chillcontrol

[l.v.vliet]

Does anyone know if one can use the asetek chillcontroller for TEC control?

[saaya]

what do you mean?

[l.v.vliet]

Well I'm building a TEC external cooling unit at the moment and was looking for possibilities to link it to some kind of temperature controller. The power supply over the TEC could be linked to this controller so You can set a temperature and regulate tthe voltage over the TEC. I'm not specially looking at subzero but if the system could be held at constant eg. 20 C that would be very nice.

[saaya]

you mean you want to regulate the cooling power of the tec with a chillcontrol panel?

i dont think that would work, but you can control the cooling power of the tec to a certain degree by reducing the volts you feed it with.

i dont know how to lower the volts from 12v to lets say 5v though while the tec is sucking that many maps.

what tec is it? what do you want to cool with it? -20C is very low for tecs, if you want that low temps i would recommend you to rather go phase change, depends on what you want to cool though.

getting a gpu to -20C is best with a tec (if its not a 6800 :D or x800xt pe), nb as well, but to get a tec to -20C you would need a lot of tec power, so id rather recommend a vapochill unit.

[l.v.vliet]

All correct but I meant +20 C not minus. That must be possible with a TEC cooler 2x225 watt to be precise. Meanwell SP500-12, 4x 120 mm coolling fans + 2x hydor L20 pumps + two opel radiators and a innovatec reservoir for the hot side. I'm starting with the the cold side next week. All build in a big tower from the past. Yes phase change maybe the best but I want only a bit extra to cool the whole to stable lets say +10 or +20. That must be possible and that is my target for this moment.

So a controller acting kind like the chillcontrol would be a nice to have. The chillcontroller is available as a stand alone so I was wondering the question I started the topic with.

[saaya]

yes, but aseteks chillcontrol is very different, you cant use it to control the powerflow to your tecs.

if you want to be able to change the cooling power you would have to go for several small watt tecs. then you can shut some of them down when the temp is low enough and save energy, or you can decide you only want 20C cold water to save more power and can shut down another one or two tecs.

what are you planning to cool?
sounds like very nice parts you have there!

[l.v.vliet]

Original I planned to make an external watercooling in my old 486 big tower. That part is finished succesfully but I wanted to go one step further and therefore incooperated 225 TEC's and decided to use the first part as hot loop for the TEC water chiller. The cold loop I ordered a swiftech mcp 650 pump and maybe a swiftech 6000 amd 939 waterblock. I want to cool the following when it will be ready . A 3500 amd 939 processor on a nforce 4 motherboard + PCI express graphic. I estimate this all be ready the coming two months.

[saaya]

i hope!

and as you seem to have some money id suggest you to go for the sli board! :D but im sure you have that planned already hehe:D

[l.v.vliet]

Well I can update it to the forum when its ready if you think its interesting. Why are you so sure that the chill controller will not work...

[saaya]

well how should it work?

i dont know what the chillcontrol is, but afaik it is just a little piece of hardware that starts the compressor when the temps go above a certain level, right?

you would need something that lowers the voltages from 12v to 5v on your tecs wich can resist around 50amps or more, wich is a HUGE load.

whats the chill control?

[l.v.vliet]

Well the chillcontrol controls a condensor, heater pinns and ventilators also, checks temperature before starting and stabilizes temperature at a set value. Now thats what I want for my pelt control also. The chill control does have its ouput limits and thats what i'm looking for. oke.

[Slickthellama]

k, well first, lowering volts from 12v to 5v wont work because the power curve isnt linear. It's more like an exponential curve that drops off at the Vmax. You would need a fine tuning device that would measure temps while controling a fine voltage changer between say 15.7V and 13v and it would need to change the volts slowly and be stable. Lots of capacitors. Further details upon request but IMO this really isnt feasible.

[l.v.vliet]

Hello, I tested the external TEC setup I'm building. Following results, unstressed only whithout thermal load from processor etc,

Room temperature 23 C
Hot loop: water out TEC's 35 C.
Cold loop: water down to 5 C.
Air in 23 C. Air out 29 C. Yep it takes out the heat.

+ a lot of condens so I have to isolate it thouroughly. But the external TEC cooling works. Next isolate the cold loop and upgrade the cold loop with reservoir etc.

[saaya]

hmmm i think the easiest way to control the temps would be by controlling the fan speed of the fans on the radiator.

can you post a pic of the chiller? inside if possible? i wanna build one as well, so id be very interested in results and more details :)

[chilly1]

Originally posted by l.v.vliet
Well I'm building a TEC external cooling unit at the moment and was looking for possibilities to link it to some kind of temperature controller. The power supply over the TEC could be linked to this controller so You can set a temperature and regulate tthe voltage over the TEC. I'm not specially looking at subzero but if the system could be held at constant eg. 20 C that would be very nice.

How much differential is acceptable plus or minus 2 or 3 deg.

[chilly1]

I have controllers that are programmable with temp display.

[saaya]

but how do you regulate the feeding voltage? its a lot of current, so wont it be difficult?

[chilly1]

No you can use a simple on off method of cotrolling the voltage if you use it as a chiller you will have a few mnuets of off time for each 5 min of on time so you have a control that responds to with in 1 or 2 degrees.

[saaya]

hmmmmm true... if its really a massive chiller and not just a chiller waterblock it should work and the temps should stay low even if the tecs are powered off

[chilly1]

Actually one with 10 to 20 oz of liquid would work well with this type of control. The TEC's work best at one voltage and current level.

[l.v.vliet]

Some of my reply has been lost the laste days so, again.

You mean because the TEC's are water surrounded they can have the on/off control and will not be broken because of the normal temperature strains when set this way?