People with SunBeam Fan Controller, please jump in here!

[imported_Mike]

Is the face plate black? I have read alot of problems with the vantec, any problems with this sunbeam? How do you like it? any funny buzzes? noise? Thank You

 

[chizow]

I have it and love it. It comes in black or silver; I got mine at xoxide and wanted silver, but they sent me a black one. Turned out working well, since I like the contrast of black drives on my silver case. No noises or anything of that sort, the only thing is the LEDs are so bright you'll need

Chiz

 

[dinde]

i second chizow. its great, no wierd noises. and those super bright leds are great too. i got a silver one from svc for 20 bux.

 

[bergenvr6]

comes in either silver or black. i have silver. and yes, the LEDs are really really bright

 

[Batman5177]

are the LED's easy to remove? are they too bright to sleep in the same room with?

 

[sparkyclarky]

I don't have a problem sleeping in my room with the LEDs, especially if I put them all under 7V, which not only dulls the noise of my rig down, but puts the LEDs at a much less noticeable red color.

 

[tranceport]

I love mine. Its wonderful. The LED's are bright. It handles crap loads of fans.

 

[drewdogg808]

is it possible to connect cold cathodes to these? anyone know how? i just got mine today....will be installing it this weekend.

 

[everman]

I have one and it's been great. It's in an sx1040 style with the door on the front, so it glows red or blue (depending on where it's turned up to) out the grill so it looks great 20 volts per channel is also great.
I would assume you could use cathodes w/ it if you ran it on 12v? I simply put the switch through a 3.5" bay (drilled a hole) and it looks nice.

 

[blade]

Originally posted by: drewdogg808
is it possible to connect cold cathodes to these? anyone know how? i just got mine today....will be installing it this weekend.

You sure can. But you will need a 4-3 pin adapter if you get the svc version.


Mine is still doing great, no weird sounds like the vantec one made. It doesn't get hot, it just works as it is suppose to. :beer:

 

[jader]

I think I'm going to go ahead and get one to replace my Vantec fan controller. The Vantec just feels cheap, and the controller knobs are anything but smooth. Also being able to handle the higher power will be a good thing. My opinion of the Vantec changed pretty soon after I installed it. Sometimes it adjusts the fan speed and sometimes it doesn't. Can't wait to get the Sunbeam controller.

 

[blade]

Sometimes it adjusts the fan speed and sometimes it doesn't

The one I had did that too, along with various other fun intricacies. You'll be pleased with the sunbeam.


But wear dark sunglasses when looking at the led's.

 

[everman]

If you have a ccfl hooked up to it, I would think it should be turned up to max though. Could there possibly be any damage done if you underpower the ccfl?

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: blade

Sometimes it adjusts the fan speed and sometimes it doesn't

The one I had did that too, along with various other fun intricacies. You'll be pleased with the sunbeam.


But wear dark sunglasses when looking at the led's.

The Man knows and now so do I

 

[blade]

The Man knows and now so do I

They don't call you "LED" fer nuttin'.

 

[BentValve]

I just got my SVC Sunbeam hooked up, what I did is buy 4 of their blue led fans that are 3 pin fans but come with 3-4 pin adapters, I
then cut out the female 3 pin and a female 4 pin and make my wires from them, then I reattached the male connectors to my
fans and everything worked out great. I used heat shrink tubing and non insulated crimpers so everything looks nice and neat.

I have found out that it is not capable of putting out 12V though, I have over a 1V drop across the +12 at my Vantec Tornado and even on
my cheapo 80mm fans I am getting around 11.2V output. I have two Sunon fans that eat up the same amount of power as a single 80mm Tornado which is about 8-9watts and when the two Sunons are conntected I get around 10.9V.

So it looks like it drops .8V for most regular fans and a little over 1V for an 8watter pig, a single 4watt Sunon is the same as a 1.5 watt
cheapo fan so if I had to guess I would say that the ouput of the Sunbeam begins to deteriorate after around 5-7watts.

In case your wondering, I tested every terminal on my unit as well as checked for good grounds and other case issues so
I know its just a design issue of this unit.

