FanControl

Prelude

When I bought my antec P180 pc tower, it came with its own fan control, a simple one, a switch that changes the supply to the fan to 12 / 7 or 5Vdc. As it so happens, I enjoy a noise-free pc, the fans run at 5Vdc. No problem. UNTILL, they got worn, dirty, br0ken ect, they now can run at 5Vdc, but can not start up, a common problem with 12Vdc Fans and ppl that try to run them at 5Vdc.. After about 2-3months of switching them to 7V and back to 5V when booting the pc, I decided that it was time for a fan control.

Pre-Dremmel

The donor drive - notice the low screwdriver I have, it's symbolic man!

The seal - it has been br0ken - blurry duck approves

PCB before cutting with dremmel(tm)

2 things to consider when wanting a fan control in the pc:

• What kind of control? Linear or PWM ?
• How to mount it without damage to the cabinet yet still possible to reach it to adjust speed on those warm summer days.

First: PWM, inspired by the work of mhl's fancontrol and that of Giorgos Lazaridis(PCBHeaven)

Second: An old CD-rom drive! take out the inside and we have a nice case that fits PERFECTLY into any normal PC tower. Things that shall be preserved from the CD-rom drive: The case, naturally, and a part of the pcb, the part that has the power connector, thus we now also have an ATX comparable connection to our home-brew, isn't that nice?

It just so happens, that the drive I took apart had small 0 ohm (aprox..) smd resistors on the +5Vdc and +12Vdc line, those we can remove and now have isolated the rest of the orginal pcb from our homebrew. how nice. Should place my own kind of fuse though, more on that later.

I know, simple but brilliant :-)

Post-Dremmel

Comming soon(tm) As I do not have a dremmel at home, only at work.

Update:

Just to prove pit wrong, I DID bring the pcb with me to work, I DID cut it, I DID find a 555 :-)

The actual pcb will have to wait for tomorrow...

I did it!