Does sending low voltage damage fans/controllers?

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

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ENSLAVER
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:08 am
Location: Australia

Does sending low voltage damage fans/controllers?

Post by ENSLAVER » Mon Aug 27, 2012 7:42 pm

I am just curious whether sending a fan that requires 6.5V to run a lower voltage (say ~4.7V, the fan would essentially be turned off) if it will damage either the fan or the controller, or worse the PSU.

Thanks!

ENSLAVER
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:08 am
Location: Australia

Re: Does sending low voltage damage fans/controllers?

Post by ENSLAVER » Mon Aug 27, 2012 8:02 pm

Also would be awesome if someone could recommend a 'cheap' 0v-12v controller without annoying LEDs :D

m0002a
Posts: 2831
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2004 2:12 am
Location: USA

Re: Does sending low voltage damage fans/controllers?

Post by m0002a » Mon Aug 27, 2012 9:52 pm

ENSLAVER wrote:I am just curious whether sending a fan that requires 6.5V to run a lower voltage (say ~4.7V, the fan would essentially be turned off) if it will damage either the fan or the controller, or worse the PSU.

Thanks!
It will not damage a PSU, because 12V will still be sent to the fan controller. I doubt it would damage the fan, and have never heard of that happening, but I am not fan engineer. It will not damage the controller either, unless it is designed very poorly, or is overloaded (trying to control a fan(s) with wattage over the rated handling power of the controller, which is pretty hard to do if using the type of fans used in quiet computing).

Spoon Boy
Posts: 168
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:44 pm
Location: London

Re: Does sending low voltage damage fans/controllers?

Post by Spoon Boy » Mon Aug 27, 2012 10:45 pm

ENSLAVER wrote:Also would be awesome if someone could recommend a 'cheap' 0v-12v controller without annoying LEDs :D
Cheapest i know is Zalman fanmate, but it doesn't go down to 0v, think lowest is 5v

Had a look around, don't know if you can get them where you are but Sunbeamtech Rheobus
goes down to 0v

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