PS3 Fan Fix V4.2

made GoToChkn's circuit....errrm, fundamental flaw? @v1, 3.3v get discharged accross R1 (10k) straight to fan, so as long as fan has 12v, the V from V1 will cause the fan to spin pretty fast, even WITHOUT the chip being in the circuit....is this a bad design, or am i being thick?...

 

ok i was being thick, id forgottern the 2nd cap, as soon as that was in it kicked into life! .....running off 3.3V was bad, and loud, so i tried running the same circuit off of a 5v regulator, and hey presto, at room temp, it sits at 27% duty cycle...pretty damn quiet. and if the temp gets high it steps up accordingly up to 60% (but that is SERIOUSLY hot)

got to hand it to GoToChkn, its a very clever circuit...and will be being implemented

 

Cool...just so I know, what version of the PS3 do you have?

Also, can you give me the specifics of the circuit so I can design a PCB for those who want it?

 

ATM ive tried it with the 60GB fan and the 40GB fan, gonna try it with the 80GB fan tonight. (all fatline)

Its exactly the same as GoToChkns one except add a 5v Vreg to power the IC (ive used NE555) ive spliced it onto the 12v fan supply line.

I used:
NE555 - IC
L7805 - Vreg
10k - R1
4.7K - R2
100k @ 25 - Thermistor (labled 85k on GoToChkns design)
0.1uF ceramic caps - C2 & C3 (no c1, looks like he might have deleted it)

If ive got time ill draw up my own diagram in multisim and post up. but sshould be everything anyone needs above.

EDIT: changed 47k, should be 4.7k

 

When you said you had "forgotten the second cap" did you mean C2 from his diagram? If so, it should not be needed...it was just to stabilize the unreliable "power on" signal we were using back then. Even the ne555 should be stable with a 5v vreg.

I'll have to try this out over the weekend...funny, once I moved past it, I never thought of applying the improvements from my pot-based design to his thermistor design. I might even give it a go on my slim...at 3.3V of course.

BTW...you seem to have access to a few more PS3s than I do, so perhaps you could answer me a question...

Are all the fan connectors on the units that you have worked with the same? I mean, are the plug/sockets identical, and the color scheme/pinout the same? The reason I ask is because I found a source for the connector for the fan in my old 40GB model, and I am going to check if it is the same thing as in the slim...if I can confirm that the 60GB and the 40GB have the same connector, and, if the slim has the same connector, then it is relatively safe to assume that all PS3s that are not within the 1-year warranty use the same plug, and thus I can make a plug-n-play design.

 

i forgot the cap labled C3, it WONT work without it. if you remove C2, it'll just mean you wont be feeding clean 5v into the NE555 (all tested on a scope)...yeh, ive got access to some 40's and 60's, they are all the same. i havnt had a look at an 80 yet. but when i do i will. i cant see a reason why sony would change the connector? its just a standard 3-pin

In your opinion where is the best place to put the thermistor...bear in mind it is sensitive, so dropping it on the RSX would just cause the fan to whack up, because thats always going to be "warm". i was thinking of using thermal paste and sticking it to the heat sink somewhere? i cant imagine the ps3 will ever need more than 40% duty provided there is good heat transfer. and for the most part 20% will be sufficient, so im looking for somewhere in the ps3 that is at about 30-40deg under normal load..

 

I have already mounted thermistors inside of my system as part of my (now aborted) Auto-JB project. I used Arctic Adhesive to attach one to the center of the base of each heatsink (on the fin side of course). Yes, it will be a lot warmer than most places, but that can be adjusted for by changing resistor values...and it should give a nice reliable sense of how hot each chip is getting. Plus, being mounted on the other side of the heatsink base means that the temp should be somewhat stable (assuming that chip heat output stays the same).

Why would sony change the connector? Just because...sony does a lot of things "just because".

Oh, as to C2...that is the reason I always use TLC555s, even on 5V setups...it is designed to run on dirty power, low voltage, high voltage, even changing voltage in some cases. The price difference between the NE555 and the TLC555 is the cost of the cap, so you get all those other features for free plus you save board space.

