Lamptron FC5 Fan Control & LCD Read-Out

[Gamb311]

I have 2 also and no noise for me. I'm using 2 low speed Yate Loons per channel. So far so good.

[clone38]

Had mine a few weeks from Kustompcs in the UK no problems at all.

[smanet]

Got it from YbrisCooling in Italy... powerfull!

[Vinas]

I hate my kaze controller.

i killed 2 of them.

ABSOLUTE JUNK when connected to san aces.

They blow out like hot cakes.

This is typical. You're not the first and probably not the last having problems with these...

On the bright side I've had good luck with sunbeam rheobus extreme. The name sounds a little cheezy and it's not as pretty as lamtron or scythe, but it pushes 25mm delta fans really well. The sunbeam also works well with my 38mm Sunon and 38mm Deltas even though they're pushing the 30watts per channel.

I do appreciate the look of the non-lcd lamptron. The metal work is pretty impressive in person.

[hokiealumnus]

In searching for another thread, I found this one. FYI, Lamptron has fixed the squealing on their FC-2 & FC-3 with a new PCB. Check out the review here. I also have an FC-5 in my main system that I didn't review and it has never squealed controlling three UHS Panaflos and two Delta AFB1212SH (.8A) and various other case fans, FWIW. Vinas is also very correct, the metalwork on these things is gorgeous. Still like my old Rheobus Extreme, but now that the squealing issue is fixed, Lamptron gets the nod.

[H20Cooled]

I picked up 2 of these that should be arriving tomorrow for my new build, they look like great and much simpler then setting up the POS koolance TMS or the bigNG to deal with fans and pumps

[antiacid]

I got myself a FC-3 last week and it makes my Gentle Typhoon squeal at 1/3 power or less... My old noctua's that I wanted to replace aren't squealing though. Any advice? Should I switch to the v2 fc5 or just suck it up and never put it lower than 1/3 power?

[sRHunt3r]

I received my FC5 the other day and I like everything about it with the exception of the display.
I find it very hard to read it unless I look down at it or from an extreme side angle It seems to control and read my fans, temps and even my Koolance INS-FM17 very well.

[hokiealumnus]

I got myself a FC-3 last week and it makes my Gentle Typhoon squeal at 1/3 power or less... My old noctua's that I wanted to replace aren't squealing though. Any advice? Should I switch to the v2 fc5 or just suck it up and never put it lower than 1/3 power?

Contact Lamptron, they should take care of you. AFAIK they've handled these on an individual as-needed basis just fine. The ones I had were prototypes, but the new revisions are in production AFAIK. Just contact their support.

I don't think the FC-5 ever had a v.2. Its original was a design that didn't squeal. The FC-2 and FC-3 are the ones that have been redesigned.

[FrenchPcdiga]

I'm whaiting for rev2. One of the issues can be check where



for who does understand spanish:

http://www.pcsilencioso.com/es/foro/...t=249&start=80

[Alexandr0s]

The problem is explained better on OCN.

[Johnmark]

After waiting for almost a year I finally received the FC5 second release, to replace my Sunbeam 6 channel controller.
First impression is not good, two of the four pots are VERY sticky near the end of their travel.
When hooked up to the three Gentle Typhoon 1850's via a "y" connector, which has a four prong plug on the end that hooks up to the controller I get no juice to the fans or if I move the connector over to the other side(the other 3 pins) she runs at full speed only and display's 0 rpm. Another single typhoon with a three pin connector run's at full speed only with no speed display, or control. And the three port is hooked up to a single Scythe fan which actually display's the speed and controls. I've moved the connector around with the same results
This morning I see that all speed display's show 8880 rpm ?

Any one able to help me get this thing working properly? Which four pins of the "Y" connector need to be used and on which pins on the FC5?

TIA

John

[hokiealumnus]

It's probably not the fan controller that's causing your fan issues. It sounds like you have a PWM fan and are trying to control it with a linear fan controller, which you can't do. (Well, technically the controller uses PWM circuitry to control fans in a linear fashion.) PWM fans are controlled by a pulse signal to the fourth wire. From this site:

In addition to the power, ground, and tach signal, 4-wire fans have a PWM input, which is used to control the speed of the fan. Instead of switching the power to the entire fan on and off, only the power to the drive coils is switched, making the tach information available continuously. Switching the coils on and off generates some commutation noise. Driving the coils at rates greater than 20 kHz moves the noise outside of the audible range, so typical PWM fan-drive signals use a rather high frequency (>20 kHz). Another advantage of 4-wire fans is that the fan speed can be controlled at speeds as low as 10% of the fan’s full speed.

You won't be able to accurately control 4-wire PWM fans with a 3-pin controller.

Now, I've never tried this myself (always had 3-pin fans), but in theory that's the gist of it. I'll happily be corrected if someone knows how to get it to work though.

