PWM fans on Akasa FC controller issue.

Caporegime
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14 Dec 2005
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Location
armoy, n. ireland
Purchased a few Akasa piranha PWM fans to use as top exhausts in my shinobi xl. As the cpu and cpu opt fan connectors are in use i hooked them up to an Akasa FC six channel fan controller. But on boot the two fans arent spinning at all. Previously i had two xilence redwings which ran fine. Connector ends on the controller are 4 pin.
 
Hi mate.

What happens if you crank up the controller?

Maybe they are similar to my Apache fan that doesn't spin until about 8 or 9 volts, it just doesn't seem to be one of those fans that is happy at all on plain old analog DC voltage control. Redwings go stupid slow. I've had mine down to 120rpm (estimated) before they stall.
 
Nothing at all mate, ive got them on channels 4 and 5. The rest of the fans on the controller are as follows.

Ch1, silverstone ap 1500 rpm 3 pin, front intake
ch2, as above
Ch3, yate loon 1500 rpm 3 pin, also front intake.
Ch4, piranha top exhaust
Ch5, piranha top exhaust
Ch6, 140mm 1400 rpm yate loon, top rear exhaust.

My cpu fans are dual piranhas ran via the two cpu fan headers on the board, and then one other piranha connected to the bottom right mobo connector set as a case floor intake.
 
I'm assuming you've tested them out on the CPU header or another PWM header to make sure they work ok?

Are the other fans happy on those channels that aren't working for your PWM fans?

Do you have a multimeter to measure the output voltage.
 
Ill swap them round for the fans on the cpu cooler tomorrow to see what happens. The redwings worked great on those channels, going from full speed right down to off. No multimeter im afraid.

Also, i might still have an akasa 5 fan splitter cable, could try running them off one cpu fan header in conjunction with the cpu cooler fans. More cable spaghetti lol.
 
Last edited:
Found my akasa flexa cable, now running all 4 via a cpu header, in my rush to install it i stuck it on the cpu optional one by mistake. Getting the usual no cpu fan detected at boot, so ill need to swap headers. But at least the fans arent broken. Seems that perhaps this controller just doesnt like PWM fans, or vice versa.
 
Did not have the same problem but solution to the 'issue' I had in using fan controller or motherboard to control rad fans might be of use.

I built my first watercooled rig not long ago. Triple radiator being cooled by 3 Akasa Apache fans (+ 3 further fans comprising 2 x 140 intake at bottom of case - 800D - and (until recently replaced with a further 140 ) a 120 Piranha intake at the top/back of the case.)

Using an Akasa pwm fan splitter as not enough connections on the lamptron fan controler (only 4)

To begin with set it up so that the 3 Apache fans were controlled via one connection on the lamptron with the remaining 3 connections being occupied by the other 3 fans - could not get it to work in the way I had hoped (my fault not the box!) so decided to get rid of the splitter and run the 3 rad fans on seperate connections ; rpm of each being manually set (with a little varience of course) at the level of quiet!
however this left me with only the one connection to the lamptron which I used by using a splitter to connect the 2 140 fans to it, BUT this left no spot for the rear 120 Piranha fan.:(
Placed the piranha fan in the motherboard cpu fan slot(pwm controlled - silent setting) ; no problem except when playing Bioshock I noted that the piranha fan was being ramped up- presumambly because of the heat the cpu was producing and which was not being shiffted fast enough.:(

Decided that I like the idea of the cpu cooling fans going faster if need be and do not like the idea of reminding myself that I should up the speed so....

Reverted to using the motherboard pwm cpu slot - the 3 rad fans on the splitter and then such plugged in to the slot.
Works like a charm - silent most of the time but will ramp up when needed and all fans at same speed :)

The fan controller now controls the 3 x 140 intake fans on 3 seperate controllers (leaving one currently spare) - which do not need to be adjusted.

My thanks , again, to the person who converted me to using Pwm for cpu cooling a few years back :D
 
After the success of getting 4 of the piranhas running properly on the splitter cable, im thinking of buying another one. Attach one to each cpu fan connector and run all my case and cooler fans via PWM. The controller is a nice looking unit, but it does cause a noticeable buzz, (bit of a known fault with this model). I have 9 case and cooler fans in total and ill likely be modding my side panel to take another to help with gpu cooling. Eventually all fans will be akasa piranhas. The splitters are 5 fan models powered by molex, i assume 5 of theese fans will be fine ran like this on each splitter.
 
Should be fine.

If the fans are designed properly they will only use a very tiny amount of current for each fan from the PWM signal and that should be fine for dozens of fans.

I still use my 3 pin fans throughout my case but use my PWM converter to utilise the superior control that PWM gives me without needing to buy even more fans.
 
Cheers for your advice/help mate, tbh my motley collection of fans in this rig are a mix of some new and some very old fans ive had lying about. The silverstones being the exception, theyre amazing for focused airflow. This case i have is dire for front intake, but it looks the biz inside. It would cost a lot more to make my lian li a70f look as good internally, but it is the better cooling case.
 
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