li faceplate, it's really nice.

Chris · Oct 31, 2002

anybody know any other good links im after tutorials more than schematics but either will do!

Monaco · Oct 31, 2002

I've never really seen a tutorial on how to build this stuff, usually it's just a few schematics with a few paragraphs of advice. For a fanbus, it's really not much more complex than making sure black goes to black and red goes to red. Best to try and figure out the diagram and just ask for help when needed, works for me.

here's some other fun stuff to build

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/index.html

http://casemods.pointofnoreturn.org/

http://www.rabidhardware.net/index.php?section=howtos&id=9

Chris · Oct 31, 2002

Monster of Rock said:
here's some other fun stuff to build

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/index.html

http://casemods.pointofnoreturn.org/

http://www.rabidhardware.net/index.php?section=howtos&id=9

Wow theres some really cool stuff to build there i might give one of them a go!

Monaco · Oct 31, 2002

right on man, have fun with it

I've built all of those at least once, and none of them are really that difficult. But all of them turn out really cool and useful, especially the ones at point of no return dot org.

MajinSSJVegetto · Nov 1, 2002

http://bit-tech.net/article/52/1

Has several good kinds of bus's.

Electrobus rules.

Chris · Nov 1, 2002

MajinSSJVegetto said:
http://bit-tech.net/article/52/1

Has several good kinds of bus's.

Electrobus rules.

cheers for that link it even has the maplin stock codes! maplin isnt far from me so i can just go in and get the compnents nice and easy

larrymoencurly · Nov 3, 2002

LM317 adjustable voltage regulator with a thermistor in place of the resistor that normally goes between the output and the sense pin? I have this in a PSU that had a fixed speed fan.

My Powmax uses nothing but a 50 ohm @ room temp thermistor in series with the fan and +12V. It's glued into the donut hole of one of the output filter chokes.

scrappydog · Nov 3, 2002

chris_4130 said:
anybody know any other good links im after tutorials more than schematics but either will do!

Below are some links for DC PWM controllers. They can be bought pre-assembled, in kits, or you can build one from scratch. PWM = pulse width modulated... in other words, instead of using resistance, it simply turns your fans on-and-off very quickly so that with a dimmer, you can run your fans slower with less draw and no wasted electricity (i.e. no heat generated).

Pros: no heat, less power consumption, quiets fans
Cons: lessened fan life (very little)

I was going to build a 24V PWM controller for the 235CFM Comair-Rotron Patriot fans on my monster rad. A lot of robot hobbyists use them to control the speed of the motors in their robots. Check out the links:

http://www.solorb.com/elect/solarcirc/pwm1/
http://www.nomad.ee/micros/pwm555.html
http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/motor/ck1400.htm
http://www.j-tron.com/powerkits.htm

macklin01 · Nov 5, 2002

You can use my design if you want to.

http://www.math.umn.edu/~macklin/fanbus

features:
1) properly reports RPM speed to motherboard
2) provides safeguard against turning fans so low
that they don't spin. (via Zener diode.)
3) doesn't require heatsinks on transistors
4) turns off fans when computer goes to standby
(via relays)
5) Can be extended to control more fans by
duplicating the basic design.

Let me know if I can be of any help. (And "hello" to Monster.

)

-- Paul

Fan Controller Designs

Chris

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Monaco

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Chris

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Monaco

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Stumpjumper5200

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Chris

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Monaco

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Chris

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Monaco

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MajinSSJVegetto

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Chris

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larrymoencurly

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scrappydog

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macklin01

Computational Oncologist / Biomathematician / Mode

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