Making a display for fan RPM

[amora]

Does anyone have a Circuit Schematic for reading the output from the RPM signal wire?

I care to wire something up that will read that wire and output the Rpm to an LCD).

Additionally, if it's net economical to do so...ie it'll cost far more to fabricate than it would be to just buy a controller with readout.

Time isn't a factor, you can negate that. Nor do you need to factor in tools. I have a sodering iron and all that whatnot. Just factor in raw materials.

I havent googled yet but I'm thinking the little LCD screen buddy might cost a bit.

Anyhoo goal is to output the RPM to an lcd to be mounted in a 5in bay

Thanks!

PS No, i'd care not to build an RPM sensor using a IR sensor or a photo sensor to count the gaps between the fan blades. Just want to read the RPM signal wire output.

 

[fcomstoc]

I dont know if you know this but there is a program called speedfan that reads that data from the Mobo and outputs it to the program on the computer. I know that that is not an LCD but that might be a good place to start

 

[amora]

lol I have speed fan bud, along with every other OCing related software that exists.

My rig is under water as well. I want to read the RPM wire to output to a physical mini display because I've used up all my mobo headers for RPM sensing and want to monitor my pump speed.

The controller is hooked to a DIY pwm generator circuit. Which started out as a simple pwm generator, then added a kick start, then added a bypass switch to auto spin the pump to 100% on the fly...now I want to expand the circuit to read the rpm wire, and output it.

Thanks tho

 

[Seebs]

Ask and you shall receive.

http://themakersworkbench.com/node/350

It may turn out to be more expensive than the actual PWM controller, but if something is worth doing; it is worth over-doing.

PS: I know this is way more complicated than what you need, but you can use the concepts on there and simplify to just take the signal from the RPM wire of the fan and convert it to something that can be shown on a simple LCD screen. You can even buy the LCD screens with the control board and program them on your own. It takes some learning, but when one wants something totally custom, it takes a bit of effort.

 

[amora]

Ask and you shall receive.

http://themakersworkbench.com/node/350

It may turn out to be more expensive than the actual PWM controller, but if something is worth doing; it is worth over-doing.

PS: I know this is way more complicated than what you need, but you can use the concepts on there and simplify to just take the signal from the RPM wire of the fan and convert it to something that can be shown on a simple LCD screen. You can even buy the LCD screens with the control board and program them on your own. It takes some learning, but when one wants something totally custom, it takes a bit of effort.

Hahah!!! Dang!! I knew it was eventually going to come down to programmable interfaces! This project is eventually lead to a full out digital controller scalable via USB. Idk why I even mentioned cost lol I was going to go out and buy anything regardless of price lolol the value here no matter how much the cost is the awesomeness making something from scratch(less the Aruino) and making working product.

The only thing with Aruino is that it's ment to be a play toy. Ie meant to be used to Be used on several projects . No way in heck would that thing survive inside my box for more than a week without me taking it out n playing with it lol

I'm trying this from my phone and haven't done full research on it yet, buy do u know what programming language Aruino uses? I'm quite familiar with bash and c+ scripting... I'd never do that crap for a job though, coding is a nightmare.

 

[amora]

http://www.pyroelectro.com/tutorials/digital_tachometer_rpm/schematic.html

OK found a tach circuit using IR sensors, I'm wondering if I could use the same method of outputting the RPM to an LCD but instead of supplying RC2 pin of the PIC 18F452 with the IR sensor output, I would replace it with the hall effect signal wire(yellow fan wire).

Would this work? I believe the hall effect sensor works the in a similar manner, that is, creating pulses which are counted and outputted.

 

[TiZakit]

embed the ATmega into your own project, instead of keeping it part of the arduino package.

 

[amora]

I'm not going to use a prebuilt system like the Arduino. There are several projects online that have been successful with out the use of a $30-$60 system.

I'd just buy a pre built controller if thats the case, but this is more fun so i dont' wanna do that lol

 

[TiZakit]

I'm not saying use an arduino. I'm saying to just use its microcontroller, which costs about 6 bucks.

http://www.csmicrosystems.com/products/166-atmega328p-with-arduino-bootloader.aspx

Which would make more sense, if you already have an arduino, for ease of programming.

