http://www.geocities.com/ic3_p1ck/ seems good too bad it only supports 3 fans, but if we work together on a same project, we certainly can create one that supports more fans and sensors
the problem is I know absolutely nothing about asm programming (the pic language...) PS: in the pic's doc, there is only 2 PWM controllers, how did he manage to to a third one? if he emulates a third, we can certainly do this with 4,5...10... or more
that is totally sweet, too bad the schematics make no sense to me.. to someone that understands that, how much $ in parts does it look like? -scoob8000
USD 38.71 GBP 26.43 I had a list of the values but something happened and the post got lost. That is everything down to the resistors, though. Digikey rates.
That looks like it would be just too easy to modify to use 6 fans. Another OrCad user, I already like this guy...
so it's possible to make the same PIC control 8 fans (it has 8 outputs) can it also monitor them? (rpm monitoring, with the third wire) it is not implemented in the original controller
PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) works by truning the power on and off, rapidly, so I doubt that RPM monitoring would work (according to macroman, it doesn't). Plus, adding RPM monitoring would mean that you would need to sacrifice some temp imputs and/or some voltage monitors. The website said that you could control upu to 6 fans, but he may be in error. If you add aditional fans, you will need to re-write the program. Hope this answers all your questions!
yes, I've juste read this on the website up to 6 more fans, plus 2 others controlled with the true PIC's PWM controllers (that aren't used on the circuit) the 3 fans are controlled by a software emulated pwm. they are connected to the 3 1st pins of a parallel port the parallel sends 0 and 1 to the outputs to enable the pwm outputs we'll need to write a second code, a different one that the one used to control the PIC's parallel port I know a few things about electronics, but nothing about programming (pic and software). Will someone help me on this proect?
I see up to 5 more control outputs, and if as you say, there are aditional 2 PWM outputs, that would make 10 fans. I think that 8 would be enough, and I think that it would be easier to work the general outputs, than to work with the PWM outputs. Sadly, I don't know anything about programming, but I do know a think or two about electronics. Relix and I were trying to do something similar, only with a PCI card instead of a serial port. He is currently working on another project, but if we could adapt the information we gained there...
I agree, 8 fans would be enough, and adding 2 more on the pwm outputs would need to add a new part of code. Using the 5 other parallel outputs would only need to copy some lines of the program I've also seen that we could use the 3 analog inputs used to monitor the fans (not very usefull) to add 3 more temp sensors
8 channel 10 bit A/D converters, hmm, I think you could do alot of temp sencors with that I think that either 16 or 32 are good numbers to shoot for for temp sencors, I like multiples of 2 Wouldn't it be cool to have it relay information on select fans to an LCD? Possibly, we could add a radio remote? These are all ideas that Relix and I came up with. Question: would it be possible to use motorised potentiometers for selecting the speed of the fans, and use the software slider to adjust the pot? That would be the ultimate baybus! Let me know what you think!
I'd prefer 100% software controlled fans, rather than to use the pic to control motorised potentiometers. And the second solution could only support half as many fans, as we would need 2 analog outputs per fan (1 for motor+, and another for motor-) a lcd wouldn't be usefull for me, but the pic has a i2c output (now he have to see if it can be used as an output when the RS232 port of the pic is already used) but why don't you want to use a serial or parallel lcd? since the software that comes with the board supports mbm shared memory, every lcd soft that can read mbm sensors would be abble to send temps and fans staus to the lcd
PS: the I2C output would be used to control a Matrix Orbital LCD, I don't know if other brands are compatible
http://www.workingtex.com/htpic/ so we don't need to learn asm programming, this soft can program a pic with a code written in C I don't know C, but it seems a lot easier to learn
I like having knobs though... I think that we could use a multiplexor, or something to increace the number of outputs. a 2 bit multiplexor can drive 4 devices! That way, we could have the option of having pots and not having them. I2C could be used to control a LCD, but I don't know how to use it, much less interface an LED with it. It sounds like you know much more about microcontrollers than I do. If you want to, email me crjunk@whitesidefamily.net, and we can discuss this "potential" project
I thought that you'd left the topic! I am currently involved with X24 designing something similar (but with knobs ) Basicaly, it would be completely software controlled, but I'm designing in a feature that lets you use a keypad, to control fan and other functions, therefore, I could replace one or 2 keypad buttons with rotary encoders. It would also do 8 fans, and a whole bunch of other "extra" stuff. I can't reveal too much, but think supercharged digi-doc (BTY, it isn't a digi-doc, but it is designed to function somewhat like one, plus a bunch of extra features.) You are welcome to join the development team, (currently x24 and I), just email me, and I will reveal the details. Signing out...
a problem (I think) with the motorized potentiometers: if you turn them manually, the software will still be thinking it is at the initial position example: it is set at 30% by soft, and you turn it to 60%, then you put it to 50% by soft-> the potentiometer is set to 80% so a keypad would we a better choice
