.:: ~ PROJECT: BLU ~ ::. pics, pics, pics

Me thinks that after this mod he will be [H]ard of hearing...

and I though my 4 x Tornado's were bad.

You are crazy and I like it! :D
 
.:: IV. Power ::.

I’ve spent the last week attempting to find a solution to power those blowers. I wanted to power them to the 48v which made things difficult. I tried to find some power supplies on ebay but instead an interesting option arose. Under the recommendation of some smart people I’ve decided to build a pulse with modulator to vary the speed and power the whole mess with a modified transformer I fished out of a microwave. The microwave transformer was recommended because it is extremely heavy duty and can supply more amperage that I’d ever need. One problem though. I only need 48v, my microwave transformer supplied 2000v. So I found some instructions online on how to rewind a microwave transformer to supply lower voltages at higher amps. I’ll be removing the secondary winding and rewinding it with 13 gauge enameled magnet wire. Here are some pics.

The freshly liberated transformer on a text book for scale. This damn thing weighs at least 10 pounds.
DCP_1139.jpg



Removed the insulation paper from the secondary. The thick wire is the 120v primary the fine wire is the 2000v secondary. That’s what I have to remove.
DCP_1142.jpg



Started at it with a hacksaw.
DCP_1144.jpg



After 1 hour of sawing I made it through.
DCP_1145.jpg



This is when I realized all that sawing was for nothing. I simply pulled out my jig saw and lopped the whole mess off.
DCP_1146.jpg
 
I then hammered a ratchet through the secondary winding hole and WAM! the windings came out.
DCP_1148.jpg



The fruits of my labor.
DCP_1149.jpg



Next step is to rewind it to 48v. I’m heading downstairs to do this right now so if you don’t here from me in a day or so assume I was electrocuted.
 
Wow that is awesome! GL on the not getting electrocuted:D Those blowers are... i cant describe.... too beautiful for words *tears well up in eyes*
How loud are those beasts? Also, i love your witty commentary, its neat to see an awesome case mod and cool writing!
 
apHytHiaTe said:
Wow that is awesome! GL on the not getting electrocuted:D Those blowers are... i cant describe.... too beautiful for words *tears well up in eyes*
How loud are those beasts? Also, i love your witty commentary, its neat to see an awesome case mod and cool writing!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the praise. Don't know how loud the blowers are. Thats why i'm building this transformer. hopefully i'll know soon.
 
I’m beginning to regret my decision to wind my own transformer. I cannot imagine a harder task (except perhaps passing a chicken bone). I’m winding the secondary with 13 AWG enameled wire so envision if you will trying to thread 80ft of clothes hanger wire through two holes and wrapping it tightly around a square pole. The positive news is that I managed to wrap enough wire in 4 hours to test my transformer and it seems to work. I managed to get 13.8 volts from 10 windings and my house has not burned down. So all in all I’ve scored a small victory for geekdom. This battle was not won without caveats. After running it for 5 minuets the transformer got slightly warm. This concerns me because this is only 14 volts under no load (except my multi-meter). In operation it will be putting out up to 48v @ 6-7 amps so I may consider heatsinking (<<bad verbed noun alert!!) this baby. If any one has any bright ideas on making that work let me know. Oh yeah, more pics.

Just finished the first windings W00t W00t!!!
DCP_1152.jpg



The 80ft of copper wire that I’ll need to wind.
DCP_1153.jpg



My first test run at 10 windings. 13.8 volts and I’m still alive to tell you about it.
DCP_1154.jpg
 
Oh man I'm scared..and I'm not even the one wrapping copper :D

I cant wait to see it fired up. keep that cat away from the intakes.
 
em00guy said:
Anyone know where i can get transformer laquer
Click to expand...