(But still, don't mind me, I just read about stuff for hours, and then never actually start a project. Maybe I'll do this one, just to get moving.)

EDIT: Actually, I think I'm going to design something tonight, Parts list sometime soon, and then build.

EDIT EDIT: I'm not saying it is the only solution, but it is A solution. It is the one I would take, for simplicity sake. Its a straight forward project. Input (RPM) ->Logic (ATmega / Arduino / any other MC) -> output (Display)

 

[amora]

Oh, yeah. I'm going to program the PIC 18F452 chip.

I just want to know if the hall sensor will work the same as the IR sensor

 

[amora]

Welp I'm retarded...soooo the actual hardware needed to program a PIC is friggin $60-$80 bucks!!!!!!!! lol And come to think about it, I'm not sure after this project I'll ever use it again!!!!

Meh, i guess, better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it!

 

[TiZakit]

Ah, well its all down to the MC you want to use then.

I've done some research into your hall sensor question, and the answer that I have is "probably"

I'm not sure that the PIC can handle on that pin, (easy to look up I suppose) but you should be fine, so long as the voltage on the rpm pin doesn't exceed what the it can take. I find it hard to believe that it is pulsing anything more than 5v. Otherwise, just drop the voltage.

The LCD screen you can get for about 15 bucks.

LCD http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9053

 

[amora]

Meh, I'll just take a multimeter out n measure it, if not ill just get a higher handling PiC. Hopefully it'll give me a decent rms so I can estimate what the pulse is spiking to.

Id like to verify that this route will work for this though due to the fact that ordering chip is best done in bulk or else you waste the shipping. judging by how the IR sensor is essentially doing the same thing(turning off and on) and the hall sensor is as well I'm pretty certain it wil.

Wonder if Bing could chime in here

 

[TiZakit]

I'm just curious, why are you building this? Just something to do?

 

[amora]

Lol when u put it that way it sounds like I have nothing else going on in life!!! But to be honest, YA!! It's just for fun, i like being able to make and deploy a custom hand made device that I can say I made myself.

My girl doesn't like it though lol she hates when I don't give her attention. And it interferes with weight training, which if u were to see me in real like you'd never think that I'm a huge computer nerd. Especially considering I also bounce at a night club dt, and during the day I work in operations command at a data center

 

[Bobnova]

Look into Arduino, if you go the BareBonesBoard / ReallyBareBonesBoard setup the programmer is $15 and the boards themselves are $13-$18, not bad at all. They're more than happy to talk to LCDs and to read fan RPM.

 

[Seebs]

I'm just curious, why are you building this? Just something to do?

Is there ever any other reason?

Most of the stuff we "make" isn't really necessary, but we still go out and "make" it.

Look into Arduino, if you go the BareBonesBoard / ReallyBareBonesBoard setup the programmer is $15 and the boards themselves are $13-$18, not bad at all. They're more than happy to talk to LCDs and to read fan RPM.

@ amora: Listen to this guy. He knows what he's talking about. cough... cough... Where is my PWM Controller V2?

 

[Bobnova]

I'll get on that s33bs, tonight.
Actually, YHPM.

 

[TiZakit]

Is there ever any other reason?

Most of the stuff we "make" isn't really necessary, but we still go out and "make" it.

No no, that is one of the better reasons to make something. I'm not trying to put that down at ALL. Just trying to get his motivation. Different motivations have different end goals.

 

[amora]

Greaattt I shouldnt have start looking at those arduinos. I'm going to end up with several of those things. There's even the auduink mini that lie the size of 2 quarters with all the functionality of the larger siblings!

I'll prolly end up with one large board for prototyping, and a mini board for deployment. I'm going to be stubborn and use the output from the pwm controller I built though cuz the arduino's have PWM signal generators on board... Some up to 16 separate outputs! The ability to write custome scripts for this thing is awesome.