pump on fan controller

H

headala

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
432
Hey, folks. I got a few questions for ya today:

1) I have the swiftech mpc655/dd/liang d5 (new revision, supposed to be quieter than the old) and am a bit disappointed by the noise it puts out. The little switch on the back is really hard to get to in my rig; can I run it off a fan controller? Or does the switch do something other than control voltage?

2) Can I mod it to report rpms?

3) Is there some type of aquasuite thing out there that will work with any pump and monitor flow rates with a flow meter? Would the innovatek fan-o-matic control a pump (though I'd rather have something with a display)?

4) If all else fails, will an aquastream provide enough juice for a storm, gpu, & nb?

Thanks, ya'll.
 
Has anyone ever tried this? I know that pumps are more complicated than fans, and I don't want to break the pump by feeding it too low a voltage.
 
headala said:
Has anyone ever tried this? I know that pumps are more complicated than fans, and I don't want to break the pump by feeding it too low a voltage.
Click to expand...
I tried this pump on a PWM controller. It does not work.

As far as rheostat/potentiometer type voltage controllers, you would have to find one that is rated for the current requirements of this pump, which is 2 amps. There may be some out there rated this high, but I am not sure. Anyone know of one?

From the Swiftech website: A potentiometer allows to adjust the pumps speed from 4800 rpm down to 1800 rpm. At 1800 rpm, the pump is virtually silent. This allows users to tune the pump performance/noise ratio to their particular preference. So it seem logical that an external type controller would work, also. But I haven't tried one, so I can't say for sure.

Jim
 
2A @12V =24 watts :(

My zalman can only handle, like, 6W and my sunbeam can handle 20W per channel (so that's basically 10V or lower, right?). Maybe that would work.

My idea was to use the pump on one of the fan outputs on a fan controller until I can get enough scratch to buy an aquaero or something like it.

Basically, I'm wanting something to regulate the lowest fan and pump speed to maintain a set-able temperature like what the Innovatek Fan o matic micro does with just fans. Basically I want a poor man's aquaero/aquastream but with more power and no computer interface.

Is there any way to do this that you guys (and girl, TN) can think of?
 
Erm, wasn't that pump proven to be spec'd consevatively? If I remember, it was more like 18W on startup. Correct me if I'm wrong. Oh, and don't power a pump with a PWM controller, it's bad enough that their circuits usually supply them with a quasi-square wave.
 
Well, 18W would be better than 24W...where did you hear that? Is there any more info, e.g., nominal wattage, etc?

I wouldn't even think about using a pwm controller; I can't really see the benefits of pwm anyway. Something to get people to buy new fans and controllers? :rolleyes:

So any ideas on what I can use to automatically adjust the power to the pump and fans?
 
I'm sure you could get fancy with a power transistor to get control with a fan controller. The 18W talk would have been when the 650 just came out, and people started testing it.

As for PWM, it's not a gimmick. The fan motors need at least 7V (usually, some 5V) to operate. PWM pulses 12V to them, so they still get the voltage they need to operate, but the reduced pulse width (ie: not full time anymore) lets them coast at other times. Basically you're giving them timed pulses just to keep up the momentum. Starting and stopping the fan basically, but it happens too fast to notice. And you don't need OMGspecial fans either.
 
headala said:
Well, 18W would be better than 24W...where did you hear that? Is there any more info, e.g., nominal wattage, etc?

I wouldn't even think about using a pwm controller; I can't really see the benefits of pwm anyway. Something to get people to buy new fans and controllers? :rolleyes:

So any ideas on what I can use to automatically adjust the power to the pump and fans?
Click to expand...

The Danger Den DDC is the same pump.... here are the specs http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=135&cat=23&page=1

And a PWM controller is designed to allow an electric motor to produce it's full torque potential while varying the rpm of the motor. That's why it's important for RC Cars and similiar applications, where you need full torque at a lot of different speeds. Some people claim that it's better for the motor also, because it keeps the motor from seeing voltage drops, which cause a larger current draw and can lead to overheating. (That's the theory anyway, IIRC)

Using just a pot to adjust the voltage reduces the torque and the rpm.

So.... Get one if you want, or not. With the small size of the motors in PC Case fans and Water Cooling Pumps it wouldn't matter one way or the other. Especially, due to the torque output - pumping water and pushing air at these flow rates doesn't require high torque.


And Ricky has a point about the minimium voltage. At a certain point with a pot the pump or fan is just gonna stop. While the PWM would allow rpm adjustment from full stop to full speed.



 
Actually it's the same pump as the DD-D5.

Thanks for the thoughts about the pwm stuff; I hadn't thought of the torque benefits. It just seems like it would be louder, with power going on and off to the fan so much.

DD's version of the pump is here: http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=175&cat=4&page=1
It's odd, they have a series of graphs and one of them is the pump @24V! That's going the wrong way for me, but still cool. Odd, though, since they have the RPM's of each setting on the built-in potentiometer as the same at 8V, 12V, and 24V. Wouldn't the RPM's be changing? The flow rate wouldn't change if the RPMs didn't :confused:

Anyhoo, I might see if I can't find a potentiometer and do a controller myself. Maybe I'll combine that with an automatic fan controller or something.

Thank you all so much for your input and advice. Let me know if you have any other ideas, aight?
 
you could get some 5v power regulators and some varialbe resistors and make your own control. as the resistance on GND increases, the Vout increases up to Vin.. though most are rated to only 1 amp so you would have to find a higher power one or put 2 or more in parallel
 
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