NEW: aquaero 5 series

[Phatboy69]

Hi Shoggy,

Im having fun playing with the AE5 on the bench working out the best wiring and sensor setup and have found a small issue with RPM sensing on the Koolance D5 vario with RPM sensor.

I have 4 x D5's, 2 with RPM sense and they both dont report an RPM signal until I change the RPM sense calibration to 4 pulses, which means the AE5 then reports them at half speed (2400) when they are actually at 4800rpm?

When the AE5 is set to standard 2 pulses, when I first plug in the pump the RPMs are reported while the pump spins up, then at about 3000rpm RPMs AE5 report 0RPM until I adjust the pulse sense to 4 and it then shows the pump at half speed.

The PA2's report the correct RPM signal from the D5.

Is this a small bug or another dirty signal problem?

FYI for those wondering the AE5 runs a D5 all day no problem at full power, about 1300mA. I have the waterblock heatsink fitted without waterflow yet and the temp stays around 60c but climbs to 85c when running pump at minimum 7v. This means when I hook up water cooling to the block I should be able to run 2 D5s off it maybe more. I have a few PA2s but they overheat at 80c when the pumps are at running 7v so Ill probably be using AE5 to run the D5s.
Cheers

[pociej]

@pociej: it provides some better cooling but the real magic will be done by the new firmware. You can not use the fans when the PC is off because the aquaero needs 12V from the PSU to control fans etc.

It will work when I will use 12V power supply?
Or when i connect Aquaero to 24pin ATX connector?

Another strange thing I noticed is that it sometimes when I use the computer or is turned off, Aquaero noises like when I pressing the keys ..

[Paradoxxx]

I'm having an interesting problem. I am using my Aquaero 5 pro with a power adjust 2.

I connected the Poweradjust 2 via USB to upgrade it to v1003, I then set the power output to 65%. When I connect the Poweradjust to the Aquaero 5 Pro via high speed aquabus the fans connected to the Poweradjust DON'T spin. If I remove the aquabus connection the Poweradjust works fine and the fan spin.

Is there something I'm missing?

[theseeker]

Hi Shoggy,

Im having fun playing with the AE5 on the bench working out the best wiring and sensor setup and have found a small issue with RPM sensing on the Koolance D5 vario with RPM sensor.

I have 4 x D5's, 2 with RPM sense and they both dont report an RPM signal until I change the RPM sense calibration to 4 pulses, which means the AE5 then reports them at half speed (2400) when they are actually at 4800rpm?

When the AE5 is set to standard 2 pulses, when I first plug in the pump the RPMs are reported while the pump spins up, then at about 3000rpm RPMs AE5 report 0RPM until I adjust the pulse sense to 4 and it then shows the pump at half speed.

The PA2's report the correct RPM signal from the D5.

Is this a small bug or another dirty signal problem?

FYI for those wondering the AE5 runs a D5 all day no problem at full power, about 1300mA. I have the waterblock heatsink fitted without waterflow yet and the temp stays around 60c but climbs to 85c when running pump at minimum 7v. This means when I hook up water cooling to the block I should be able to run 2 D5s off it maybe more. I have a few PA2s but they overheat at 80c when the pumps are at running 7v so Ill probably be using AE5 to run the D5s.
Cheers

I would like to see a pic or a diagram of your setup with the AE5 and the D5's. I should be receiving my AE5 next week and I have four D5's setup in dual with EK tops.
TIA

[pociej]

I'm having an interesting problem. I am using my Aquaero 5 pro with a power adjust 2.

I connected the Poweradjust 2 via USB to upgrade it to v1003, I then set the power output to 65%. When I connect the Poweradjust to the Aquaero 5 Pro via high speed aquabus the fans connected to the Poweradjust DON'T spin. If I remove the aquabus connection the Poweradjust works fine and the fan spin.

Is there something I'm missing?

Go to menu -> outputs -> fans -> fan 5 (if it's first PA2) -> data source -> constant value and set it to one of these..
Preset first profile is on 100% so u need to change it to desirable value..

[Phatboy69]

I'm having an interesting problem. I am using my Aquaero 5 pro with a power adjust 2.

I connected the Poweradjust 2 via USB to upgrade it to v1003, I then set the power output to 65%. When I connect the Poweradjust to the Aquaero 5 Pro via high speed aquabus the fans connected to the Poweradjust DON'T spin. If I remove the aquabus connection the Poweradjust works fine and the fan spin.

