Fan control

[ZikZak]

I purchased the M3 and its Heatsink/Fan.
I plugged the fan as shown on the photographics as there is no documentation about this item.

I never saw the fan running unless I plug it to GPIO's pin 4 and 6, the latter being too fast and so very noisy compared to what is advertised.

Is there a way to control the fan? A module to load for the kernel or an option?

[lconroy]

Hi there
well .. the reason you couldn't get the fan to work when connecting to the fans pins on the motherboard is that you're unlucky . So was I. We had a 50-50 chance of getting it wrong, and we both did.

What should be in the Wiki for the M3 is that the pure red "hot" lead from the fan MUST be connected to the 'inner-most' of the two fan pins. The red & black lead from the fan goes to the fan pin nearest the board edge (the 'outer-most' pin).
Basically, if the fan doesn't spin up, swap the leads around on the fan pins.

The slightly less good news is that the fan is a banshee, however you connect it.

all the best
Lawrence

[jjm]

Hi ,
You can refer to the photo to use the fan ,and a 5V/3A power supply is a MUST.


thank you!

[lconroy]

Hi folks,
as a quick follow up: I unscrewed and removed the fan and instead inserted a plain 25mm x 25 mm x 10mm heatsink -- it fits perfectly.
Unless you're running heavy CPU jobs, it's fine (the heatsink is warm but not hot, and the CPU temp is showing as 42). It also reduces the board power consumption, so worth considering (as well as reducing noise . Maybe a bit extreme for fan control, but it's fine for my small headless server.

all the best
Lawrence

[Raymond Day]

Wow no one can say how to "control" the fan. Plugging it in behind were the audio plug is make it super loud and it don't slow down any.

Is there any other place can plug it in so hardware or software can control the speed of it as it need it?

-Raymond Day

[lconroy]

Hi there,
well ... eventually I realised that for my day-to-day use of the board as a server, I simply needed a passive heatsink.

but -- before that, and after my ears had recovered from the noise of the in-built fan ...
I plugged in a little (cheap) boost converter on the fan pins, and drove a big old Noctua fan from that -- have to say that a 140mm fan is overkill, but it IS quiet if you drive it at 9 volts - and uses hardly any power.
Most boost/buck converter boards have a trim pot to adjust the voltage, so I guess you could "control" it that way.

Seriously, the M3 with a passive heatsink seems fine for me: what did you intend to use the M3 for -- bitcoin mining?
On another thread, it looks like the board will brown out if you push the ARM cpu *VERY* hard, so I'm surprised that thermal stress is a problem.
If it IS, then you might want to look to a big external fan to dissipate the 6-7 watts or so maximum the SoC will consume (without suffering hearing loss . From experience, a Noctua 140mm ultra-quiet fan works VERY well. Pin -- meet sledgehammer.

all the best, Lawrence

[Raymond Day]

Looking closet to the NanoPi M3 on the board it does say "FAN" the 2 pins right behind the audio plug.

I looked at the Schematic.pdf can't find the name fan any place in it. Maybe could see how it's wired up and control the speed then.

Any one found how to do this?

That fan nose is just way to loud.

-Raymond Day

[sonel]

Raymond,

The schematic on Wiki is from a previous version of the board (1604) while most boards on sale now are 1605. The change included the addition of the dedicated pins for the fan.

The pins are simply connected to the 5V and GND and there is no PWM control behind them (to control the speed). Apart from needing to find a suitable unused GPIO that is PWM capable and wiring it (with an appropriate MOSFET) to control the fan it would also be necessary to update the kernel to have a controller that responds to the changes in temperature dynamically and sends commands on that PWM pin. That is probably too much work for what is a very limited benefit.