H80 + Gentle Typhoon 1850s?

Just a stupid question: does the H80 fan controller support 2 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon (1850 r/min)...? I've swapped out the two super-loud stock fans with the Gentle Typhoons, but they're doing this bizarre pulsing thing now; they'll spin really fast, spin down, then speed up again, etc. in 10-15sec intervals. I've been reading that the H80/60/100s seem to be having a lot of problems with the fan controller, just thought I'd check to see if I wasn't feeding my H80 fans that it couldn't handle...

The Schythes are spec'd at 12v/0.083A, while the stock fans are 12v/0.35A. Anyone know if they're just trying to draw too much power from the H80...?

 

I've tried "resetting" the FW several times using the methods described here: http://forum.corsair.com/v2/showthread.php?t=97433

but no joy.

 

Thanks!

The Schythes are spec'd at 12v/0.083A, while the stock fans are 12v/0.35A. Anyone know if they're just trying to draw too much power from the H80...?

The other way around, the Typhoons AP-15 draw 4 times less power than the stock fans.

I have two of them on the H100 and they seem to be working fine.

I thought so, just wanted to double-check! :biggrin:

JEJ, I believe most GT fan users report they work fine on the H80's fan controller (the H60 does not have a fan controller, it uses a PWM fan connected to the mother board.)

 

Did you try switching to a different fan speed profile on your H80? That might help them stay on and not pulse their speed.

 

wlw, do you use the identical GT model that JEJ does? There are several different speed GT models.

Yes, my friend, AP-15 like I wrote before.

 

Full model number is D1225C12B5AP-15 and this is the 1850 RPM one.

 

I'm not entirely sure if they are properly managed by the H100/H80 controller however,

I think they are being run at constant speed, below their nominal. On none of the 3 profiles they seem to speed up under load.

The stock fans are 3-pin as well, so I do not know why this is happening, maybe the firmware's adjustments are made based on measured RPM and looked up in a data table based on stock fans...

Yup, I'm running the D1225C12B5AP-15s as well.

I'm having problems with the fan controller on my H80 (like a lot of people seem to be having), and switching between the different profiles doesn't actually do anything, regardless of whether the Scythes or the stock Corsairs are plugged in.

Did some more monkeying around this morning; one of the fan ports is pulsing the fan in a constant fast-slow-fast cycle, the other fan port is running the fan full out (or what seems to be full out, anyway...).

Seems the controller is broken, there is another thread with symptoms exactly like that.

 

Mine works with stock fans, the difference in RPM can be felt. With GTs, not so much.

The temperature on the i7-2600K with Turbo (3,8GHz) in OCCT Power Supply doesn't reach 60 degrees Celsius on any core, so it's okay.

Plus the GTs make a lot of air move, so I removed the rear 120mm fan to reduce the negative pressure effect. The GTs take care of the VRM radiators just fine.

The Corsair fan controller is tuned for the standard fans, using others with it is just luck if they work correctly or not. So wlw, you are basically correct about your analysis of the controller. It seems to increase and decrease the voltage to set the correct speed, but the AP15's characteristics are different, so the result is weird. I thought I've seen posts of people using the AP15's with it, and it worked Ok, but apparently not. Some users use manual fan controllers with other fans, but if you prefer automatic fan control as I do, that is not a solution.

 

JEJ, if you tried the reset procedure for the controller with no luck, you could RMA it. That pulsing behavior has been reported with some fans in this forum.

And this seems a bit stupid, as every time you turn the device on, or even connect a fan to running unit, it will do something that looks like a fan test - spin it to 100%, then down, then up.

 

I don't want to sound like an a-hole, but if it was me writing the firmware, I'd implement a "fan recognition procedure":

- set the voltage to 100% and remember the RPM

- set the voltage to 50% and remember the RPM

- set the voltage to 25% and remember the RPM (optional for added awesomness)

- roughly interpolate and store the data in a lookup table

- profit

 

This way it would actually do something useful on the POST and it would work with most if not any fan.

... but if it was me writing the firmware, I'd implement a "fan recognition procedure":

- set the voltage to 100% and remember the RPM

- set the voltage to 50% and remember the RPM

- set the voltage to 25% and remember the RPM (optional for added awesomness)

- roughly interpolate and store the data in a lookup table

- profit

 

This way it would actually do something useful on the POST and it would work with most if not any fan.

 

That certainly sounds reasonable as a basic algorithm. A mother board I have has a calibration feature for the PWM CPU cooling fan, which should be done whenever a new CPU fan is put into the system. It seems to work well, as I have changed that fan and re-calibrated a few times.

 

Have you noticed how a mother board's fan control software for three pin fans (non-PWM) is always very simplistic and never allows precise control of the fans, compared to PWM fans? I don't understand why that would be difficult to accomplish, or perhaps the effort simply isn't put into it. SpeedFan is the only program I can think of that attempts to do this, and does work a bit better, although I find it confusing and not without issues.

 

Is there some basic reason why automatic three pin fan speed control via software is virtually non-existent? Or why it seems so "dumb", as is the case with this controller? Perhaps it is designed purposely to only work with it's standard fans. Given all the other PC hardware and software we have, we still cannot control the speed of a three pin fan with software and a little hardware? There must be some basic factor with those fans that makes it difficult, or expensive. Any ideas about this?

The H80 seems to do the same thing with the stock fans, though: L port pulses, R port spins the fan at max. I've got an RMA request in; I'll let you know if the replacement unit works any better!