SUMMARY: An versatile, well built, variable voltage controller for fans or other 12 volt devices.
The good folks at PC Mods sent us a sample of their Bay Bus Kit – Model 1201 – to test out. This is a 12 volt controller you can use for fans or any other 12 volt device (max: 6 watts per switch) that you might want to vary as follows:
- ON at 12 volts – Red Light
- OFF – No Light
- ON at anywhere from about 5.5 to 11 volts – Green Light
The kit comes with a very complete instructions – very easy to follow. All you need to install the Bay Bus is a 1/4″ drill, a small screwdriver and a wire stripper. It’s pretty simple:
- Drill 8 1/4″ holes in a slot cover with the supplied template;
- Strip the wires about 1/4″, stick them in the appropriate hole in the wiring block and tighten the wiring block screws;
- Place the four small LED bezels in the top four holes;
- Carefully push the unit into the 8 holes; you will probably have to bend down the power transistors a little to clear the back of the slot cover;
- Place the retaining nuts on the four switches and tighten;
- Insert the slot cover into the PC;
- Hook up a hard drive power connector.
It took me about 10 minutes to figure out where I wanted the holes to line up and drill them out. The template has a sticky tape on it so it doesn’t move around – only problem I had was it was so sticky I thought the cover would snap while taking the template off after I drilled the holes. However, it lined up perfectly.
Now don’t think this is a 10 minute job, however. If you’re going to use one of these, you have to figure out what you’re going to control and how you want to run the wires. Once you have the wires, you have to place them in the wiring block BEFORE you mount the Bay Bus onto the slot cover; the retaining screws are covered by the slot cover.
Then you have to use the small screwdriver to adjust the yellow trimpot for the low setting – impossible to do once you snap the Bay Bus in place. If you want to change anything once it’s installed, you have to remove the slot cover. I think it’s best to run four wires from the wiring bus and connect up devices to these wires – this way if you just want to add something or change a fan, you don’t have to disassemble the unit.
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Tags: Cooling