Check this out.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXAU61&P=ML

Informally called "Airplane Dope".
It's intended purpose is for model airplane building, but I'm going to use it to coat the inductors on my motherboard (silence freak). I just ordered some myself, so I don't know the exact characteristics, but I've been told it gets really hard after drying, which is exactly what I/we need.
 
v3rt1g0 said:
Check this out.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXAU61&P=ML

Informally called "Airplane Dope".
It's intended purpose is for model airplane building, but I'm going to use it to coat the inductors on my motherboard (silence freak). I just ordered some myself, so I don't know the exact characteristics, but I've been told it gets really hard after drying, which is exactly what I/we need.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Unfortunatly this stuff only has a heat tolerence of 80 F and i imagine at full load my transformer will get much hotter than that.
 
From the product page

"Sand smooth and clean surface. Use at 70 to 80 degrees (F), brushing or airbrushing with several thin coats instead of one heavy coat."

What they mean by that is that you should apply the product when the air tempurature is close to that tempurature, not that that is the maximum tempurature threshold after dried. I would think the maximum tempurature for the cured product would be much, much higher. I'll look around.

EDIT: Just sent an email to midwest asking about the temps. http://www.midwestproducts.com/consumer customer service.htm
 
v3rt1g0 said:
From the product page

"Sand smooth and clean surface. Use at 70 to 80 degrees (F), brushing or airbrushing with several thin coats instead of one heavy coat."

What they mean by that is that you should apply the product when the air tempurature is close to that tempurature, not that that is the maximum tempurature threshold after dried. I would think the maximum tempurature for the cured product would be much, much higher. I'll look around.

EDIT: Just sent an email to midwest asking about the temps. http://www.midwestproducts.com/consumer customer service.htm
Click to expand...

THats a good point, sorry I read that @ 1am
 
Woopty W00p w00p!!! I did it. After 1 week, two blistered hands, tons of research and a near electrocution I’ve finished the first phase of my power supply circuit. 34 windings of the microwave transformer secondary gave me 50.7 volts DC across a filter capacitor and a full wave rectifier (though it drops to 43v under the load of one fan). Thusly marking my first opportunity to test my fans. Damn these things are powerful at full voltage! With just one fan powered I was ducking projectile dander all over the room. The caveats of many of you proved true, these beasts ROAR! Surprisingly though, there is nearly zero mechanical noise. All the noise seems to come from rushing air. I cannot make out the faintest whisper from the motor. This is positive news because it means some clever ducting will suppress the sound. As usual there are pics and even a BONUS VIDEO of my initial run.

The initial powered test of the finished supply circuit with no load. That’s a 6800uf 100v capacitor above the multi-meter and the full wave rectifier to the right. Under advice from a co-worker I once attempted to discharge that cap by shorting it with a pair of metal pliers. Let’s just say that was the near electrocution.
DCP_1196.jpg



A closer look at the fully wound transformer.
DCP_1199.jpg


A view of my test setup with 1 fan attached.
DCP_1204.jpg


THE MOVIE!!! Excuse the quality. I shot this with the video mode of my 2MP Kodak Still camera. You need quicktime.
http://www.thedigitalself.com/images/blu/DCP_1203.mov

In the passing days i'll be building the speed controller for the fans. If i have time tomorrow I 'll post a video of both fans in operation. Back to the workshop.
 
holy shit dude, i didnt understand ur idea until the movie. Christ you are going to get so tired of that so fast lol, but more [H] power to ya! Where do you plan to mount that thing? and wont this cause horrible EMI or sumthin like that?
 
1. wow....

2. woww...

3. ur gonna need really smart ventillation to quiet those things
 
i wouldn't worry about EMI because it is on a seperate power line.
unfortunatly i dont care for quicktime but i could imagine those blowers are very strong.
 
em00guy said:
In the passing days i'll be building the speed controller for the fans.
Click to expand...

That is key! Keep those beasts at bay! Hmmm... i bet u could put wheels on your rig and let it run all over the room. Watch out cat!!
 
Unbelievable. Anyone who winds his own transformer is definately [H]ard.
 
