Fan Controller... Controller

H

Holu

n00b
Joined
Jan 6, 2006
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45
Alrighty, looking at a possible project.

I've always loved the idea of those switch & LED Baybus that controls fans - however my case has a built-in LCD control panel for controlling fan speed. The bad part is, I cannot fully turn off the fans (which produce the in-case lighting, at that), and fans + lights = aggervated 2AM shutdown :p.

So my question is this: Would it be possible, and somewhat "newbie-friendly" to produce one of these baybus', and have it wired with the onboard controller? AKA the Switch is somewhere between the Fan and the Controller, deciding if power goes through or not. If the switch is "on", the Controller is able to change its speeds and whatnot, but when it is "off" the Controller looses the signal, and the fan turns off.

It seems to me that i would just wire the switch inbetween the two, but alot of my "seems to be" are wrong :p.

Thanks!
 
yes, just put a switch in between the controller and the fan, intercepting power to the fan.
 
Alrighty, i'm starting the brainstorming process here.

Heres the wiring diagram i have thusfar. (Note: There will be (hopefully) seven of these switches, exact copies of this circuit, on the bus.)
152239845_85f85d3787.jpg

(Only the part between the two male connectors will be the fanbus, i just have to make the female-female cords too :p)
I opted to make seven circuits because I want to retain full functionality of the Fan Controller.

I cant find any Female or Male 3-pin connectors though -_-'. Any ideas?

Hrm, when i did my diagram on paper, i only designed it for Power and Ground... What is this yellow thing, and how can i successfully incorporate it into my design?

What type of wire and such should i use, btw?

Thanks for the help, btw! :D
 
Mohonri said:
Another option would be to have a switch that cuts off power to the whole fanbus. That'll turn off the fans and lights, too...
Click to expand...
Really not sure why yet, but cutting the power to this fanbus cuts power to the entire computer.

This controller does house all the activity lights, system speaker, etc... :p
(I'm just going to tape the LCD screen or something at night :p)
 
I just read that some fans have a yellow coord to monitor RPMs and such...

If thats the case, i can just run it like the ground straight through, right?

If only i can find all of these parts, I think i'm ready to build, unless anyone can suggest a good addition to my diagram/find a problem ^_^.

(BTW, I am trying to get all the parts I need from one vendor. Currently I have been shopping on Jameco.com, however i just cant find these molex pins and i dont know what i need :p)
 
Is there not a power cable just for the fanbus? You said you'd need to do it 7 times? If the bus contains all of the other internal controls with it on a common circuit board, then yeah... you've got a big project...
 
Since i want the Controller to control the voltage/fan speed, I cant run everything from one power source. I have to run power for Fan #1 from the #1 slot on the Controller. The controller has one central power source, though :p.

Fun fun fun.

Are the .100 3-pin Molex's commonly used for fans polarized or non?
 
Holu said:
Really not sure why yet, but cutting the power to this fanbus cuts power to the entire computer.
Click to expand...
That's weird--is your power button on the fanbus, too? That's the only thing I can think of that would mess things up like that.

Your wiring diagram looks just fine electrically. If your fan doesn't have the yellow or white wire, you don't have to do anything with the yellow wire coming from the controller. Don't bother to ground it--just let it float (but put heatshrink/tape/whatever on it to keep it from shorting out something else!).

I don't quite understand why you're doing all the male/female/male/female adapter stuff. When you make the switch, just put a female connector on one end, and the male connector on the other, and plug everything in the only way it fits.
 
The fan controller has male connectors on it.

I have no cable to connect the Controller to my new fanbus, so i thought i would just put a male on the fanbus too. I can switch it around, but it'd be the same thing :p.

I have to fabricate the wire from the Controller to the Fanbus, though I could just buy one, but I'd say its cheaper to just make one.

The Fans will be connected unmodified ^_^.

I'm still trying to figure out the power thing :p.
 
So why don't you do it like this:
Code: 
Controller____|-  =|_____switch____|-  =|_____Fan
              M    F               M    F
Since the fan already has the female connector, and the controller has the male connector, you won't have to change anything on them (as you already planned). All those extra connectors you have won't do anything beneficial. Unless I'm not understanding you correctly...

 
Mohonri said:
Controller____|- =|_____switch____|- =|_____Fan
M F M F
Click to expand...

