If you use one of the pins marked "Fan" on the main board for the +ve you'll find that the fan is only operational when the player is powered up. If it goes into sleep mode the fan will stop. I believe this is what most people that have fitted a fan have used (including myself).

There's quite an extensive thread about me fitting a fan. Here's a link to that thread (you'll find a photo of the Fan pins attached too).

Thank you. Will do some rewiring tonight...

Yeah. I worked it out a few minutes after I posted that Thanks for taking the time to explain it to me though. I think I've been having a bad brain day

- Trevor

Ok, this may be the real way to do this:
http://www.telcom-semi.com/download/lit/pline/analog/thermal/dcfan/21450a.pdf

8 pin chip + one transistor to drive the current.
The chip has internal temperature sensing with ~ 1-3 degrees accuracy (good enough), and PWM output to drive the fan. You order the chip with pre-determined tempL and tempH parameters, which is a bit restrictive, but it will give us the ability to have a fan that is off until eg 35 degrees, and then ramps up to max at eg 50 degrees.

Or this one: http://www.telcom-semi.com/download/lit/pline/analog/thermal/dcfan/21448a.pdf

This has user-settable temp thresholds, utilising an external thermistor.

Looks good. I see it uses Pulse Width Modulation to control the fan speed. This was one of the alternative methods I thought about when I was first contemplating making my controller. I decided against it because I was worried about the possibility of introducing electrical noise into the system. I might still have a go at it though, just for the hell of it. Does anyone know whether this would be a problem?

Something else I noticed was that it's called a
Tiny
Integrated
Temperature
Sensor

edit I notice both of these use PWM.
edit (again) Aha, I've also just noticed that they recommend putting a capacitor in there to reduce electrical noise. Doh!!

Something else I noticed was that it's called a
Tiny
Integrated
Temperature
Sensor


Yeah, but does it come bundled with an Asymetric Sensor System? How about a Compact Uniform Networked Thermostat?

Sorry, I can't resist.

What about a Wide Area Network Kludgometer.

(to be honest I'm not sure whether the non-brits will get that one.)

or even a Binary Large Object With Java Overlaid Bistable

Yeah, we know what a "wanker" is over here. I think it's what the W stands for in George W. Bush...

Hehe.. Kludgometer. I like that.

In reply to:

---

... they recommend putting a capacitor in there to reduce electrical noise.

---

Did they forget to put it in the diagram (figure 1 on page 5)??? (Or am I even more blind/stupid than I thought?)

I bet he doesn't know what means though...or how to pronounce it

No, I couldn't see it either.

Did they forget to put it in the diagram (figure 1 on page 5)??? (Or am I even more blind/stupid than I thought?)

That'd make 2 of us....

Here's their complete list of fan controllers. I think I'd prefer to use one of the TC64X range so that I could use an external Thermistor. The 64 series also use an external resistor network for setting the temp thresholds which I would prefer. They even have a link to an Excel spreadsheet for calculating the correct component values.