Morphes said:
holy shit dude, i didnt understand ur idea until the movie. Christ you are going to get so tired of that so fast lol, but more [H] power to ya! Where do you plan to mount that thing? and wont this cause horrible EMI or sumthin like that?
Click to expand...

Thats why i'm building the speed controlor. I'll reserve the full 48v for getting geeky women into bed. Never thought of EMI, I'll look into that. Should be pretty easy to sheild though since the fans are mounted outside the case.
 
All I can say is that I have been looking for fans like that for awhile .... but never could come up w/ a decent easy way of powering them

Hats of for wiring that [H] transformer.... damn that is so 1337...
 
lentic said:
All I can say is that I have been looking for fans like that for awhile .... but never could come up w/ a decent easy way of powering them

Hats of for wiring that [H] transformer.... damn that is so 1337...
Click to expand...

Thanks...There are easier ways to power them. 48v PSU's are frequently listed on ebay I just wanted the experience of winding a transformer. What will be complex is constructing the speed controller.
 
em00guy said:
Thanks...There are easier ways to power them. 48v PSU's are frequently listed on ebay I just wanted the experience of winding a transformer. What will be complex is constructing the speed controller.
Click to expand...

The experience of winding a transformer! What are you crazy I have done a few much smaller ones myself but damn I would happily pay good money to avoid that experience!
 
I'ts gonna be a while till the next update whilst I build the fan controller so I thought I'd post a teaser. My brother created this concept, upon seeing it I messed myself and I hope you will all meet with the same misfortune.

project_blue_concept.jpg
 
that has to be one of the most functional, coolest mods i have ever seen. ever.
now all you need is cones on the turbines so it looks like the SR71 engines...

and i hope you have some sick overclocking to go behind all of that air flow.

EDIT: hmm, duley AMD64 overclocked? + X800? wit northbridge/southbridge/ram watercooled? insane potential, but i dont know what you could put in there to make that much heat. thos blowers could keep a 5.0 mustang with the throtal jammed open ice cold...
 
apHytHiaTe said:
way off topic, but i dont think a64's have a southbridge.
Click to expand...

Sure they do, Your thinking of the displaced memory controller. It's tipically on the northbridge in most mobos but a64's have on chip memory controllers. So technically they have a bastard stepson of a northbridge.

EDIT: hmm, duley AMD64 overclocked? + X800? wit northbridge/southbridge/ram watercooled? insane potential, but i dont know what you could put in there to make that much heat. thos blowers could keep a 5.0 mustang with the throtal jammed open ice cold...
Click to expand...

I'm embarrased to admit that i'm running an athlon 1800+ and my mobo does not even have mounting holes. I plan to upgrade after i finish the project but since this is my first water cooling attempt I decided it would be best to experiment on antiquated equiptment. If i fry my mobo and/or athlon I'll only be out ~$75 USD. If i fry an A64 i'm out 2 months rent.
 
em00guy said:
but since this is my first water cooling attempt I decided it would be best to experiment on antiquated equiptment.
Click to expand...

I was wondering if you were going to simply air cool the box or if water cooling was to be implimented, now I know.

So where/how are you going to mount the radiator?
 
I received my airplance dope (laquer - Aerogloss) about a week ago. I applied some to the inductors on my motherboard, let it dry for 24 hrs. I booted up, and there was no sound coming from the mobo. Alright, sometimes I can BARELY hear some noise, but it's easily 4x less than what it was before. That's with the sidepanel off. :cool:

I'd highly recommend this stuff. Midwest Aerogloss.
Havn't heard back on the temp. rating yet, but my motherboard hasn't cought on fire :) ... yet. :rolleyes:

EDIT: oh, and that mockup looks badass :)
 
Quicksilver said:
I was wondering if you were going to simply air cool the box or if water cooling was to be implimented, now I know.

