Thoughts on building a Fan Monitor/Control Plug-in Board???

[mgpaulus]

I have been wondering about the following: What would be involved in building a add-in PCI (or heaven forbid, ISA) board that would have a sensor or a couple of sensors that MBM could access, a few fan headers for RPM monitoring and power controlling, and maybe one Additional 4 pin Molex plug, to get enough external
power to control all those fans.

What I'm envisioning is that you could plug in some/all your case fans into this card, and then use MBM or SpeedFan to look at all the fans. In addition, you would be able to control the speed/voltage to the fans via software. This would give the advantage of having the system fire with all the fans @ full speed (Or even off until the card initializes). Then when the OS get's fired up, the software settings would take over, and restore the user-selected settings, to dampen the sounds somewhat.
I would think it would operate similarly to what a Digital Doc 5 does, but it would reside within the system and would be software monitorable & controllable.
Would want the external 12 volt plug, so as not to overload/tax the bus.

Any thoughts/opinions???

 

[AkumaBao]

Maybe a fan monitor for a drive bay is what you are looking for. 😛 There is one here

 

[fast_eddie]

Using ISA or PCI slots in such a fashion won't float with the current movement away from 'legacy' slots and ports. SMBus is the future now with regards to such sensors.
Take a look atMaxim website and look at the spec sheets for the MAX6511. MAX6512, and MAX 6513 ICs; low cost, remote SOT temperature switches. You could also take a look at this article about what one modder did with SMBus for a diode reader for a Palimino CPU. This is just one example of where this 'hobby' is going! If you are interested in further info about SMBus send me a message.
Just as USB is replacing serial and parallel ports, SMBus is going to change the way 'we' monitor our 'systems'. Once the sensing circuit is built around SMBus, add some software tweaking and an amplifier circuit or two, and voila, you have a fan control circuit!

My Humble Opinion

 

[mgpaulus]

fast_eddie:

I did see that article on the SMBus monitor for the Palimino, and I briefly thought about doing this. However, my MSI K7T Turbo apparently doesn't support SMBus, and/or doesn't have a SMBus header. So, currently that's not an option. I was thinking about an add-on option for current systems that do not support SMBus.

AkumaBoa:

I specifically wanted something entirely internal to my Case, because all my 5.25 & 3.5 bays are full (I have a 3.5" floppy, LS-120, Mini-Cart Tape, DVD Drive & CDRW), and I cannot use a Digital Doc 5. That's why I was interested in a PCI option. I have a couple of empty slots.

Oh well, guess I'll just have to run em blind......

 

[fast_eddie]

mgpaulus:
sounds like the time for you to build a newbox. a new mobo that supports SMBus and a larger case. that is my plan for the future! got the case & looking for the right mobo.