That is in a way what i'm doing.

However, i must have a cable running from the Controller (at the front of the case) up to the Switch bay. Any 3-pin mountings ive ever seen have been male, for some reason, thus I thought I would put male connectors on the switch bay. Thus, i would need a female-female cable to connect the two.

Or, I could put a male on the switchbay, and connect the two with a standard male-female cable. Its basically just a way to connect the two without hardwiring them, so any future moving will be easy ^_^.

Would there be any benefit to making a male-female cable, or a male-male cable, or do either one of them do the same thing in this case?
 
Holu said:
Any 3-pin mountings ive ever seen have been male, for some reason, thus I thought I would put male connectors on the switch bay. Thus, i would need a female-female cable to connect the two.
Click to expand...
Maybe this will clear things up: anything that is supplying power via a 3-pin connector will supply it with a male connector. Anything consuming that power has a female connector. Since your switchbay is consuming at one end and producing at the other, it should have a female connector at the end that connects to the fan controller, and a male connector on the end that goes towards the fan.

The reason you've only seen male connectors on any PCB is that they're always sourcing power for something else (like a fan). It's pretty much standard. You could take the switch with a male connector on one end and a female on the other, and use it with any motherboard or fan controller, and any fan (assuming all had 3-pin connectors, of course). No adapters needed.
 
Mohonri said:
Maybe this will clear things up: anything that is supplying power via a 3-pin connector will supply it with a male connector. Anything consuming that power has a female connector. Since your switchbay is consuming at one end and producing at the other, it should have a female connector at the end that connects to the fan controller, and a male connector on the end that goes towards the fan.
Click to expand...
I see. This i did not know :D

Thus, I shall make a standard male - female cord to connect the controller to the switch, and put female on the recieving end and male on the end where the fan connects.

Thanks for your help! :D. *goes to double his connector order*

Btw, how do these crimp pins work? Do i only need need one per female connector?

Currently I am ordering the following parts, in an undetermined amount as of yet :p.

3 Pin .100" Straight Male Polarized Headers

3 Pin .100" Polarized Header Connector

Crimp Pin for Header Connector

Green 5mm Round LED

470ohm 1/2W 5% Carbon Film Resistor

SPST on-off Miniature Toggle Switch
(edit: Links fixed. Apparently my bbcode was rusty ;) )
Am i missing anything/Have anything wrong?

I picked up some heatshrink wrapping and 22 gauge wire at radio shack, as well! The only soldering iron i have is my trusty old Gun-style that i use for speaker wire and such, so i'll be picking up a 40watt wand.

Thanks again for helping. I'm quite excited about my first electrical project inside my case :p
 
hold on a second there, cowboy. You could get away with just buying a single 3-pin extension cord (male connector on one end, female on the other) for each channel, cutting it in half, and splicing the switch into the middle.

Wait....you're trying to do it so there are no wires soldered onto the switch panel? Ah, then I can understand the extra extension wires. you mean something like this:
Code: 
Controller__|- =|______cable______|- =|switch|- =|_________Fan
            M   F                 M   F      M   F
That might be a bit difficult soldering the female connectors onto the circuit board, since they're intended to be on the end of wires. Now I see why you wanted to put all male connectors on the switch. I would recommend either putting long wires on the switches' female connectors and running them directly to the fan controller, or making a bunch of short "dongles" that will plug into extension wires coming from the controller.
 
i think i'll just run long wires to the Controller. It'd accomplish the same goal as having a connector in theory, as I can always modify those long cables if needed ^_^.

Would you have any reccomendations as to how to "mount" this? My case's drive bay covers screw into the first swinging door (Which has to be able to swing out with this attached, should I screw them in normally :p).

I thought about just running all of the wires towards the "hinge" part of the door, binding them tightly, and placing my connectors (to the fans) on the other side of the bay (near the mobo). (And of course leave enough "slack" for the door to open)

Could I hold them there with superglue? :D.

Or is there some standard way this is usually done?
 
BTW, How long do LED's typically last in this sort of usage? They will be "On" most of the time in this situation.

Is there any sort of method that does not involve taking this entire thing apart and such to replace a burnt-out LED? (Unless of course their burn times are silly-high :p)

I plan on having this case untill its no longer supported by anything :p. I <3 my case.
 
