Fans Please STFU !!!

[minihack]

Hi Rossi1959,
Thanks for the interest for my little project

And hi minihack,

I think both projects take a little bit work and time,
but the point is sharing some ideas and re-invent the wheel mac...

And yes ... your project looks good too
And I'll give that a try ... just for the experience.

I even haven't think about to do something like you did,
but it looks good and my point using the original fans was (and you mention it at the video too)
that they transfer very much air

Hi JBG,

Sorry, I wasn't in any way trying to take away from your great work. I think what you have done is awesome and also the use of the automatic temperature sensing is amazing.

I just thought it was worth linking to an alternative that many people don't think of. There are some problems with my alternative method - not all fans are as easy to take apart as the Apple ones (OMG for once Apple made something easy to hack!!). Indeed, you only find out if a fan is suitable once it has been disassembled. But, if we can find a nice PWM fan that is cheap enough then the re-bodying is certainly a simple enough route to that and doesn't need any knowledge of electronics to make work.

Hacking is a broad church and experimenting with different methods is the way we advance it.

 

[JBG]

Hi there minihack,

No problemo man

Glad you place a message in my mod cause else I never found your idea
And the point is..
Everyone walks his own way, but it's always good too know there other ways too

Peace out

 

[whiskeynipple0088]

great work - wow!
to me, the best G5 mod ever..
I want one.
did you or could you post a schematic?

I reused G5 fans too but by connecting + to 2 leads - had 4 fans wired to my mobo header (but removed it later in fear of drawing to many amps). they worked very well with voltage control on the gigabyte board. But I really a stand alone controller and want the sensors - all 3 - maybe one for the PSU too.

if no schematic - where would one start to obtain such knowledge. ( I have repaired alot of electronics but never build from scratch - always just diagnose and repair)

good work man.

 

[JBG]

Hi there Wiskeynipple,

Thank you very much,
if you mean the schematics of the electronic it's at the end of the first posting (and now here too) Original Fan Control G5_V2.fzz.zip

It's complete for all tree fans.

Just download the .fzz file and open it with http://fritzing.org/download/
If opened click right above on 'scheme' cause the 'breadboard' and PCB are a mess

If never worked with http://arduino.cc it's easy and all the hardware parts are everywhere to get.
Let me know if you got stuck with something and I'll try to help where I can
(let also know if it all works out for you and/or share the results)

PS Nice apple collection you got

 

[whiskeynipple0088]

JBG,
this is the second time I asked you for something that was already posted - I apologize - and thank you for responding. Didnt realize I need the software to open the .fzz file though - thanks for the link.

wow wow and wow - thank you so much for documenting this and taking the time
Im still taking in the schematic - looks like your using 2 sensors controlling 3 fans each. - looks like your 'little update' you added a 3rd sensor

question: (forgive me - im not well versed in schematic reading) .. I did read your post a few times and am still not clear how or if.......
1. does each temp sensor work and control its fans independent of the others? (ie: zone controlled)
2. or is it 3 sensors - and controller responds to hottest signal,.... speeding all (6) fans connected faster?

I would like to run 4 sensors controlling 4 diff zones.
1. CPU bay -4 fans
2. PCI bay - 1 fan
3. HDD bay - 1 fan
4. PSU bay - 2 fans

thanks again - and again........... holy crap this will deff test my abilities

PS - yes I have acquired quite and arsenal - 3 cases were donated to me for my kids build and one of them still worked - cant really use it as its so outdated with the switch to intel

 

[JBG]

JBG,
this is the second time I asked you for something that was already posted - I apologize - and thank you for responding. Didnt realize I need the software to open the .fzz file though - thanks for the link.

No problem

wow wow and wow - thank you so much for documenting this and taking the time
Im still taking in the schematic - looks like your using 2 sensors controlling 3 fans each. - looks like your 'little update' you added a 3rd sensor

Nope ... the schematic I made is using 4 sensors and the software put into the Arduino
controls 6 fans (1 in the drive bay, 1 in the PCI room, 2 as front fans controlled by the sensor on the CPU-Cooler, and the last 2 (rear fans) controlled by the sensor behind the CPU-Cooler for transporting the heat from the CPU-cooler to the outside
I didn't update another sensor, I installed behind the speaker a little sound-module controlled by the Arduino to simulate the start-up-chime (boing) from apple systems
so it needed newer software too in the Arduino

question: (forgive me - im not well versed in schematic reading) .. I did read your post a few times and am still not clear how or if.......
1. does each temp sensor work and control its fans independent of the others? (ie: zone controlled)
2. or is it 3 sensors - and controller responds to hottest signal,.... speeding all (6) fans connected faster?

Each group is controlled by it's own sensor and also settings (potentiometers)
4 sensors, 4 groups, 6 fans 1+1+2+2 (the last 4 in pairs of 2)

I would like to run 4 sensors controlling 4 diff zones.
1. CPU bay -4 fans
2. PCI bay - 1 fan
3. HDD bay - 1 fan
4. PSU bay - 2 fans

That's how this works (PSU is in-depend and has his own sensor)

thanks again - and again........... holy crap this will deff test my abilities

Your welcome ... then I'm afraid this project is to difficult for you and I recommend
a small project for example controlling the fans with op-amps (google)
http://www.eeweb.com/blog/extreme_circuits/junk-box-fan-speed-controller
for example
But you have to make that circuit 4 times then :

PS - yes I have acquired quite and arsenal - 3 cases were donated to me for my kids build and one of them still worked - cant really use it as its so outdated with the switch to intel

Same problem here about the outdated systems...

 

[whiskeynipple0088]

I have to agree (sadly) this is way above my level (for now) - thanks for the link to the simpler stuff - will deff give that a look
but dam I want to do this
thanks again

 

[JBG]

I have to agree (sadly) this is way above my level (for now) - thanks for the link to the simpler stuff - will deff give that a look
but dam I want to do this
thanks again

No problem, just play with Arduino a little if you have the time and a few € or $ to spend
there's gonna open a whole new world for you with possibilities ..

Have fun

 

[eelhead]

This is great work and an awesome thread.
Thanks for posting and sharing this, keeping in the spirit of what this site is about.

Great way of using alt sources for controlling functions in a hack that is native for a Mac.

 

[JBG]

This is great work and an awesome thread.
Thanks for posting and sharing this, keeping in the spirit of what this site is about.

Great way of using alt sources for controlling functions in a hack that is native for a Mac.

Hi there Eelhead and thank you too ... (and all others who make this site possible)