I am not unhappy at all though, 10.9 is plenty for my Sunons and Tornados and 11.2 is plenty for the rest of the fans...the RPM difference
at 12V vs 10.9V is barely noticable.

But I will say that there is not way I would be running 20watts x4 channels off this unit unless I had a fire extinguisher nearby.



Edit: It looks like the alot of the voltage drop is happening before the power even leaves the unit.
With nothing connected to the unit I have 12.1V going into it and 11.7V on each channel at full power...that is .4V,
its very possible that those .4v are allocated to powering the LEDs but I do not know.

Mine may be defective, could somebody else test the unit as I have done and let me know what you get?

 

[KYDave]

/roar

BentValve, I've been mulling over this same problem myself for a bit. I've been trying to run some LED fans off my Sunbeam Rheobus and the tiny voltage drop is enough to make my LED fans shine noticably dimmer even with the rheobus knobs turned all the way up.

I've resorted to trying to power my LED's with a dedicated power line and here is a thread I just started about that confusing topic.

If you find a way to fix the rheobus output voltage to a full 12V I'd love to know.

Dave

 

[LED]

The Power Lose may be because of the LED's BTA it may be because of the PSU and all the Gizmos we hook up (seperate cord or not) when run through the same PSU. We have found (crazypaint.com) that when running extreme toys (ie.Tachs, lights, Fans) with 1 setup, it is best to find another AT PSU to run them with, so NE1 with extra AT PSU's emai me

 

[BentValve]

Originally posted by: KYDave
/roar

BentValve, I've been mulling over this same problem myself for a bit. I've been trying to run some LED fans off my Sunbeam Rheobus and the tiny voltage drop is enough to make my LED fans shine noticably dimmer even with the rheobus knobs turned all the way up.

I've resorted to trying to power my LED's with a dedicated power line and here is a thread I just started about that confusing topic.

If you find a way to fix the rheobus output voltage to a full 12V I'd love to know.

Dave

Well I am pretty sure that this is how its going to be , I am not really familiar with rheostat circuits but I am working on that now,
from what I have read so far I believe that what we are dealing with is inherant to rheostats. Our particular rheostats take 20watts
per channel so from what I gather the loss of full voltage at the high end was a trade off to give this unit such specifications.
A lower wattage unit may not have this problem but at this point this is a guess until I can gain some more knowledge on the subject.

Perhaps we have some electrical guys here at Anandtech that can chime in?

 

[JokerF15]

I beleive the Voltage drop is due to the 'Variable Resistor' chip that is used in the Sunbeam's. I know the commonly used LM317 chip has a drop of about 1.5 volts, however I don't know exactly what is used in the Sunbeam. I'll see what I can pull up out of the specs I have.

My personal opinion about this unit: If you are using it for a fan that will run at ~7v or somewhere midranged, its VERY good. Another plus is that it has the ability to completely turn a fan off.

-JokerF15

 

[0roo0roo]

anyone connect their powersupply fans to it? my antec sl350 isn't as quiet as i'd like. its temp sensor fans run at max all the time from what i can tell

 

[amcdonald]

Right now I have on mine:
1st channel - Crystal orb for gpu
2nd channel - 2 zm-f1s (lowerfront intake & replaced cpu exhaust)
3rd channel - 120mm stealth & zmf2 rear exhaust
4th channel - 92 zm-f2 (cpu)
Handles everything fine, only wish the LEDs could be turned down/off

 

[Hazer]

I dont have one of these units, but here's my guess: If you can see the devices inside, let me know the numbers. The LM317 could be one culprit. Another is using TIP32 device. Most of these devices work on PNP gate, and have a 0.7V drop in voltage to 'turn on'.

Either way, the LEDs should not be causing the problem. Most likely its the adjusting device is a transistor and requires a 0.7V drop. This is not a deffect.

Im currently designing my own adjustable fan bus. The Sunbeam gave me the idea.

BTW: Does the blue/red LED on the Sunbeam dim? As in does the colors go from bright red to pruple to bright blue as you go from low to high? Or is there just a noticable switch in color?