Noctua NA-FC1, 4-Pin PWM Fan Controller (Black)

Product Information

You should next ask yourself how much you want to monitor your fans’ performance and if you want a display to do that. Most displays on fan controllers are simple and just tell you basic info, like RPM or temperature. Many fan controllers come with software that lets you control them from an app on your computer. Displays are not strictly necessary, but they can be a nice touch to relay basic info to the user. Tone down the noise levels Besides building desktop PCs, Deep also has hands-on experience fixing software and hardware issues on laptops and desktop computers. Using all this knowledge and skills about computer hardware, he's on a quest to make content that's easy to read and understand for everyone.

Noctua NA-FC1, 4-Pin PWM Fan Controller (Black)

The fan header refers to the port on your motherboard that you can hook fans up to. Most computer fans come in a 3-pin or 4-pin design, each number referring to the number of connector pins. The Corsair iCUE Commander PRO powers up to six case fans and has the ability to run at zero RPM, achieving total silence. There are two RGB lighting channels that leverages iCUE software to allow you to fully customize your PC case, including RGB LED strips and RGB fans. Hell yeah... Great write up. I'm sure there will be plenty more controllers built because of this; I, for one, am going to be putting my bread-boarded controller down on perf-board pretty soon. And once the first one is all done there will be a few more coming behind it. When you are working on a laptop, you might observe variations in the heat produced. This variation in heat dissipation often leads to questions on cooling fans and their speed. When the laptop’s heat is less, there is not much need to run the fan at full speed. However, if the laptop is extremely hot, the computer might even need additional fans. The speed control of cooling fans is a much-debated topic and PWM fans and DC fans are the most frequently discussed solutions. DC Fans or 3-Pin Fans The Noctua NA-FC1 is a tiny fan controller that comes with a single fan header. The controller can control up to three fans thanks to the three-way splitter that comes with it. The controller supports both automatic PWM and manual control via a tiny knob.https://github.com/Mourdraug/FanControl.AsusWMI to interface with ASUS motherboards through WMI methods You just hook it up to one of the motherboard’s 4-pin fan header and you now have a PWM fan control for up to three fans alongside manual control. The controller can also work with non-PWN fans but then it’s limited to manual control via the knob. Because the operating characteristics are selected by hardwired passive components, a simple, low-cost fan-speed controller can be implemented without the need for firmware development. This can dramatically reduce development time for the fan control function. pin DC connectors also run at full power, but your motherboard can limit the voltage going to them, thereby altering the speed.

NA-FC1 - Noctua.at

Setting the duty cycle of the signal to 30% will also result in a duty cycle of 30% for the power, as the large current is just an amplified replica of the tiny current (which is the signal). With EasyTune 5, you get more than just a tool to monitor and control your fans’ speeds. The program also has a bunch of other useful features at your disposal that you probably didn’t know you needed.

The PWM signals on the Arduino Uno (and others based on the ATmega328p, such as the Nano) are generated by 3 internal timers. With the default settings and using analogWrite with a value of 127, this is what we see on an oscilloscope: Fan Control is a stand-alone app. You can leave the files there for use further down the line, or delete them. PWM works by pulsating DC current, and varying the amount of time that each pulse stays ‘on’ to control the amount of current that flows to a device such as an LED. PWM is digital, which means that it has two states: on and off (which correspond to 1 and 0 in the binary context, which will become more relevant to you if using microcontrollers). Use the -c or --config [json config file] command line argument while the app is open to switch config. Create shortcuts with predefined configs. Timer 0 (Pins 5,6) is identical to Timer 2, so we could apply the same settings that we used for it and get an extra output for a fourth fan; however, it is used for all timing functions such as delay, millis, etc. and touching it would cause everything that depends on this to behave erratically, including our Serial output. My code doesn't touch this timer.

to properly control PWM fans with Arduino - Federico Dossena How to properly control PWM fans with Arduino - Federico Dossena

Think of a PWM signal as if it were a beating heart. Rather than being powered by a continuous supply of power (which would ordinarily be the case) our DC fan motor is being fed with pulses of power; it is essentially being switched on and off very rapidly. These on-off pulses are delivered to the motor several thousand times per second, and because the intensity (or width) of each pulse can be changed, so the speed at which the motor turns can be changed. The image below shows how different pulse widths affect the resulting power of the PWM signal: Three different PWM signals showing average voltage PWM Controllers vs. PWM Fans This Cooler Master solution to having way too many cans fans and not enough motherboard headers is as simple as it gets. You receive a box with 10 headers and a SATA power connector to power it all. Using the Dragon Center, you can customize any MSI product connected to your motherboard. This includes monitoring all the stats (CPU/GPU temperature, frequency, voltage, etc.) and fan control. Since the application is ASUS-specific, you can only control the fan speed of the ASUS graphic card. ASUS AI Suite 3 uses Fan Xpert 4 to manage all the fans connected to your motherboard. This also includes all case fans that are connected to the motherboard. But, you should have an ASUS motherboard to access this feature. MSI Dragon Center (For Windows)Note that the official spec says that the minimum duty cycle for the fans should be 20%. Decent fans like the Noctua ones I used in my tests can take any duty cycle, but you should keep it in mind if you're using cheaper fans. RPM detection Corsair iCUE is software that manages all Corsair products on your computer. This software monitors the real-time temperature, creates custom lighting effects to alert you when temperatures rise, and also controls fan curves to change fan speeds. When purchasing or building a PC, most computer cases will house a number of internal fans, many of which run on their own. PC fan controllers allow you to customize your fans and run them the way you want. https://github.com/EvanMulawski/FanControl.CorsairLink to interface with Corsair Commander controllers and Hydro liquid coolers

MAX31740 Datasheet and Product Info | Analog Devices

Twelve (requires CORSAIR RGB LED Hub to connect six (6) CORSAIR RGB fans though the 3-pin RGB header)

Take full control of your fan setup using the Manual Remote. With an easy to use button remote the fan speed can be set to Silent, Balanced or Performance. If you want to vary the speed of DC fans, the only option is to vary the input DC supply. The DC power supply can be reduced below 12 V for lower speeds. There are still limitations in the percentage decrease in the speed of DC fans. All the DC fans are specified with a minimum threshold voltage rating; if the voltage falls below the threshold, the fan starts to stall. For continuous spinning motion, this minimum voltage needs to be supplied. Computers have been using PWM-controlled fans for ages now (they're the ones with a 4 pin connector). This allows the BIOS to change the fan speed according to the current temperatures using a PWM signal instead of changing the voltage of the fan, which means that motherboards are cheaper to make (less voltage regulators), but also that fans are much easier to control, since DC motors won't even move below a certain voltage threshold. In the majority of computers, the left-hand side panel is the one you will need to remove. If you happen to have a computer with a right-hand side panel (they're pretty rare), the instruction are the same once the panel is removed.