Fan Controllers

[YoMoma]

I am installing an Aerocool Gatewatch fan/temp controller to watch temps and control a few fans in my rig. I have a stock (case) fan that has (2) 4pin molex plugs on the end. Is one of these plugs made to connect to my gatewatch? If so I would need to buy a 4 pin molex to 3 pin fan plug adapter. Is this how I rig the fan to be speed controlled manually?

[Yellowhello]

Welcome the HL!

Sadly, fans with only Molex connectors can't be hooked up to a fan controller. Only the 3-pin ones can.

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

Welcome the HL!

Sadly, fans with only Molex connectors can't be hooked up to a fan controller. Only the 3-pin ones can.

No that is not true Yellow!!! You will just have to get the 3pin to molex adapter and it will work fine to control the speed

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by stinger608

No that is not true Yellow!!! You will just have to get the 3pin to molex adapter and it will work fine to control the speed

Really? I didn't know that... thanks for that, Stinger!

[RAID]

Newegg.com - Link Depot POW-ADT-3P4 Power 4 pin adapter to 3 pin fan adapter - Retail

you'll need one of these for each fan you want to control independently.

[YoMoma]

Thanks for the info Stinger & Raid. One more question though. One of the molex pins only have 2 wires leading into it. The end one has 4 wires. The end one must be the one to connect to the power supply, sooo, the 4 pin plug with only 2 wires going to it gets the adapter and hooks to the controller?

[RAID]

Originally Posted by YoMoma

Thanks for the info Stinger & Raid. One more question though. One of the molex pins only have 2 wires leading into it. The end one has 4 wires. The end one must be the one to connect to the power supply, sooo, the 4 pin plug with only 2 wires going to it gets the adapter and hooks to the controller?

no, the fans will only be connnected to your fan controller via the 3pin to 4pin molex adapter. the power supply (molex connector) will connect to your fan controller.

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by YoMoma

Thanks for the info Stinger & Raid. One more question though. One of the molex pins only have 2 wires leading into it. The end one has 4 wires. The end one must be the one to connect to the power supply, sooo, the 4 pin plug with only 2 wires going to it gets the adapter and hooks to the controller?

Looking at your power to the unit, you have a pair of Molex connectors. I "think" one connector is a male and the opposite end is a female. The mating connector from your PSU should be a Female so you connect the Male end of the units power connector. The unit only needs 12 Volts. A typical 4 pin Molex connector has ... well 4 pins. Pin 1 is Yellow and 12 Volts, Pin 2 is Black and a common, Pin 3 is also Black and a common and Pin 4 is Red and 5 Volts. The 5 Volts and one of the commons are not used to power the device.

Next, looking at the link for the fan adapters. I am not sure those are what you want. That or the picture in the link is incorrect. Your device has 4 fan power outputs. Actually they are I/O (In / Out) as in addition to powering the fan, they read back a tachometer signal (Speed) from the fan. That is how the unit displays fan speeds. Therefore if your fans are only two wire fans (Like the case fans) the unit will not read back speed. Therefore setting a speed is not going to work.

Looking at the unit you have it looks like the fan outputs are designed with fan connectors (1 through 4) to mate with standard fan connectors for 3 wire fans.

Anyway, the main power connector (4 pin molex) should only mate with the PSU as I mentioned.

Ron

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by Reloadron

Looking at your power to the unit, you have a pair of Molex connectors. I "think" one connector is a male and the opposite end is a female. The mating connector from your PSU should be a Female so you connect the Male end of the units power connector. The unit only needs 12 Volts. A typical 4 pin Molex connector has ... well 4 pins. Pin 1 is Yellow and 12 Volts, Pin 2 is Black and a common, Pin 3 is also Black and a common and Pin 4 is Red and 5 Volts. The 5 Volts and one of the commons are not used to power the device.

Next, looking at the link for the fan adapters. I am not sure those are what you want. That or the picture in the link is incorrect. Your device has 4 fan power outputs. Actually they are I/O (In / Out) as in addition to powering the fan, they read back a tachometer signal (Speed) from the fan. That is how the unit displays fan speeds. Therefore if your fans are only two wire fans (Like the case fans) the unit will not read back speed. Therefore setting a speed is not going to work.

Looking at the unit you have it looks like the fan outputs are designed with fan connectors (1 through 4) to mate with standard fan connectors for 3 wire fans.

Anyway, the main power connector (4 pin molex) should only mate with the PSU as I mentioned.

Ron

That is true, it will not read the speed, but he will still be able to adjust the speed of the fans with the controller unit........At least I believe so. I don't think that the unit has to have a specific fan speed to control the speed of the 4 fans.

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by stinger608

That is true, it will not read the speed, but he will still be able to adjust the speed of the fans with the controller unit........At least I believe so. I don't think that the unit has to have a specific fan speed to control the speed of the 4 fans.

Having read what I could find on it I am not sure. When setting it up in the Manual mode the user programs in a desired fan speed. However, lacking a tach feedback signal the controller would have no clue what the actual fan speed was. As far as the actual speed controller it would see a return of 0 RPM. The controller would be looking for a Null when the set speed matched the actual speed. The null would never happen.

The automatic mode looks at temperature. The greater the temperature the larger the PWM duty cycle and the faster the fan turns.

The unit does offer both speed and temperature alarms the user can program into it. Again, here lacking a tach signal the fan speed alarms would be inoperative. The seen speed on the fan would be 0 RPM.

This is the handy dandy user manual:

Aerocool Peripheral

I may be missing something as it was a long day. To my way of thinking a user lacking 3 wire fans would not really benifit from all this cool little gizmo can do. My take is it was designed around a 3 wire fan providing a tach return signal (Feedback Signal) to do its thing.

Ron