zalman ZM-MFC 1 LED problem

Posting here in case anyone has this fan controller and has solved the problem I am having.

I installed this unit and it works as advertised but the LED that lights up to indicate CPU fan speed does not work correctly. The other channels work fine. On startup, the CPU LED lights up then flickers and goes out. This is reproducible. I have connected the channel to a Zalman CNPS9500 through the rheostat provided by Zalman.

The only thing I can think of is that I should discard the rheostat (since there are now two in series) and connect the fan directly to the controller. If no one posts, I will try that and let you know if it worked.

Do you have both the controller and the rheostat turned all the way down? That may be the problem, if the fan isn't getting enough power. I used to have an Aluminum Evercool with that controller and a rheostat turned all the way down, and it worked fine, but with my current fans once I get the controller down to about 5 volts, the lights start flickering and the Nexus fans, which are YLs already slowed down by an in-line resistor, might not start on bootup because they need a certain minimum voltage when starting the computer.

Both rheostats are all the way up. The CPU cooler has a blue LED of its own that is on full and turning the pots down makes the LED in the cooler go dimmer. So both rheostats work to control the fan speed and the LED on the cooler works but the one in the controller does not.

Take out the rheostat on the HSF and just use the fan controller.

No joy. I removed the HSF speed controller and hooked the fan directly to the new fan controller. Same behavior. The light inside the HSF works properly, but the one in the front panel does not stay lit.

Time to call Zalman.