Drive Bay Fan controller - Where to buy or how to make?

[fs5]

My fans are driving me nuts when I sleep and I was wondering anybody sells a drive bay fan controller. Something that mounts to a drive bay and will allow me to selectively turn on/off fans. Or if there isn't a good commerical solution, how would I go about buliding one?

 

[talonts]

PCMods - they're on backorder, though (figures, as I was going to order one Fri morning. They had them Thursday!)

 

[fs5]

that's exactly what I'm looking for, now I'll just have to keep checking until it come back in stock. Thanks.

 

[crash2much]

Or there's the Digital Doc, which has a few more bells and whistles, but also a bit more ca$h

 

[chopstxxx]

umaxpc.com has them too. I think that they are in stock there, and they are a couple of dollars cheaper than pcmods.

 

[kzochert]

How about the adjustable fan bus? I want to make/buy one of those so I can adjust the speeds, as opposed to the entire fan.

 

[SWScorch]

try here

 

[pbrain]

if you're interested in building your own, there are lots of options you can choose from, but there are basically three different baybus's:
1) you can use a switch to change between preset settings (12v/7v/5v/off)
2) use a rheostat (20-100ohms, generally) to make the fan variable speed. the main drawback is that at the lowest speeds some fans may not start.
3) a variable resistor like #2, but using a voltage regulator you can make sure the fan will always start up. semi-complex to build without a kit, and produces heat.
you can also use a switch with the variable speed baybus's (12v/off/variable)

some links:
bit-tech - several well written articles in "cooling"
hitechmods - well written, easy to follow 12v/off/7v baybus
case etc - their "In-Depth Tutorials"
cliff's fanbus - one of the original resources for fanbus/baybus

 

[jcmkk]

Yea, just make one, they aren't that hard. If you are just doing it out of functionality you can just do a switched 7v/off/12v baybus without LEDs. If you want to make them with LEDs that change color as you switch to the different settings, then I would suggest just making a rheobus (variable speed, with knobs). If you can find the potentiomters (rheostats, variable resistors), then it is vers simple.

 

[Mday]

my baycoolers are modded with switches... with center off... so i can do 12v, off, or 5vdc.

but i am not using bay coolers anymore...

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anywho.. its simple enough to make your own...