Second Scythe fan controller to die on me.

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Monkeypillow

Gawd
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
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Just received my RMA a while back. Channel one no longer works, and channel two intermittently fails, producing a loud high-pitched whine to let me know. :(

What other controllers should I look at?
 
I've been using a sunbeam one for about 3 years, and it's been pretty good.
 
I'm only using low speed yates, with two on each channel. Scythe says the controller can handle 1 Amp per channel, so I should be able to use three fans per channel, but it crumbles with just one or two.

Even as I type this now, it has screeched at least four times to tell me that the second channel has stopped functioning. The first channel still does not work.

I paid ~$40 for this thing, plus an additional ~$10 to send it in for an RMA, and I still don't have a working unit. :mad:

edit: it screeched again as I hit submit.
 
Monkeypillow said:
I'm only using low speed yates, with two on each channel. Scythe says the controller can handle 1 Amp per channel, so I should be able to use three fans per channel, but it crumbles with just one or two.

Even as I type this now, it has screeched at least four times to tell me that the second channel has stopped functioning. The first channel still does not work.

I paid ~$40 for this thing, plus an additional ~$10 to send it in for an RMA, and I still don't have a working unit. :mad:

edit: it screeched again as I hit submit.
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The MOSFETs overheat if you actually try to get 1A out of them. I had to add a heatsink to the MOSFET dishing only half that to stabilise it.
 
Lol, I blew one up while trying to run 3 per channel. I forgot to disable the rpm wire for all but one fan per channel. I'm running 3 low speed Yates per channel now without problems. Now I just gotta repair the bad mosfets on the original unit.
 
Hypernova said:
The MOSFETs overheat if you actually try to get 1A out of them. I had to add a heatsink to the MOSFET dishing only half that to stabilise it.
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Why the hell would they rate it at 1A if it can't handle the load? What a POS.

BlueFireIce said:
Are these on 3pin Y splitters?
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Yep.

epicwolf said:
Lol, I blew one up while trying to run 3 per channel. I forgot to disable the rpm wire for all but one fan per channel. I'm running 3 low speed Yates per channel now without problems. Now I just gotta repair the bad mosfets on the original unit.
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Could you elaborate? This might be my issue.
 
If they are 3 wire cables you need to cut or disconnect the RPM wire to one of the fans, the controller can only receive one signal at a time, if you have both hooked up it will start beeping.
 
BlueFireIce said:
If they are 3 wire cables you need to cut or disconnect the RPM wire to one of the fans, the controller can only receive one signal at a time, if you have both hooked up it will start beeping.
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Hmm. Well, I've got them all hooked up with all three cables, but only channel 2 is giving me issues.
 
Monkeypillow said:
Hmm. Well, I've got them all hooked up with all three cables, but only channel 2 is giving me issues.
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That's normal, I had the same problem, I think it has something to do with the fans RPM being close to each other, my other fans were a bit on the "hot" side. Cut or remove the RPM wire on one of the leads to check and see if it fixes the problem, it wont hurt anything and you will still get the RPM reading from the remaining fan.
 
Monkeypillow said:
Channel 1 doesn't work, even with just one fan. :mad:
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What speed do you have the fans set at? Is this on max? Some fans don't undervolt as good as the next and will fail to start up at a low voltage and make the controller beep. Is this a new problem on the new controller?
 
sunbeam rheobus extreme. i just bought one off fs for $15 shipped. cant wait to get it. ive heard great things about them. apparently they handle anything. :)
 
This is good to know since I was looking at the Sunbeam and the Scythe. Which model Scythe was it exactly?
 
ekuest said:
sunbeam rheobus extreme. i just bought one off fs for $15 shipped. cant wait to get it. ive heard great things about them. apparently they handle anything. :)
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It's looks aren't really my taste.

Vyger2002 said:
This is good to know since I was looking at the Sunbeam and the Scythe. Which model Scythe was it exactly?
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Kaze Master ACE. It's the one with the aluminum bezel.
 
OP - any chance you were using a molex splitter to power these fan controllers?
 
Sorry for the delayed response, but Bluefireice is right. Each fan channel should have one yellow wire hooked up, regardless of how many fans are on the channel. So if you have two fans in parallel, one fan has all 3 wires, the other fan should just have two wires (black, and red). If you are using 3 fans in parallel: one fan has all 3 wires, and the other two only have the black and red wire hooked up. I remove the yellow wire completely from the connectors. I have not done any troubleshooting with the failed controller yet, but I'm leaning towards a logic chip failure, since the fans in parallel did not exceed the max current rating per channel.
 
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