[Johnmark]

It's probably not the fan controller that's causing your fan issues. It sounds like you have a PWM fan and are trying to control it with a linear fan controller, which you can't do. (Well, technically the controller uses PWM circuitry to control fans in a linear fashion.) PWM fans are controlled by a pulse signal to the fourth wire. From this site:

You won't be able to accurately control 4-wire PWM fans with a 3-pin controller.

Now, I've never tried this myself (always had 3-pin fans), but in theory that's the gist of it. I'll happily be corrected if someone knows how to get it to work though.

Thanks, for the reply. The GT's are three wire fans, but the Gelid "Y" connector is four pin, so I guess I'll have to rewire the "Y" connector's or try and find a couple of 3 pin "y" connectors. The Gelid's are nice as they come sleeved and the price was right

P.S. Has anyone did the display fix posted about where one, solders a wire across the two points shown? Hate to void the warranty if it doesn't work or causes other trouble.

John

[andressergio]

I have 3 Sanyo Denkis on one channel at 6.5V and other fans on other channels no compaints so far, only thing that i dont like is the contrast you have to be in a certain angle to read well the display...wish there was a contrast regulation or brightness dunno...

[hokiealumnus]

Thanks, for the reply. The GT's are three wire fans, but the Gelid "Y" connector is four pin, so I guess I'll have to rewire the "Y" connector's or try and find a couple of 3 pin "y" connectors. The Gelid's are nice as they come sleeved and the price was right

P.S. Has anyone did the display fix posted about where one, solders a wire across the two points shown? Hate to void the warranty if it doesn't work or causes other trouble.

John

You can get sleeved Y-connectors for a couple of bucks at Jab-Tech IIRC. I'd hook a fan directly to the controller and make sure that's the problem before ordering anything though.

[Johnmark]

I have 3 Sanyo Denkis on one channel at 6.5V and other fans on other channels no compaints so far, only thing that i dont like is the contrast you have to be in a certain angle to read well the display...wish there was a contrast regulation or brightness dunno...

Did you use Y connectors to join the fans, or splice them in parallel ?

Yea the viewing angle is very poor, and two sticky pots/dials out of four isn't performance.

Mail order can be such a pain !

John

[Aedubber]

Mine should arriving tomorrow .. Using it for my new build
but I could test it on my current rig

[TomH999]

newb question:

Where exactly do you attach the temp sensors?

[ascl]

There is a row of connectors near the power plug.... and the other end goes wherever you want to measure the temp.

[Johnmark]

Mine should arriving tomorrow .. Using it for my new build
but I could test it on my current rig

If your running three or more fans in series I certainly would appreciate you giving yours a test run.
One Typhon runs fine and all channels work with a single fan. Looked at my 'Y' connectors that I used to join the three fans together and everything is wired in parallel with no crossed wires etc. So I'm not sure why the controller will not control the 3fan pack, and it stays at max. speed.
My error on the previously mentioned fan that didn't have speed ind. is working, had a 2 wire extender on it.

Found a utube video that shows the display problem I'm having with all values going to 8's and a few 0's. It's a review of sorts and the guy just ignores the fact the display is whacked LOL
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOg1TPMDFEA

John

[andressergio]

Did you use Y connectors to join the fans, or splice them in parallel ?

Yea the viewing angle is very poor, and two sticky pots/dials out of four isn't performance.

Mail order can be such a pain !

John

No i made myslef the connector is this one so i plug the 3 sanyos there and read its speed also

[Waterlogged]

Johnmark, if the splice is sending the tach signal from all 3 fans, it's going to drive any device that reads RPM's nuts. You only need the RPM from 1 fan.

[Johnmark]

Thanks for all the help peeps! Got it working properly now.

andressergio, in this day of fast food and fast everything, I forgot all about making a nice little board like yours. Nice work I'm going to build one !

Still have not been able to find anyone that soldered across jumper #38 to see if it indeed fixes the problem of the display showing all 8's and a couple of zeros, don't want to void the warranty before I find someone that can verify it worked for them.

Final Thoughts:
Face plate does not fit flush with case and as mentioned two of the four pots where soldered in crooked so those two knobs bind. The colors are neat but some of them are difficult to read. Also if you set the jumpers to display the temps. the fan alarm no longer works

Lamptron still has some work to do before the device could be considered a strong solution. For starters dump the jumpers and put a couple small push switchs on the face plate... Kinda silly to have to take the controller apart just to change volts/rpm or color for that matter.

John

[Vinas]

The FC5 is a really nice controller. John, it sounds like maybe your controller just barely passed QC or something? The build quality on my FC5 is top notch and really compliments the sunbeam rheobus extreme very nicely. Maybe a return/RMA is in order to make it as nice as it should be.