As i've gotten bored and been looking around I came up with an idea. I found out it's not that original and i've been doing my homework. The same kind of idea was asked here but not quite answered in the way i'd like. What I am aiming for is to be able to write my own application to interface with a fanbus to modify the fans speeds without using any microcontrollers. I would rather be able to modify each fan independently but I wouldn't mind if I could only modify the speed of all of them together. I've got general electronics knowledge and I can follow beginner-moderate schematics. I've been looking at digital potentiometers and wondering if maybe they could be used. I also have a good knowledge of programming, i've yet to try and interface with the serial port but I don't have any problems with spending multiple hours reading up on the topic. Now if I have missed a device or schematic like this that doesn't involve any complicated microcontrollers and someone could point me to it i'd appreciate it. I'm a regular over at the Gideontech forums under the same name and my inspiration for the mod was here. I want to make a cd-rom like looking box (more than likely plexi) to sit behind my lcd screen and hold the connections for the fans. That way I don't lose a 5.25 bay and I still retain control over my fans.
without micro's u nuts!? Oh well i once built an entire circuit out of nands just to make my point, (only took 150ish!). Yes you could use your lpt port, a lot of fairly in-expensive DACs would probably be best bet. Each dac has an updown counter (8bit too) driving it, and then you just make sure u use a counter that has a parrallel load. (that way u just strobe one pin and it loads the new data from the computer. That way u can have switches and still load to it from ur computer. I'm sorry if thats not very clear, i've been debugging someone else's asm for the past 4 hours, and the area behind my eyes is hurting.
Yeah, can't say i follow you on that one. I'm more looking to drive it from serial than printer since the printer port is taken up by a printer. The more I think about it the harder and harder it sounds to do it without a micro. I was really hoping that there was some way to convert that data from the serial line into a method to adjust a digital pot without using the micro. I also rather it not have any non-digital pots because I basically want a hidden box to control the fans with software. I'm aware that some of the Matrox Orbital and Crystalfontz lcd's have this as a feature but I rather not toss down more money for an entire new LCD.
Assuming that it is nearly impossible to do it without a PIC how difficult is it to program a PIC. Also is there an easier way then the way it's layed out on the link in the linked forum?
Cheapest way to program a PIC is with a "JDM Programmer" (google it for schematics) these shouldn't cost £2. Programming a PIC is fairly straight forward, as its a RISC there are only 36 instructions to learn! A PIC such as the 16F877 has built in USART, which will do all the serial conversion for u. I am actually designing a tutorial as we speak on doing some fan sensing/control with a PIC, but ur gonna have to wait a few weeks for that
Would it be possible for someone else to program the PIC and then send it to me or would this make it really hard for me to understand how to interface to it and use it? Also, I googled and found make-your-own schematics for the JDM programmer but I didn't find any place to buy ready made ones. Once again i'm not opposed to building it myself but it seems like someone building in bulk could do it cheaper.
I want to build one of those! I have had the idea in my head for a while, but all i could think of was using the paralellport, and it's taken... Serial is much better, as i have an internal COM port there is one problem though... i still haven't gotten a JDM to work... ( i used the PIC16F84... i guess it could do ith with the C series though...)
As if it wasn't complicated enough I had a few more ideas to add to it. Motorized Pots On / Off only plugs for lights The motorized pots would allow for fine tuning of the speeds and an all together cool look when you change the value on the computer and the knob turns . The problem with this is that the computer should always know what value the pot is at. This requires either a motorized pot with an encoder or a resitance circuit and after all of that some way to send the value of it back to the computer. As for the on / off's for lights they would be a simple addition. Just a digital switch. Still controlled by the computer though so that the software can turn the lights on or off on a timer. Just some idea's for it. i'd still just be proud of it in it's original form.
i was actually planning to use it for controlling lights, but controlling the fans aswell could be nice... how will this thing behave at startup? wil it go mad like the paralellport does?
I've noticed that when the computer starts up it does a check of the serial port too. This means that on startup it might do some crazy things unless there is some protection put in.
post info is put on the lpt port by most mobo's during boot. If its just the rs232 port that's the problem u could just use a UART. see www.beyondlogic.com for example. motorized pots pfft. Use a rotery encoder, keeps it nice n digital
bangs head on desk. Ok i've had a hard day, so u might be getting a smidgen of my agression now, but jinkies, use google for crying out loud, a few minuites of learning for yourself would of told you that rotery encoders are those infantly twiddly nobs often used as volume controlls on steros. They use these because a remote controll could just channel up/down and as such it saves having to make a motorised pot, which just look terrible (and often sound worse). As far as schematic goes, each rotery encoder is differn't, see the datasheet for the one you find most suiteable, some can be hooked straight up to an up/down counter.
Hey people. yeah, I've been looking to make a software controller for awhile (see linked thread). I decided not to buy another LCD, as 2 would take up more room than I like and there's only 3 variables etc etc. Um, my research ended with just... http://liquid-nexus.net/fanctrl/about.htm http://vortex.shacknet.nu/thermogamer/ (just measures temps) http://www.electronics-lab.com/projects/pc/021/ Unfortunately they tend to like micros. The most suitable for me is the last, which also uses a printer port. I did have the idea of using 1 of my internal USB ports and getting a USB to Parallel interface. I've got on of these for my serial port to run the LCD and the comp simply thinks it's another COM port - so might work. I can't say I looked into them too deeply though, as uni has been pretty busy lately, but they don't seem as cheap as I thought they would be. With those pyramid temp fan controls out etc, you'd think someone would make a software based fan bus for the consumer market - but what can you do? (Although that's not in the nature of modding I guess )
Sorry I thought that a rotary encoder was something completely different. I'm thinking about not using any kind of manual adjustment so it's not really neccesary. I checked out the schematic for one and it's not really what i'm looking for. I still need to figure out this PIC thing. I'm planning on making a JDM PIC programmer but i've still got to learn how to program them. One question I asked before was if someone else could program one and send it to me or if that would make it too difficult for me to use. Looking less and less likely for me to make one
