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homemade fan controller

F

faceless105

n00b
Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
37
i've read that a 50-100 ohm potentiometer can be used as a fan controller, has anyone else ever heard this or tried it? i'm not to knowledgeable on electronics (though i'd lik eto be), so i was wondering if someone could confirm this for me?
 
I believe that the problem with this is fans require a fair amount of juice, and will burn through most common pots. A single in-line fan controller (like the Zalman fanmate) has a hefty heatsink to help with disipation of the heat due to the current flow.
 
anyone know how to make a DIY fan controller?

it sounds kinda stupid but the reason i wanna do this is for a fully custom case and i want to have knobs that i can purchase seperatly so that they go with the case, lol
 
Just buy a fan controller in the shape that suits your needs.. then when it comes time to mod your case, take apart the fan controller and integrate it how you want it. Adding new knobs is really simple. OR, you can always go with something cooler.. like the VL System LIS2 that I just got. It controls your fans automatically based on processor temp or processor load. (or u can set it manually thru the software) You can set it to do anything. The front is just a VFD screen that displays anything you can think up. Yes, pretty much anything. (voltages, temps, speeds, graphics, animations, custom text, hdd space, os, uptime, network stats, etc.)

vid of mine in action.. =D

http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/?action=view&current=MVI_0532.flv
password = turbo
 
The problem with using pots to control fans is that the lower the speed (lowering the voltage) makes the current draw go up.

The lower the speed, the more juice it's pulling through the pot. The more juice going through the pot, the more it heats up. The more it heats up, the quicker it fails.

You want to use a PWM controller. It's muuuuch cheaper to just buy a premade one and hack it apart than it is to just buy the parts and build it from scratch.
 
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