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Custom Fan Controller Build - Working on 5" display (Warning: pic heavy) - Page 2

post #11 of 542
5/1/12 at 2:16am
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Done with PCB design, will send it to these guys for manufacturing: Silver Circuits. They are cheap and say they can have it ready in 5 days.

It's dense, but it should fit on the back of the display.

589

Just hope I got it all right. Don't really want to spend an extra week for a new run if I made mistakes.

Anyway, had to go with as few surface mounted components as possible as they are really hard to hand solder.

So I guess no progress until I get the PCB in a weeks time. Well maybe I can work on the code part. Or do some more work on my CM 690 Build that this controller is intended for.
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post #12 of 542
5/1/12 at 8:09am
On a side note: I made a PWM based fan controller a while back and found that with a low timing frequency the fan will growl at low speeds and if the timing frequency is too high the fan will squeal. So it was a little work finding the right timing capacitor to allow the fan to be operated at it's full range without any adverse noises.
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post #13 of 542
5/2/12 at 12:07am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radodrill View Post

On a side note: I made a PWM based fan controller a while back and found that with a low timing frequency the fan will growl at low speeds and if the timing frequency is too high the fan will squeal. So it was a little work finding the right timing capacitor to allow the fan to be operated at it's full range without any adverse noises.

Agree, it is possible to deal with the PWM noise problem with a bit of fine tuning, although it might differ with fan size/type. Do you know the approximate frequency you ended up using? Did you also find a usable solution to the unstable RPM signal for PWM driven fans? I guess it could be solved in a couple of ways, maybe keep the PWM high when the RPM signal goes low until the RPM signal goes high again or perhaps make the PWM low level higher than 0v, maybe 2-3v, so high PWM is 12v and low is 2-3v. Anyway, I haven't tried any of these potential solutions, just a couple of ideas.

I've noticed even on my graphics card, the fan RPM is unstable, so I guess it's a common problem without a common solution.

Anyway, with regulated voltage instead of PWM there is no need to worry about any of this. It is really more of a high-end solution. Only real disadvantage compared to direct PWM is that it requires a bit more power. Also it fits particularly well with my design since I'm using a PIC u-controller to generate the PWM signals, but as the controller only got 2 hardware PWM outputs, I have to manually generate the outputs with a timer. Which means a low frequency (~1KHz) PWM allows for a higher resolution and more cycles left for other jobs.

Cheers,
Jakob
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post #14 of 542
5/2/12 at 4:19pm
I actually selected the timing capacitor by trial and error and it came out to be about 30 kHz on the PWM signal. To be honest, I have no clue about how it affects the RPM sense since I've never tried it due to just manually setting it then forgetting it. One thing I did notice is in your schematic you have a capacitor across the control transistor, while I have a diode in it's place so that may make a difference. Also, the high frequency should also result in a lot less fluctuations to the RPM sensor.
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post #15 of 542
5/3/12 at 9:06am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radodrill View Post

I actually selected the timing capacitor by trial and error and it came out to be about 30 kHz on the PWM signal. To be honest, I have no clue about how it affects the RPM sense since I've never tried it due to just manually setting it then forgetting it. One thing I did notice is in your schematic you have a capacitor across the control transistor, while I have a diode in it's place so that may make a difference. Also, the high frequency should also result in a lot less fluctuations to the RPM sensor.

Very impressive build on both the case and controller.

I reached the same conclusion that less than 20KHz PWM is potentially noisy. The capacitor in my pseudo diagram can resolve most of the noise at lower frequencies. For long term use a diode like you have over the transistor/mosfet is a good idea, it can be combined with the capacitor. In my build I do want to be able to read a fairly accurate rpm so I can show it on the display and enable alarms if a fan isn't running or maybe even a warning if a fan is running slower than expected.

Now just waiting for pcb's to be manufactured. I gave up on doing it on a prototype board or making the pcb's myself. it's just too many components in a small space for that.

I'll post some updates when I get the boards and hopefully there are not too many mistakes in the layout worriedsmiley.gif

Since I'm getting a handful of pcb's I'm thinking about installing 2-3 of them in my case, then configure them to cycle through different screens of data.
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post #16 of 542
5/3/12 at 9:10am
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make me one! lol. seriously though, i'd buy one biggrin.gif, thats some amazing work
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post #17 of 542
5/4/12 at 12:09am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DaXxJaPxX View Post

make me one! lol. seriously though, i'd buy one biggrin.gif, thats some amazing work

Thanks smile.gif

Sorry, I'm not planning on selling these. (don't have the time)

I'll post some more updates when I get the circuit boards manufactured.
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post #18 of 542
5/4/12 at 4:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jvjessen View Post

Thanks smile.gif
Sorry, I'm not planning on selling these. (don't have the time)
I'll post some more updates when I get the circuit boards manufactured.

could you then perhaps post the part list, circuit diagram, and code (if applicable) so that those with enough of an electronics background can make their own? I may be interested in making a PWM version wink.gif
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post #19 of 542
5/4/12 at 4:47pm
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Very cool, posting for the sub
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post #20 of 542
5/5/12 at 12:46am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radodrill View Post

could you then perhaps post the part list, circuit diagram, and code (if applicable) so that those with enough of an electronics background can make their own?

Let's see once I have verified the board design, completed the code and everything is working as planned.
Quote:
Originally Posted by radodrill View Post

I may be interested in making a PWM version wink.gif

It would be sad to degrade the performance by doing that wink.gif

If you'd like to drive a large number of fans (e.g. 10 fans) off each channel (e.g. total 40 fans), that could easily be achieved by adding some buffered extension boards.
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