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project "redemption"
View attachment 146511
this is my 3rd attempt with extensive smd components.
all my previous ones were FUBAR
so, wish me luck guys
Is that for 3 wire fans or 4 wire?
I'm a total Electronics newbie. I can solder and did make some kits like Arduino, but nothing very small and I have no idea how to make my own stuff. I struggle much to find the items needed even though I get a list as I get A LOT of results when searching for "555 ic"....
I think that clears up my knowledge
Someone else asked this, but I'm going to ask Again: This IS for 4 pin PWM fans, right?
Asking as I simply can't find any DIY 4-pin PWM controllers / DIY kits or similar. Also asked as I don't see more than 2-3 wires on any of the images here?!
It must be proper PWM controller with seperate/direct 12v power input to the device.
Means I don't want some modulated DC controller, which is about all I can find when looking for DIY items.
Very very kind of you. I've sent a PM.Mine are for 4 pin fans with 12V input, If you want to, you can PM me with your address and I'll send you 1 or more of my boards, I'll put all the small stuff on it, you can put the big stuff on it when you get it.
Hi,
I built the fan controller (one 555) and it worked first shot!
Thank you very much for your DIY. This is my first electronics assembly project, so I'm pretty proud!
Since I only had 12V supply I added a Traco TSR 1-2450 DC/DC converter to get 5V and it's really fine.
Now I can control the rpm from 0 to max flawlessly, amazing!
If your using the same circuit linked to in the 1st post, you will only get 2% to 98% speed, but then again if your using 4000+ rpm fans, who cares about that last 2% now if you use the circuit using the 556 chip then you can get 0% to 100% speed.
When I saw how bad the soldering was in the article in the 1st post, I thought I can do better
View attachment 161525
View attachment 161516
I used PCB layout software to layout the board the way I wanted, then I had a board shop Advanced Circuits make the boards.
If your using the same circuit linked to in the 1st post, you will only get 2% to 98% speed, but then again if your using 4000+ rpm fans, who cares about that last 2% now if you use the circuit using the 556 chip then you can get 0% to 100% speed.
When I saw how bad the soldering was in the article in the 1st post, I thought I can do better
I think the 0-100% will be refer to any speed profile pre-flashed by the fan mfg.
not the ability to scale down the fan speed itself.
So, depend to the fan we used, we'll get different results.
take the cougar vortex as an example (the only fan with available curve speed I can find in the net so far):
and if we make some scale down the PWM signal, we should see something:
The difference should be negligible, as the curve's quite linear at the bottom and top.
But the obvious thing is, the cougar will never stop spinning even with 0% applied to it.
The curve's quite typical with the "PC class" fans.
Once we move on to the industrial fans realm; that would be a different story
Ok that sounds right.
For the record I have a NOCTUA NF-B9 PWM fan and when I turn down to 0% it stops spinning. I don't actually know if it goes to max speed when turned to 100% but anyway my goal was to set it to "the maximum speed that makes no noise". Moreover it turns out that that speed is enough to keep the attached heat-sink at a low temperature.
If they turn off they do not follow the specification. All PWM controlled stuff should go to 100% if PWM signal gets too low or is missing eetirely..Some variable speed ("PWM") fans do interpret 10% and below as a command to turn off. There are also some that will just go full speed if it gets 0% or very close to it, as a safeguard against the the line becoming shorted to ground. It all depends on what the OEM programmed into the inverter.
I was also under the impression you need the 556 variant for 12V fans. It would be great if the article was supplemented with the information, highlighted.One million Watts...
Now; for the serious answer.
The PWM controllers that this article refers to don't actually power the fans. The fans are powered straight from the PSU (12V) all the time and the controller simply sends ON/OFF signals to a circuit on the fan that switches power ON/OFF very fast (the standard is 25KHz, but some fans work on other frequencies).
So since the fans are not being powered from the controller; the answer to your question is that you can run whatever fans you want (no watts limitation); provided your PSU can power them.
I've just finished re-creating the controller in Fritzing. Change the file extension from 7z to fzz. This is not an archive. Then I'm going to also use Fritzing to create my multi-fan controller by cloning as many of the 555 PWM controllers as needed alongside headers regulated using regular potentiometers only for 3-pin non-PWM fans.
Fritzing also exports bill of materials etc.
PS. There are no mobo fan headers etc. in the Fritzing library so I've used whatever similar components there were. I couldn't even find single terminals. Also, this is my first elec project so expect everything.