 

ahh i see, im not clued up at all on 55 chips, infact this is my first endevious using them....

if i wanted to alter GoToChkns design to make the duty cycle lower at room temp, what compenent would i need to adjust? mainly because i want to "fine tune" it to get it as quiet as possible. atm it never speeds up, which is telling me its never getting hot, so is running too high. id like to slow it down a bit. also i dont think ill ever need the higher end of the duty cycle range....ive glues my thermistor inbetween the heat pipes on the heatsink, seems to be a "cool" place rather than a hot place.

 

I'm not much of an electrical engineer, but I think that a change to R3 should change the range as well...but I'm not really sure on that; as you see, I don't use pin 5 at all in my design...and this might be the first time I have ever seen someone use it with a resistor instead of a capacitor. He is almost using the chip in reverse...I used the output pin as the output, and he is using the discharge pin. I connected the discharge pin to variable resistance...if I didn't know that it works, I would think it doesn't.

Here is the manual for the TLC555...Pages 9 & 10 might appeal to you...page 9 has a poorly designed PWM circuit that is easily adaptable to almost any task (as long as you don't need square waves). Page 10 has the instructions for adapting it to any task.
http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tlc555.pdf

[edit]
just looked at his design again...I think I know what he is doing...maybe.

Try putting a resistor in line with the thermistor. Something in the 30k-50k region should do the trick.

 

thanks, ill give it a try when i can do some more proto-typing at work.

I should be getting a look at an 80gb this week, and ill post up.

ive got some pics that ill upload aswell at some point.

thanks for the replies

 

I have now confirmed that my 40GB Fat PS3 and my 250GB Slim PS3 both have the same fan connector, and the same pin-out. The only difference is that the fat uses 5V pulses of PWM, while the slim uses 3.3V pulses.

Also, I found that it is easy to get at the fan connector on the slim...two screws remove the power supply, and then it is out in the open and easily accessible.

I will have a couple new PCB designs within a few days to allow for the creation of plug-n-play units.

[edit]
Just submitted the design for a plug-n-play unit to BatchPCB; it is going through the bot now. It is the fully-internal design that is just set and forgotten; I'll design the version with a remote POT soon, and maybe even something using a thermistor (although the thermal epoxy is so much more difficult than soldering that plug-n-play would make little difference)

[edit2]
Here is a new design...this one is plug-n-play (or it is once it is soldered together anyway). This design is all internal...set the trimmer and forget about it. Full parts list and instructions are on the batchPCB site. I can make these up, but I need a lot of lead time, as I don't have any of the PCBs on order yet...and they tend to take 3-5 weeks to get once ordered. Similar design, but with a remote POT coming soon.
http://www.batchpcb.com/index.php/Products/51161

 

ok, done more testing, seems that putting anything in series with the thermistor just alters the range response, ie put a big resistor in series and you get very little chnage with heat....starting duty cycle is unaffected...


BUT if you change R3 on GoToChkns design you can alter the starting duty cycle, after some playing the correct value for R3 is NOT 4.7K but ~6.7K THIS IS ONLY FOR A 40GB FAT MODEL, this gives about 35% duty cycle, which for some reason on the 40gb fan is quite quiet, ranging to about 60% duty cycle, which should keep anything cool, im gonna do some extended gaming tonight to test the usefulness of these circuits... i havnt tested it with any other fans, am going to crack open a 60 now and do some playing and come up with some values that work....

for the 60GB model the R3 value should be about 2.7k, but is ok upto 5k....for that reason, the ones i make for the 60gb version will have a tiny 5k pot in place of R3, so you can adjust a bit....

when my 80 arrives ill let you know how that differs...

 

[update]
Looks like I got a few more PCBs shipped to me today...now I can stop searching for the PCBs I lost while moving (there are still two unaccounted for). Amongst other things, there are another 16 PS3 fan controller PCBs. I should have these by the middle of next week. I already have another order placed, and it contains 50 more PCBs, but it will be at least a month before I see those.

