- Joined
- Jan 5, 2005
I've been designing some fan control adapters mainly for my own use, but I wonder if anyone else might find them useful. (It's time consuming and expensive to make just one, but mass production would bring the cost down). Some of them I've not been able to find online, others I have, but they're unnecessarily expensive. There are some elaborate solutions like the Corsair commander, but that comes at a higher price, and I want something cheap and simple. I would not have many made, maybe 100 to get enough bulk discount, and they'd probably cost $5-10.
DC Voltage -> PWM
My mobo has 4-pin headers that aren't actually PWM, but rather just adjust the DC voltage to the fan. I'd like to connect a large number of hefty fans to this control, but am worried about the current capability of the voltage regulator on the board (I'd also rather use PWM control). This adapter takes the DC voltage and generates a proportional PWM signal that's sent to 4 outputs. It also has a separate 12V input, so each "channel" can do about 4A each. This allows me to control the fans via the mobo using speedfan.
PWM -> DC Voltage
The reverse of the above adapter. This takes a PWM input and provides a DC voltage for 3-pin fan control. Phantek does have something like this, but it's $20 and only capable of 2.5A total across its 6 channels. It should be closer to $10, and handle way more current...
PWM -> PWM
These sort of exist (e.g. pwm splitter cable), but this type of board is probably equally cheap and slightly smarter. Rather than just sharing the pwm wire between fans, it would provide a separate PWM output for each fan. (apparently connecting different fans to the same pwm wire can occasionally cause weird behavior). It also has its own power source, so 4A/channel here too. I'm going to use this to expand the number of fans on my DC->PWM adapter.
Maybe I'm the only one who would use this stuff, and I can just make one for myself. But hey, I figure it would be fun to try producing a small "product" if there's any interest.
DC Voltage -> PWM
My mobo has 4-pin headers that aren't actually PWM, but rather just adjust the DC voltage to the fan. I'd like to connect a large number of hefty fans to this control, but am worried about the current capability of the voltage regulator on the board (I'd also rather use PWM control). This adapter takes the DC voltage and generates a proportional PWM signal that's sent to 4 outputs. It also has a separate 12V input, so each "channel" can do about 4A each. This allows me to control the fans via the mobo using speedfan.
PWM -> DC Voltage
The reverse of the above adapter. This takes a PWM input and provides a DC voltage for 3-pin fan control. Phantek does have something like this, but it's $20 and only capable of 2.5A total across its 6 channels. It should be closer to $10, and handle way more current...
PWM -> PWM
These sort of exist (e.g. pwm splitter cable), but this type of board is probably equally cheap and slightly smarter. Rather than just sharing the pwm wire between fans, it would provide a separate PWM output for each fan. (apparently connecting different fans to the same pwm wire can occasionally cause weird behavior). It also has its own power source, so 4A/channel here too. I'm going to use this to expand the number of fans on my DC->PWM adapter.
Maybe I'm the only one who would use this stuff, and I can just make one for myself. But hey, I figure it would be fun to try producing a small "product" if there's any interest.
