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Fan controller help........

M

Moose777

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
2,741
Ok, I post stuff about fans and fan controllers at least once or twice a month and I'd honestly LOVE some help.

My problem is that ever damn fan controller I buy it turns out to be the biggest piece of shit going.

Last time I had a Cooldrive 6...not necessarily intended as a fan controller but I used it for about a month.

Now I have a Sunbeamtech Windmill and while it looks cool it is by far worse than the Cooldrive. Why?

Well lemm point out the nice things first.

Its a fan controller.
It has the ability to control up to 6 fans.
It looks cool and matches my case.

Now, the bad things.

It doesn't actually control the fans. (I know my fans can go up to at least 3k RPM but the controller limits them to 1600.)
It doesn't keep its memory settings which means that when I turn the computer off and the turn it back on I have to reset the fans, warning alarms, time and date.
It keeps reading my fans between 0 rpm and 750 rpm. And it sounds like they are spinning at that speed.
Fan alarm goes off CONSTANTLY not intermitant when a fan falls below selected speed. But constantly that I'm reduced to wearing headphones all the time so I don't have to hear it.

And these are problems I've had since DAY 1 of owning this.

So, heres what I need.

Suggestions on fan controllers that can control 7+ fans. Suggestions on fan controlers that actually work. And price ranges.

Thanks all in advance.
 
Thats it? Thats all the suggestions?

I'm sorry, not annoyed at anyone here but this fuckin' thing shit the bed this evening right in the middle of Monday Night Mayhem I got through 1.5 maps and we were about to start Alcatraz and I love that map.

Every fan that was hooked up to this controller died on me and the controller is officially dead now, or rather it will be tomorrow when I plink it with the friggin' BB gun.
 
No one else uses fan controller but me an Rott3n? And no one else can make any suggestions?

My rig is down and can't be used because the Sunbeamtech Chromatic Windmill is a POS.
 
Well, I just pulled the thing apart and found out why it doesn't work.

PICT0009_002.jpg

Check this out. This would explain why a few days ago I could smell something burning but couldn't find where it was coming from.

PICT0010_001.jpg


PICT0011_001.jpg

Not entirely sure what they are. I'm assuming they are caps of some sort. But, how hard are they to replace? Is this something that can be fixed or is it completely shot? If they can be replaced and it can be fixed is it something I can fix on my own?

What would cause this? Like I have had problems from the day I opened the package and installed it.

I bought it back in November of 2005 so I'm not sure what their return policy is on defective merchandise. I could try and return it to the manufacturer but again, have no idea what their warranty is or if they even have one.

I've fired off an email to Sunbeamtech since they don't answer their phones. I'm quite disappointed in this company. This fan controller isn't even 3 months old.
 
Down8 said:
What were your problems with the CD6? Just curious, since I plan on using one in my new build.

Hopefully Sunbeam will fix you up. You should have contacted them earlier, if it's been wacky since day 1.

Edit: Just ran across this: http://sharkacomputers.com/aqcomuusbre1.html

-bZj
Click to expand...
Cool Drive 6 problems was the software they ship with it sucks, you can't upgrade it the program crashed on startup. I just wasn't all that impressed with the CD6 at all.

And I did I talked to Xioxide about 3 weeks after I bought it. Then for some reason it started to work after I talked to them so I just kind of let it go thinking it was something I did with setting it up. Then just recently it started acting up again.

As for Sunbeamtech taking care of this I have my doubts. Any company who doesn't answer their phone during normal operating times doesn't get my vote of confidence. I only hope I at least hear from them.
 
1st
I have an Cooler Master Areogate III
and this thing is bad ass.
It's basic enough that you won't fuck around trying to figure out what to do to set a fan speed. It works by adjusting voltage, so it has a nice range of speeds and can control up to 4 fans. It has thermal sensors that you can place in the case and they are damn handy. You can set temp ranges for the probes and a audio alarm will go off an warn you. It can handle 18W per channel.

I have 2 X 120mm Fans, 1 X 255mm Crossflow fan, 2 X 80mm Fans (thanks to Y splitter for the 2x80mm fans) running on mine and it is awesome!

2nd
Your burn out is most likely due to over draw of your fans on the controler. Basicly I would say you had more power draw then the thing could take and poof, Cap takes it on the chin.
 
Majin said:
Your burn out is most likely due to over draw of your fans on the controler. Basicly I would say you had more power draw then the thing could take and poof, Cap takes it on the chin.
Click to expand...
Ooooook......one question....

What the fuck??

I paid what $45 for it.

Now, doesn't Sunbeamtech test these things with different types of fans? If so what are they testing them with? Low end pos fans? One would think they'd design a fan controller to handle a fan with LEDs. And on top of that, LEDs don't draw that much.

And the fans I have are rated for I believe 2800 RPM and this controller maxed them out at 1200 so I dont' beleive I was putting too much of a load on the controller.

I think it boils down to poor quality control and poor craftsmanship.

I could also be off base. But I doubt it.

