Bitfenix Recon 'Control Yourself' end user review (Picture and Video heavy)

To be honest. Less fans. :)

I'm no expert on fan controllers mate. I just enjoy a bit of electronics and fiddling with electronic items, learning about how they work along the way.

Maybe a Lamptron?

Maybe one, two or more of my 4 pin PWM to 3 pin converter circuits linked to in my signature. They'll handle 0.42A (usually good up to about 0.5A) and run off your CPU fan header's PWM signal, with Molex for power and could, potentially control every single 3 pin fan in your system, totally seamlessly. If your CPU warms by a degree, the fans speed up by a few revs.
 
Tealc said:
To be honest. Less fans. :)

I'm no expert on fan controllers mate. I just enjoy a bit of electronics and fiddling with electronic items, learning about how they work along the way.

Maybe a Lamptron?

Maybe one, two or more of my 4 pin PWM to 3 pin converter circuits linked to in my signature. They'll handle 0.42A (usually good up to about 0.5A) and run off your CPU fan header's PWM signal, with Molex for power and could, potentially control every single 3 pin fan in your system, totally seamlessly. If your CPU warms by a degree, the fans speed up by a few revs.
Click to expand...

Oooooh tell me more :)

Just checked the corsair fans and they are 0.25amp and i have just tried using just 2 on one channel and it does the same thing.
 
xtremedetailz said:
Oooooh tell me more :)
Click to expand...

Well it's all in here but the thread does deal a lot with the development of the end design, has lots of videos demonstrating it at work and also has pictures. Maybe I should update the first post to deal with the end design.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18421145

What I do is take the PWM, run it through a few resistors and transistors, a switch and things and a nice smooth DC voltage comes out for the fans. It has 3 settings for different loads and can go between 12v at max and 3v at minimum, although 5-6v is more normal.

Looks a bit like this when it's finished.

panyan-6401.jpg


Just checked the corsair fans and they are 0.25amp and i have just tried using just 2 on one channel and it does the same thing.
Click to expand...

It' still rather odd that it would stall. Fans are usually good to run as low as 3v if they are already running. Surely it can't be that low? What does Recon say for the voltage when it's stalling?
 
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When you do it'll have the option of Volts/Percent/RPM in the web interface. However it could just be these are best guesses by the controller IC and not based on actual values.
 
xtremedetailz said:
Oooooh tell me more :)

Just checked the corsair fans and they are 0.25amp and i have just tried using just 2 on one channel and it does the same thing.
Click to expand...

AFAIK, they're not .25amps.

Check on the fans themselves. Their website does not account for start up.

P.S Please explain what you mean by stalling. Delay spin up? Not spinning?
 
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Monkeyspaz5000 said:
To clarify... from the red line in the picture moving up.. what's the distance before any connectors start etc?

Untitled69.jpg


thanks!!
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From the line you are only looking at literally a few mm before you hit the transistors and their heatsinks. A little more, maybe 5 or 6mm from top down to the connectors.

The side brackets are integral to the body of the controller.

It looks like it's one piece of metal bent around for the mounting sides and also on top and bottom for extra rigidity. It's actually really quite solid. :) No flexing or bending here.
 
Tealc, got a strange issue with my Recon.

For some reason it does not like my Noctua 120mm fan. If I try to run 120 on it's own channel the unit will register it as 200 RPM at 12V on all channels. I put it back on a Y-splitter with the other D14 fan and it's all back to normal. Bit annoying but it's not the unit it's the fan I suppose.

Maybe the 120 from the D14 isn't meant to be controlled by itself. Will try find info on it via google. ¬_¬
 
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BrianB said:
Tealc, got a strange issue with my Recon.

For some reason it does not like my Noctua 120mm fan. If I try to run 120 on it's own channel the unit will register it as 200 RPM at 12V on all channels. I put it back on a Y-splitter with the other D14 fan and it's all back to normal. Bit annoying but it's not the unit it's the fan I suppose.

Maybe the 120 from the D14 isn't meant to be controlled by itself. Will try find info on it via google. ¬_¬
Click to expand...

Just put my spare NF-P12 120mm Noctua fan on Fan 3 channel and it seems to be responding ok to my Recon. At first the speed was fluctuating between 770 and 930 RPM but now seems to have settled at 908 RPM. Recon itself shows 900 RPM, 60% and 7.2v at 30 degrees. It's a tad fast for my liking at idle though so I might drop the temperature probe down a little.

I think in your case the calibration routine that Recon carries out is failing on that fan for some reason. Maybe it's not getting a nice clean RPM signal so it can't work out the maximum speed. When it's paired with the other Noctua it could be that as it's on a splitter Recon can't see the RPM signal so doesn't notice the extra fan. Recon is more than capable of driving 2 Noctua fans. ;)
 
It drives the two together fine, and the 140 fine. Just does not like the 120. Thanks for posting your results. :) It can run them both at 1300RPM so it's not really a problem I suppose. Just a bit strange :D.
 
Just put PC to sleep and resumed and now it's all over the place again, 770 RPM to 930 RPM. Not sure at the moment if it's just Fan 3 channel that is erratic but to my thinking it's not really all that good to hear the fan revving up and down for 5-10 minutes every time you boot/resume.

This time it seems to have settled at 810 RPM despite the exact same temperature, voltage and duty cycle % showing in the web interface.

A strange one this Recon. Maybe could have done with a few more weeks of development time perhaps.
 
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