Fan speed fluctuation and buzzing noise from fans, mobo sensor support

I recently purchased the corsair link fan+ lighting kit and had a chance to set it up today. In the front of my 800D case I have an SP120-hp and AF140 mounted. While the fans are running at max speed there is no other audible noise other than the normal noise the fans make. However, while the fans are under custom control of the link with the AF140 running at ~1000rpm and the SP120 running at ~1200rpm they both make clicking noises. Is this normal for these fans or are they defective?

I also replaced the bottom and rear 140mm fans on the case with Triebwerk TK-123 highspeed fans. When I initially installed the fans the fan controller was on the 1.1.12 firmware. On this firmware the fans would only be partially controlled by the controller. While they wanted to run at 3000rpm +/-10% if I had the controller set at fixed it would run them around 2000rpm. The software was set to run them at 1200-1500rpm. While this was acceptable it would have been nice to be able to drop them down to the desired speed. Within ~30 mins of installing the link I updated the cooling node to 1.2.5. When I installed the new firmware the fans either ran at full rpm or ramped down between 300-800. The software did not allow the drop down to 2000rpm when set at 1500. However, when I used the voltage dropper that came with the SP/AF fans it allowed the fans to run at a constant ~1200 rpm. This method gave me no control over the rpm of the fans and the resistors get quite warm to the touch. I've attached prtscrn of the C-link interface just to show the rpm of the tk123 fans and the lack of control during use. The 1st image both fans are using the voltage dropper. The 2nd + 3rd image show the rpm of the fan on balanced, without the voltage dropper, directly connected to the cooling node, only seconds apart. The 900rpm is not the lowest rpm the fans went down to, it was more like 400 as mentioned previously.

I apologize for the large size of the images. The quality is quite distorted when shrunk down.

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My final questions are, can we expect corsair link to be able to integrate information from onboard mobo sensors in the future? With AISuite II I am able to monitor a large amount of sensors on my sabertooth z77 board. Prior to the link all the cooling info (fans+temps) was in one place. I would have loved to be able to run the fans off the mobo but I wanted to play it safe with the headers on the mobo as these require molex power and the cooling node provides it. Finally, I was unable to find any information on how the link actually controls fan speeds? Is that floating around somewhere on the site?

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/SGTTEMPEST/PC/th_Clinktk123.png

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/SGTTEMPEST/PC/th_asdfasd.png

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/SGTTEMPEST/PC/th_asdf.png

The AF fan is blowing air on the hotswap bay, the SP fan is blowing them in the lower HDD cage. The 2 TK123 fans are mounted as intake at the bottom and back of the case. The TK123 fans are rated at 0.35-1.5A tops so there is a total of 3.28 amps on the cooling node with the 2 corsair fans if they are all drawing max power.

Okay. My questions still remain unanswered.

1. Is it normal for the SP/AF fans to click when the rpm is turned down via the link software as I have experienced or is this a defect with the fans? There doesn't appear to be any clicking noise when using the supplied voltage dropper. However, this doesn't allow for running of the fans at full speed when desired and if I just wanted to drop the speed I would have used the voltage droppers rather than purchasing the link.

2. From updating the cooling node firmware, control for the triebwerk fans seems to have worsened. Before I could at least drop them down to 1900-2000 which was acceptable. Now there is absolutely no control over them. Any rhyme or reason for this or is this just not possible to answer as they are not a corsair product?

3. Also, how does the link control the speed of the fans? Does it not just regulate the voltage supplied to the 3-pin fans as other controllers do?

Okay. My questions still remain unanswered.

 

1. Is it normal for the SP/AF fans to click when the rpm is turned down via the link software as I have experienced or is this a defect with the fans? There doesn't appear to be any clicking noise when using the supplied voltage dropper. However, this doesn't allow for running of the fans at full speed when desired and if I just wanted to drop the speed I would have used the voltage droppers rather than purchasing the link.

 

2. From updating the cooling node firmware, control for the triebwerk fans seems to have worsened. Before I could at least drop them down to 1900-2000 which was acceptable. Now there is absolutely no control over them. Any rhyme or reason for this or is this just not possible to answer as they are not a corsair product?

 

3. Also, how does the link control the speed of the fans? Does it not just regulate the voltage supplied to the 3-pin fans as other controllers do?

1. I don't know.

2. It is hit or miss with third party fans. The H100 (when connected to the Link) will only have a 500RPM spread for my GT AP-15s. When they are connected to the Node it rises to a 1000 RPM spread.

3. I don't know.

Sorry I could not be of more help.

Thanks for the replies! Glad the fans aren't defective but not thrilled about the link not being able to control my fans :( such is life :(

One thing I do find curious is that when not using the voltage dropper (came with the sp/af fans) I see massive fluctuations in the RPM of the fans (the triebwerk fans), presumably because of the pwm/pdm control. As soon as the voltage dropper is installed they run at a relatively constant speed (within 100 rpm). Any idea why this may be? Does the slowing of the current through the resistor negate the modulation coming from the cooling unit? What is being used to drop the voltage? Just a resistor? and if so what kind?

Software Issues:

1.Upon startup the link asks to run and then minimizes to the start bar, not the system tray, should this be happening like this? If so it would be nice to have the software start up in the background and run in the systray much like the vengeance k90 software does.

2. I have one more but will need to get a screenshot next time it occurs. It's difficult to explain.

Yeah, I have used it without the voltage dropper and that is when I get the erratic fan speeds. The voltage dropper just runs the fan speeds at a constant rpm between 1000 and 1300.

Commander>Cooling Node>Triebwerk TK-123 = Random fan speed fluctuation (300-3100)

Commander>Cooling Node>Voltage Dropper> Triebwerk tk-123 = 1000-1300 RPM consistently with no control of rpm.

What type of resistor is in the voltage dropper? and what is the voltage supplied to the fan using the dropper?

my NZXT Sentry Mesh fan controller causes my Sp120 quiets to make a ticking noise as well when the slider bar is at 50-70%.

If I run them at full blast or at the lowest slider point, they don't make the noise.