First experience with mCubed bigNG

sanse · Post by **sanse** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 12:34 pm

Well, last weekend I installed the bigNG fancontroller from mCubed I ordered a few weeks ago.

After installing the hardware (bigNG and sensors) the navigator software was installed. The result was that my wireless Logitech mouse no longer functioned in a proper way. I could solved that at first by putting the USB-receiver in another USB-port. Later by accident I discovered, that a cold boot of XP with the USB-receiver in the original USB-port did the trick.

Then it was time to configure the bigNG. The software is a bit 'Windows-unlike', but you get used to it. Then I bumped into another very weird problem: runaway effects of the sensor attached to the PSU-heatsink. With a bit of load on the machine the temp of the sensor got way out of control and the emergency switch-off was triggered.

A lot of searching and trying later I discovered that this strange behaviour was probably caused by a bad contact between the connector of the sensor and the bigNG-pins. The PSU-sensor previously had been connected to a miniNG and maybe the pins of that device were a bit thicker or the pins of the bigNG were just dirty. Don't know.

Anyway the bigNG now functions fine. And keeps those fans under control silently (no PWM) without all those space-eating attenuators needed with the SL4 T-Balancer.

Recommended.

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:25 pm

Nice to hear it works

I would get one if i needed automatic fan control, but i just run my fans at a constant speed. Needs a little more thought and temps may be a little higher at load but ultimately its just as quiet

Depends a lot on the hardware and case though, if it works i mean.

sanse · Post by **sanse** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:29 pm

nici wrote:Nice to hear it works I would get one if i needed automatic fan control, but i just run my fans at a constant speed. Needs a little more thought and temps may be a little higher at load but ultimately its just as quiet Depends a lot on the hardware and case though, if it works i mean.

maybe that works ok in 'cool' finland, but with the +30C summerdays overhere i'm not sure if i would get away with that.

and what about a process that gets stuck and loads the cpu at full speed, while you are not near the machine?

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:38 pm

I keep forgetting that not all countries have snow around the year and polar bears wandering the streets eating frozen babies, sorry

20Â°c and very rainy today outside. Temps in summer vary between +5Â°c and +30Â°c, 10-20Â°c normally. 24Â°c in my room.

And my CPUs are always used 100%, i thought everyone on SPCR was folding... .wink: I just posted my setup in General Gallery. More detailed specs and temps there, im not going to hijack this thread by talking too much about my machine

[/quote]

sanse · Post by **sanse** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:51 pm

and besides that i just like to play with complicated programmable electronic devices, especially, when that is possible with a wireless mouse from the desktop.

anyway, my machine will get way too hot under load without some kind of regulating device. this neat bigNG thing solves this problem very elegant. and silent, when not under load.

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 9:00 pm

sanse wrote:and besides that i just like to fiddle with complicated programmable electronic devices.

Yeah me too

I can imagine myself sitting in front of the machine fiddling with all the settings for hours...

mongokitten · Post by **mongokitten** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 12:09 pm

I got a Bigng a few days ago.

There is a ticking sound from the fan when I connect it to my Nexus Real Silent 120mm and set the speed lower than 100%. First I thought this was PWM-rattle but it is still there when I set it on analogue. The ticking comes about four times per second.

If I cant make it go away I might just as well throw the BigNg in the trash since running the fans slow with it is much more audible than running them full speed without it.

Any suggestions?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 3:01 pm

You are describing a typical PWM induced fan noise. Are you certain the thing is actually working in the analog mode? My miniNG makes no extra noise running analog. Maybe your unit is faulty.....

Mario · Post by **Mario** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:04 pm

My big NG just arrived and I am learning how to use it.
I have a couple of questions I wonder if anybody can help.

1) The RPM is reported wrong by the big NG? At 12 a Nexus 120 was reported by the MB running around 1000, but the bigNG reports 800. Plus when the fan stops the rpm is not reported as zero, but it gets reported proportionally with the setting percentual, for example at 10% is reported 80rpm, while the fan is stopped.

2) Why if I run in PWM mode it reports the same voltage as in analog? My understanding was that PWM would give impulses to the fan but still at 12V. Is my understanding wrong?

3) My nexus 120 goes down as much as 6% in PWM mode, before stopping. But when stopped to start again I have to raise the value up to 60%. Is that normal? I could not have a the curve that I wish in this case because I have to start at 60 in any case!

Thanks

sanse · Post by **sanse** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 2:58 pm

@mongokitten:
i have no idea why your nexus fans ticks with the bigNG in analogue mode.

@mario:
1) i don't think the bigNG actually measures rpm. i think it calculates it from the provided voltage after doing an initial max-rpm measurement during startup;
2) maybe it reports the average dc-value of the pulses?
3) i think the reported behaviour is normal. i have similar experiences. to prevent problems with that the controller at startup runs all fans at max speed so they start always.

mCubed has a forum aimed specifically at their products:

http://www.mcubed-tech.com/forum/index.php

the developer (Urlo) might shine his light to on your questions.