Sorry about the delay - but it's finally online. Feel to download the schematics at: http://www.benjammin.net/www/pages/library

Hookup instruction - I'm going to add those right now. I realized they aren't anywhere... so hold off downloading until I repost here.

As some of you may know, hiJack now supports it in the conf.ini file... maybe at some point Mark will make it a hiJack menu item which would be cool...

Enjoy, send questions, problems whatever...

-Ben

Any chance you'll be building these so other can just install? (or at least making the pcb)

I would be happy to get PCB's made, but I have no idea on the amount of them I would need. Everyone made it seem like they would rather build one on their own.

If I had some sort of count, I could get some done. I don't think they'd be terribly cheap though because of the low quantity.

But, I'd still be happy to do it... Let me know.

-Ben

p.s. Redownload the .PDF, I added hookup instructions.

Check out www.olimex.com for dirt cheap PCBs. They will do panelling free of charge - ie, if your design is 1"x2" then they will fit as many copies of that design into their standard sized boards as possible.

Single sided 160mm x 100mm = $21, so if you can get the design under 25mm x 50mm then you could get 12 for $21, +$8 S&H to the USA.
Double sided at $26 for the same size.

Either way you'd only be looking at under $35 for a production run of 12, with a cost per board of under $3. I'm reasonably certain that you'd move these and not make any loss.

The fact that it's controlled by Hijack really sounds interesting but what exactly does your schematic do?
Does it turn the fan on at a preset temp or does it raise the speed as the empeg gets hotter?
If it only turns on the fan at a certain temp, say 50° or so, what's the hysteresis? Wouldn't want to have the fan turn on / off / on / off at full speed every 2 minutes. Think I'd rather have it go faster as the temp gets hotter.

Oooo, I'll check into them. I know the board could be made down to say 1"x1" - so yea... excellent.. I'll check them out.

-Ben

The controller has a Hi/Lo temp setting. You can set through hiJack what the hysteresis is. It's config'd through the .ini file. There's a post from Mark about it in our thread in the for sale section....

As for slowing the fan down... sometimes that's not the best idea. Some DC fan's don't like too low a voltage and then they stall. I played with some once like that and some don't restart without full off/on voltage again... So, it can be done, but without a controller like the max 6651 which has a tach feedback, you don't know if you've stalled out the motor.

Either way - I thought about that and considering I drive a jeep, I wouldn't really ever hear the fan anyway... so I opted for full on/off. There's another design floating around for those who want variable speed.

Thankfully, you have a choice! If you use the other design, more power to ya.

Enjoy...

-Ben

Actually I was thinking about combining both circuits
No idea if it's possible though. Might look into it if I find the time.
Still, neat circuit.

Frank

If you want to hack around with the code, you could control the fan speed by modifying hijack to turn it on/off quicky, with varying duty cycles..

Hmm, I get an error when trying to open the file (32 775 bytes) I received - "The root document is missing or invalid" (Acrobat Reader 5.0)

Anyone who's had better luck that's willing to send a copy? Email address is in my profile...

TIA,

/Michael

when did you download it?? Recently? Since the library script didn't do anything but text/plain or text/html. now it should do everything and I checked it against netscape and Pine. Should be fine. Ultimately, I can send it to you.. but not at the moment since I'm not in a place I can do it.

-ben-O-rama

You've got mail...

Edit: My file was 32 795 bytes.

Stig

that sounds close enough... i think the official size when I look on the server is 32,777bytes

See yaz,

-ben

Thanks,

can't get to my mail right now, will give it another try tonight.

As to when I got the download mail - late Saturday night CET time.

/Michael

This is one of those moments that I wished I knew something about Linux or programming for that matter

Well, there IS the option of getting an I2C based Fan controller that does Speed. The fan would have to have a Tach Output feedback to the chip (Maxim 6651) but that would require more programming on someone's behalf. The Circuit would also be a little bigger simply because the 6651 is a 16pin IC. (controls up to 4 fans which is kinda cool).

This works for me.. <shrug>

-Ben-O-Rama

16 pin SOIC is hardly large enough to worry about. I think that getting the fan speed dealt with in hardware would be preferable to getting hijack to do PWM speed control. Sure, there would need to be some coding done, but it should be trivial compared to implementing a user-tweakable PWM control.

A (probably stupid) question - Are there suitable fans with tach output? I'd hate for everyone to go this route and be unable to get fans that woulf fit. I'm sure there are, but we should check

supposedly... you can get just about any fan with a tach output from most companies...

again - I thought about it - but the programming requipements for mark would have been greater... didn't want to burden him...

I'd still like to see a menu where I can control/see the stats/setup in the hiJack menu...

-Ben

I'd still like to see a menu where I can control/see the stats/setup in the hiJack menu...


Bribe me.

It's unlikely that hijack would be able to store adjusted values directly in flash due to lack of flash space, but it should be possible to (assuming initial values are in config.ini) provide a display for them and adjust them on the fly. (which would help people tweak their values).

How could I bribe you?? Also I thought Mark would have to put it in since it's part of hiJack?

<shrug> What do I know.. I'm a HARDWARE guy.

-Ben

Yeah, but you're forgetting that Mark accepts patches...

Let's put it this way - if a populated PCB turned up on my doorstep, it would be installed ASAP...

Otherwise, a copy of the final schematic, and an unpopulated PCB would probably result in me placing a digikey order.

Well - after doing a bunch of boards with a company that let's me panelize for nothing (since I do the step-repeat myself) and I just chop 'em with a metal shear. (funny stuff)

Is anyone still interested in me having some of these done or has everyone who wanted to make on done it already...

Let me know (email me directly if you want)...

-Ben

Please

me 2 please

Count me in for one.

I'll want four.

OK, ya - big delay - I got a fancy new schematic/pcb program and after many days of cranking out boards for work (pays the bills 'ya know) - I will be getting boards this week (with delivery next week)...

I will have schematics on my website that are updated... and so forth..

If you guys want some, EMAIL ME DIRECTLY so I can keep track of everyone...

Also, I don't know how much they'll be yet - I'm assuming you all want 'em stuffed or blank?

Let me know when you email me..

bkamen AT benjammin DOT net

See yaz!

Boards came in while I went to Phoenix for some work anf fun... I'll be back next week and will assemble for those who asked...

-Ben

For anyone who'd like Fan controllers for their Empegs, I have PCB's both bare and assembled available now on my website at http://www.benjammin.net/www/pages/gizmos/

EmpegBBS users get special pricing... so feel free to mention it when you order (and I'll verify you on the BBS)

Cheers,

-Ben

Any timeline on the possibilty of paying by CC?

Or anyone in the US that is about to order and is willing to accept Paypal and forward a board across the Atlantic?

The costs for an international money order would be utterly ridiculous compared to the cost of the board...