So where/how are you going to mount the radiator?
Click to expand...

they will be 2 12" radiators mounted horizantaly across the left and right inside of the case. the blowers are designed to blow through them

I received my airplance dope (laquer - Aerogloss) about a week ago. I applied some to the inductors on my motherboard, let it dry for 24 hrs. I booted up, and there was no sound coming from the mobo. Alright, sometimes I can BARELY hear some noise, but it's easily 4x less than what it was before. That's with the sidepanel off.

I'd highly recommend this stuff. Midwest Aerogloss.
Havn't heard back on the temp. rating yet, but my motherboard hasn't cought on fire ... yet.
Click to expand...

i may have to get some now.
 
the only other thing that could make this "cooler" is if you had the massive blowers cooling the coils of a vapor cooling set... hell you could take an old AC unit and take it apart and throw it in the case, or a dehumidifyer would work too. you could easly keep the whole inside of the case at 0c or below, just because of the airflow.
 
em00guy said:
I'ts gonna be a while till the next update whilst I build the fan controller so I thought I'd post a teaser. My brother created this concept, upon seeing it I messed myself and I hope you will all meet with the same misfortune.

project_blue_concept.jpg
Click to expand...

*splooge*

...now where are my cigarettes?
 
I finally found some spare time this week to work on the pulse width modulation circuit to control the blowers. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, pulse width modulation or “PWM” is the practice of modulating the width of pulses...seriously though, the principal is much more elementary than the moniker implies. My fans are rated for 48 VDC, so in order to run them at half power we mimic 24 VDC by sending a pulse of 48 VDC for half the time. These pulses are typically measured in thousandths of second and the width of the pulse and with lack of pulse is referred to as a duty cycle. So a 25% duty cycle would give me an average of 12 VDC and a 100% duty cycle will give me the full 48 VDC. Anyway the circuit I constructed was from a schematic given to me by a gentleman named Gary that runs this site: http://www3.telus.net/chemelec . He has tons of useful circuits including an Anemometer circuit that I might use to measure the CFM ratings for my blowers. This guy is an electronics guru; he’s pretty much walked me through the entire construction of my power supply and transformer. GO THERE NOW if your interested at all in hobby electronics.

The actual construction of the circuit has gone quite well. I had a few minor issues and have procured several welts on my forehead from exploding capacitors that I’m quite proud of. For my next feat I will attempt to etch my first printed circuit board for that fresh, clean I’m a wannabe electrical engineer feel. So whatever dangers I dodged by not electrocuting myself I will surely encounter again when attempting to mix ferric chloride. But such is the song of the geek. Anyway the PCB is later for now here are some pics of my PWM build.

This is the schematic I got from Gary. It’ is the standard PWM circuit on his website here: http://www3.telus.net/chemelec/Projects/PWM/PWM.htm modified for high voltage, high amperage operation.
PWM-Higher Voltage.jpg



Running one fan @ 50% duty cycle. My first successful non-capacitor exploding test run of the complete circuit. Believe it or not those fan blades are spinning. I guess my camera isn’t the stinky piece of dog leavings I’ve often accused it of being.
DCP_1207.jpg


Here’s a shot of the bling stereo knob I got from radio shack. You can also see the breadboarded <<??? circuit to the left. I had to change the heat sink later on that mosfet.
DCP_1208.jpg



Under dual fan operation the mosfet gets quite warm so as a precaution I liberated a nice aluminum heat sink from an old AT power supply. Here it is adjacent to fanzilla.
DCP_1213.jpg



Here are both fans running @ the maximum of 99% duty cycle with a 10 VDC drop. I took an amperage reading and both beasts only draw a combined 4 amps.
DCP_1217.jpg



I have exams all week but next weekend I’ll be etching the PCB for this circuit. I also have a small surprise design modification that you’ll find interesting. But little girls never tell. Have fun. BTW no thanks to all you folks I had to upgrade my web hosting. You lurkers are costing my $240 a year. Good news is the pics should load faster.
 
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