LED lifetimes are, as you say, silly-high. 50,000 hours is a typical lifetime.

I can't envision what you're talking about for the mounting without pictures of your case.
 
So you want the switches to be accessible when the door is closed? Yeah, you'll want to run the wires next to the hinge first. I would personally recommend hot glue. It'll stick pretty well, and if you ever get sick of the switches, it's not necessarily permanent.
 
I only need them accessable when the first (solid) door is open. They will be hidden from view with everything else when its closed :D.

I just dont want the assembly to hinder the opening of the second door, Since i open it often (And it contains the locking mechanism for the side behind it :p)

Hot glue it is! :D
 
I do believe I'm ready for assembly, just waiting for the parts.

However, another Idea has crossed my mind.

In my current plans, I will also have a switch to kill power to the entire controller. The bad part is, in theory, this will kill the fans as well (not only the bright screen). Thus when I turn off the screen at night, the computer will be running fanless. This might be a heat problem, not sure yet.

Would there be any "feasable" way to make it so that when I kill the controller, the fans in the "on" position begin running off of an alternate power source? The only way I can think of would be to run a DPDT switch for each fan so that when the switch is "up" it draws power from the controller, when it is "down" it draws power from the alternate source. Thus when I kill the controller, any switches "up" will die, those "down" will continue running. (Would 5V be appropriate for the "down" in this situation?)

Beyond this new crazy idea, I have a somewhat important question about my current build plans.
Where should I wire in my switch to the controller? (12V, GRD, 5V)

Hopefully Heat isnt too much of a problem, but then again the Compter will still be performing tasks at night, or else I would just turn it off! (Downloads, standard maintenance, long processes, etc...) I'm hoping I can find an easy way to do this. *crosses fingers*

Thanks for all the help youve given me so far!
 
As for where you want to put the switch, I would strongly suggest switching both the 12V and 5V lines.
It would be best if you found a single switch that has several channels--look on digikey for a 4pdt switch. In one position, have it supply power to the vfd/controller and connect the controllers outpots to the fans. In the other position, cut off power to the VFD and connect the fans to 5V
 
How do I wire it in with the others, however?

I currently have seven seperate circuits (one for each fan).

What I cannot figure out is how to cut power to the controller (which powers each fan), yet provide power to each of the fans without going through the controller.

A possible Solution I thought of would be to make two of my circuits DPDT. I would connect the ground and "monitor" wire to both the controller and the motherboard (My Mobo provides support for up to two fans), and switch the power line. If the mobo is feeding it power, it goes at the voltage it prescribes, if the Controller is feeding it power, etc. But i dont know if this is safe or not :p. It also is not as "functional" as being able to switch /all/ of the fans.
 
So let me get this straight. You have seven fans, of which two are connected to the controller?
 
No, I have five fans. The controller can handle seven. Thus, I am adding functionality for seven. (I might use them for something non-fan related eventually, as I doubt myself needing seven fans. Five keeps everything much cooler than most other reports.)

As of now, all five fans are connected to the case controller. The Motherboard, however, is capable of controlling two (none are hooked up in this manner yet).

All five fans draw power from the case controller, thus I cant think of a way to switch power to each of them over to five volts, as the only real connecting point for them is the controller itself.

My solution is to hook two of the fans up to /both/ controllers (case and mobo), and place a DPDT switch on the power. Thus, both Ground and RPM Monitoring will be connected to both controllers at all times, however the power will switch between the two. Is this safe? (The fans are 3pin connectors, so I dont have to worry (thankfully) about switching both 12V and 5V for them.)

Edit: For clarification, the remaining fans will be hooked up normally through the Controller. Only Two will be able to be operated by the Mobo Controller. Two should be sufficient for any nighttime cooling.Thus, I will have two DPDT switches and five SPST. And one 4PST switch on the main controller board (to connect both 12V and 5V).

Thanks for pointing out I needed to switch both 12V and 5V to kill power to the controller itself, btw! I was about to just put the switch on 12V. :p
 
Ok, I get it now. You'll need multiple switches for this. I would suggest three DPDT switches. One will control power to the fan controller. The other two will each switch power and PWM sensing between the controller and MB.
 
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