If you are dealing with a lot of PS3s and you don't mind some soldering, here are the links to order the PCBs yourself; the instructions are on the pages. One link is for a unit using a trimmer pot (all internal). The other is for the original design, using a remote POT, and with room for a high current VREG if you choose to use a low resistance POT.

http://www.batchpcb.com/product_info.php?products_id=47799&check=efc8a7cb27bdb1a1f34ee53487d6a435
http://www.batchpcb.com/product_info.php?products_id=51161&check=d2ca9ec96ee95e4f857b62a85f3bf648

 

Killerbug, is there still an option to buy one of these pre-assembled? (I'm terrible with a soldering iron)

Cheers,

Reptile_16

 

Killerbug, is there still an option to buy one of these pre-assembled?
would love to be able to get one for my 60g Phat.

send PM and let me know the details. thanks

 

I am still waiting for those PCBs...with luck, they will be here by the weekend and I will have 16 more pre-made controllers available for people (the big shipment of PCBs is still at least 3 weeks away).

At the moment, I don't have any preorders scheduled because of the delays that batchPCB keeps giving me...but I will start a reserved list right now:

Reserved orders from the next batch of 16:
Reptile_16
Oddious

The general rule of thumb is that shipping inside the USA is $5.20 for priority mail, and shipping abroad by air mail is usually about the same cost, just much slower (however, some countries cost a lot more). The controllers are $20 each for either slim or fat design.

 

Update -
I got 28 boards, but is looks like most of them are bad. I will be finding a new supplier...two months to get a batch of defective boards is simply unacceptable. I made up 6 controllers using a few of the boards that looked perfect, but only two of these worked. Reptile_16 & Oddious get first dibs on these. I can't make any quality promises. They worked through testing, but I really don't trust these boards and I will be tossing the rest of them out I think. If you would rather wait about a month for me to find a new supplier, submit the design, and wait for shipping (or if you just want to take the design to a local nerd), I would understand.

Very annoying...I might have to jack the price up to $25 to cover the losses on this order

 

Hey guys i am following this thread for awhile and tested the 555 circuit on an breadboard with wires hanging out of my ps3 , it works great, but i just love testing and had another idea.

i use the ps3's pwm output as input on my circuit and have c3,r1 and P1 to control how much those pulses are extended, this way if the ps3 thinks it's too hot it will adjust the pulsewidth and my circuit will just follow.
with P1 short, the output pulse is same as input, and with P1 at max, output voltage was measured at 2.2V (ps3 just turned on)

all components are small, including the electric capacitors.
tested it on my 60GB phat


REG = TS2940CZ 3.3V (regulator)
C1,C2 = 10microF/16V electric capacitor
C3 = 470pF
R1 = 4K7
P1 = 47K
Diode = 1N4148
IC = cmos 4093

i was allready told i was overdoing it, so don't try this at home

 

It is an interesting circuit; if it works with other systems than the 60GB, it might make a good alternative to the thermistor-based fan controller designs. It looks like it should work with other systems, although it may need some slight tweaks to component values...it seems like the circuit you describe would be better for a slim; since the slims run on 3.3V fan signal pulses, while the fats all use 5V pulses (at maximum duty cycle of 66%, this reads as 3.3V on a multimeter). Then again, the fans in every fat I have seen are made by delta, and they may have used some of the circuitry from their retail 4-wire fans that support pulses anywhere from 3.3V to 12V. Of course, I have no way to confirm this without buying one of every fan model and then risking burning them out with testing...the datasheet was not published.

Personally, I am sticking with the manual control; the YLOD is a result of changing temperatures, and it seems that the whole idea of PWM control is to have changing temperatures. I prefer to just keep the system as close to room temperature as possible without the fan being so loud that it is annoying. Granted, your design should reduce the severity of temperature fluctuations, but they will still be there...and I am taking no chances. In fact, one of the new designs I am going to order as soon as I find a trustworthy PCB maker is going to have an internal trim pot...just set the fan speed as high as you can tolerate and leave it there. Of course the other design still has a POT in case you want to be able to turn down the fan while watching netflix or whatever. BTW...both designs will be plug-n-play...well, open the case, plug, close the case, and then play...but still better than soldering, and 100% reversible.

 

i looked at the leaked schematics from the ps3 and IC4002 that outputs the pwm pulses is running on +3.3V_EVER , don't see +5V MAIN on the powerport.
that's why i used 3.3V

and like i said, don't try my idea, it's over the top