So, what youa re telling me is that fans with LEDs can't be hooked up to fan controllers? Because that's the only thing that I could see causing the problem.
 
Ok, my fans are DC12V at .48 amp.

The controller specs are:

DC Input: 12 v / 5 v
Output Voltage: 6V - 12V


So, how do I know that they were too much for the controller to handle?
 
Rott3n said:
I use this sunbeam http://www.jab-tech.com/Sunbeam-5-1-4-Rheobus-Kit-BLACK-pr-2530.html cheap and it works. I run 3/120mm fans on #1 control for my rad. 2 /80mm on #2 another 2/80mm on #3 and 2 black lights on #4. Everything works fine. Only complaint is the LED's are a little bright.
Click to expand...
I have the same one and its great. A little bright though? More like blindingly bright. I ended up coloring the LEDs with a sharpie. Now they're just about as bright as they should have been in the first place imo.
 
I vote for the vantec as well. Those things can take quite a bit of a beating and they can do 18W per channel so at 12v thats 1.5A. A panaflo draws 0.1A lets say a high flowing one is 0.5A with a little head room for safety thats easy 8x highflow fans. Soo yah simple but works and just monitor temps by board.
 
So are the fans I'm using too much? Thats what I'm stuck on. I'm not good at math and figuring this stuff out so if they are too much for the controller to handle what fans would everybody suggest?

And I am liking that Vantec one too. But I'd still need two of them. Which really isn't that big of a deal.
 
So, I've decided.

I'm going to make my own simple fan controller. No lights. No whistles. Just knobs with fans connected to them. Unless I can figure out how to wire 8 leds to it but I'm not going to worry about it.

And I'm going to use 8 knobs that came with the fans originally and one of the covers from my case. And I'm gonna do it tonight.

I'll have pics when I'm done.
 
well just incase u change ur mind, id recommend the hardcano 12, saves all the settings even if u power down the psu and its auto settings great, depending on the temp readings the probes recieve the fan rpms speed up or slow down

i use it to controll my 4 radiator fans and works great :)

http://www.thermaltake.com/accessories/hardcano/a1845.htm

oh yeah and just incase u own one of those high speed deltas each connector handles 1 amp :p
 
This home brew thingy is just to get me by. These are the "pots" that came with the fans so I'd imagine they will work.

I used all 8 of them. But, 2 of them may not work.

One I took completely apart to figure out how it cam eoff the plate it was on. I put it back together and it seems to be fine but I won't know till I hook a fan up to it.

And one is missing the little plug thing but I have a spare one I'm going to wire in.

The other thing I might have an issue with is actually figuring out how to wire them into the fans as I've never used them.

Its a 2 wire black and red. Is that power?

I'm assuming I wire the fans to 12v with these? I could be off base and I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Anyway, here's some pics of the homebrew fan contoller. Now to figure out how they are wired in.

PICT0018_001.jpg


PICT0019_001.jpg
 
Well..here it is installed.

Unfortunately, its not hooked up to any of the fans.

Why?

Well the way I have the fans fastened to the case I have the connectors for the controllers hidden. So, tomorrow I get to pull the fans off and adjust them so I can plug the controller into them.

The other problem I have, is the two blow hole fans are shot. Completely. They don't even want to turn on when I put power to them. So...I'll be replacing them hopefully during the week.

PICT0020_001.jpg


It looks good I think. It may need some LEDs down the road but so long as right now they work.

And yes, I know the CD drive needs to be painted. I haven't decided on black or silver. I'm thinking of silver overlays to match the floppy drive.
 
excellent mod mad. you got 8 contollers on 1 bay cover. I love it, hell the hot glue is even clean. Good luck with teh fans. Bet thats a wires mess from hell. and if you can rememver what controller goes to what
 
xdkimx said:
well just incase u change ur mind, id recommend the hardcano 12, saves all the settings even if u power down the psu and its auto settings great, depending on the temp readings the probes recieve the fan rpms speed up or slow down

i use it to controll my 4 radiator fans and works great :)

http://www.thermaltake.com/accessories/hardcano/a1845.htm

oh yeah and just incase u own one of those high speed deltas each connector handles 1 amp :p
Click to expand...

Ive wanted one of those forever, ive read alot of excelletn reviews for it. Just way outta my price range. Prolly when i go pci-x
 
darknite said:
excellent mod mad. you got 8 contollers on 1 bay cover. I love it, hell the hot glue is even clean. Good luck with teh fans. Bet thats a wires mess from hell. and if you can rememver what controller goes to what
Click to expand...
Thanks. I'm proud of it.

The wiring is a nightmare, the leads from each pot are about 3' long each. I'm going to trim them back and possibly make some sort of panel that I can attach to the back of it that they all come out of. I'm also going to make an overlay of some sort so I can easily identify which fan on the controller. I'm also going to mark the wires too.

Hopefully I can have at least some of the fans wired to it by tomorrow. Then I can start on my external hard drive case. I'm going to mount my HDDs in their own case remotely from the computer itself.
 
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