Homebrew Fan Speed Controller

Posted on Feb 6, 2014

A fan speed controller for your computer fans. There are two sections: one for manual speed control, and one for automatic (temperature dependent) speed control. There is also a third section for a simple LED output indicator. Why not just run the fans off the motherboard fan connectors This is what most people should do. However, there are fans out there such as the Vantec

Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.

Tornado which require more current than the motherboard will supply. This requires an external controller to vary the speed. Some people just want the extra knobs to turn. Why not just buy a fan controller and plug-n-play That is what most people should do. This article is for those who like to tinker and play and burn themselves with soldering irons. It is nice to end up with a working project that you can point to and say "I built that". These projects assume that the reader is somewhat familiar with electronics and has the ability to build circuits from scratch. My projects were built with parts and materials on hand, your available parts and materials may vary. Breadboarding and testing the circuits before soldering is strongly advised. In case you don`t know what I`m talking about, here is a pic of the automatic speed control circuit breadboarded and under test on the bench: Always bench-test the finished project before installing it in your computer to make sure it works and works like it is supposed to. Use whatever construction method suits you best. These projects worked out well for me using a mix of wire-wrap and point-to-point on perfboard. Do not assume that the way I went about these circuits is the only or best way, there are other ways to accomplish the same thing (please post and discuss The simplest approach is to manually adjust the speed by turning a knob. This circuit uses a potentiometer to vary the...

Visit page

Leave Comment

characters left:

Related Circuits

Voltage-to-Pulse Duration Converter

This is a circuit of Voltage-to-Pulse Duration Converter. This circuit is used to convert voltage into pulse duration by combining a timer IC and an OP Amp

Voltage Controlled Oscillator with Varactor

This is a Voltage Controlled Oscillator? (VCO) circuit. This circuit is based on Hartley oscillator. The frequency depend on the value of C1 and L1. The.

Voltage Converter 3V to 5V using MAX660

Voltage Converter Circuit diagram for 3 volts to 5 volts (3v to 5v) using IC (CMOS Monolithic) MAX660 and MAX667-a positive voltage regulator

Voltage-To-Frequency Converter (VFC) with 555 IC

Voltage-to-frequency converter (VFC)? circuit is shown in the schematic diagram below. The circuit employs 555 IC as the core of its function. This circuit .

Voltage inverter circuit design electronic project

Voltage inverter circuit design electronic project using few electronic components

Voltage to-frequency-converter

This circuit consists of a UJT oscillator in which the timing charge capacitor C2 is linearly dependent on the input sigoal voltage. The charging current is set by the voltage across resistor R5....

Voltage to Frequency Converter Circuit

This voltage to frequency converter circuit has an oscillator that is voltage controlled and has a small, 0.5% deviation. IC1 function as a multivibrator a.

Voltmeter To Frequency Meter Using 4528

Normally we often encountered the frequency meter can be used in speed sensor, tachometer, measurement or signal recurring. This frequency to voltage converter (FVC) can be used to change the...

New Circuits

Zero consumption Anti-theft High power Code Switch for E-Bike Batteries

This project fits more for custom made battery casing that can have more space to hide things inside. This switch with few alterations can be used for any other project as well but is designed based on e-bike needs! This project use a clever functionality of....
Ultrasonic distance finder circuit

The circuit described here uses ultrasonic oscillations and operates based on the propagation velocity of these oscillations in the air. Thus, we can easily determine the distance of two points if the time within which the wave travels this distance is....
Simple Metal detector circuit with CD4030

Sometimes the precious metals are hidden too deep and are not detected except with complicated devices. In many cases, however, small pieces of precious metal buried near the surface can be detected by relatively simple means. Everyone is very attractive to....
Fully automatic watering circuit for flower pots

Many times for various reasons we forget or can not water the plants that we have in our homes. And many humidity sensors units just notify us with a beeping sound or with a flashing light, that the pot needs watering. But what if we are away from home? This....
Simple deep searching metal detector circuit

The principle behind a metal detector is really very simple. Proof of this is the circuit that follows, in which it proves that the construction of a metal detector can be done in the minute, with few components that we find very easily everywhere. With the....
Sub-Harmonic Bass Converter for Electric Guitars

The sub-harmonic bass generator is a sound producing unit for guitars. The sound it produces looks very much like that of the bass guitar. The octave generator is sometimes quite unusual since it does not produce any of the usual ways of coloring the sound,....
Echo Depth Sounding Sonar for Boats

In the past the sounding (sea bottom measurement) was done with the "bullet", that is, with a heavy lead object that the seamen plucked into the sea hung from a calibrated rope. As soon as the "bullet" reached the bottom, the depth appeared directly from the....
100W HiFi Audio Amplifier Circuit

This Amplifier was designed to have the following specifications: Distortion less than 0.1% at full power of 100W even at 20KHz. Power has to be attributed to an extended bandwidth. The output transistors must be protected against short circuits. The power....
Plant-Pot Water Level Indicator Circuit

A series of LEDs serve to alert the gardener when plants need water. Using two conventional digital integrated LEDs and a series of LEDs, we make a very useful device for gardening. The device detects the amount of water in the pot and alerts the grower.....