Is there something I'm missing?

Like pociej said.... You need to assign a controller to output>fan 5 and also set a controller such as constant value 1 to the power or rpm % that you want the fan to run.

[Phatboy69]

I would like to see a pic or a diagram of your setup with the AE5 and the D5's. I should be receiving my AE5 next week and I have four D5's setup in dual with EK tops.
TIA

Heres some bench setup pics... Im now in the middle of installing it all and last night got as far as working out layout, fitting all sensors and flushing the loops. I'll post the pics tonight after work. I have to do some serious soldering and cable work. I have decided to cut the molex power and aquabus and fan cables, and solder them to make cables shorter and tidier.

Setting up Aquaero 5 XT (AE5) before final installation...

AE5 with water block cooling (no water flow yet)
6 x PA2 Ultras (for 27 x 370mA fans)
2 x Bitspower power boards for power distribution

AE5 config so far
Fan CH 1 - Koolance FM17 flow meter
Flow CH 1 - Koolance FM17 flow meter
Fan CH 3 - D5 vario with RPM sense
Fan CH 5 - CM R4 2000RPM Fan 370mA (27 of these in the system)
Temp 1 - Temp sensor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUDe2u4hbZs

[Paradoxxx]

Go to menu -> outputs -> fans -> fan 5 (if it's first PA2) -> data source -> constant value and set it to one of these..
Preset first profile is on 100% so u need to change it to desirable value..

Thanks for the advice but it didn't seem to work, the fan is still off. Anything else I need to do?

[ximius]

Thanks for the advice but it didn't seem to work, the fan is still off. Anything else I need to do?

I have no idea if I was doing something wrong, but for me, the fans that I configured like that would not start unless I went to the "Programmable Fuse" option. I just went into that menu, and then went back and the fan started. No problems ever since. YMMV.

[pociej]

@ Paradoxxx, ximius

go to menu -> controller -> preset value -> preset value 1 and check it. Change to 100% or something else what u want.

later go to menu -> outputs -> fans -> fan X (choise which you want to set) -> minimum power set to 0%, maximum power set to 100%, control mode set to "output-regulated",
and at last go to data source and choise preset value 1 from tab constant value.

[kdmaka]

Im also trying to setup my AE5, Can one PA2/PA2 ultra run 2 d5 pumps, by fan splitters ?

[pociej]

It guess it's too much for it.

[Paradoxxx]

I have no idea if I was doing something wrong, but for me, the fans that I configured like that would not start unless I went to the "Programmable Fuse" option. I just went into that menu, and then went back and the fan started. No problems ever since. YMMV.

I did as you said and it worked temporarily.

I am seeing Fan 5 Overcurrent - 1100mA... I upped the limit to 2000mA and still nothing. Isn't the PA supposed to handle around 2A?

btw: thanks for all the help guys, nice to know we got some experts in the mix at XS wrt the AE5

[pociej]

@Paradoxxx

I had same problem, my PA2 stops after startboost and i find what's wrong but don't remember exactly what was that..
After reset all config in AQ5 and PA2 i do what i told you all works fine so i don't have any better idea to help you, sorry.

If I find something I will know for sure.

If u want I will make photos of configuration on my AE5..

[QuadSLI]

HI SHoggy,

Just received my AE5 Pro, but aquaero doesnt show up on the aquasuite.

The AE5 display all the info and the connected fan running tho.

When clicking find USB device, no response ..etc

DO i need to connect them manually from the front plate or something??

Aquasuite 4.72.00

[pociej]

4.72.00 don't work with AE5, you must wait for Aquasuite 2012 like all others..

[QuadSLI]

4.72.00 don't work with AE5, you must wait for Aquasuite 2012 like all others..

SO everyone were waiting on the 2012 too?? May be there's a beta or something ??

I guess not.. nm..still waiting other parts atm..

[pociej]

We will get it in this week, but it's not for sure..
In this week will be new firmware too.

[chorner]

So, after owning both an AE 5 Pro and XT (and thanks again to theseeker who bought my XT off me so I could give the Pro a go to match my build) I can say the following from my experience:

First the 'bad'
-------------------

- if you're playing with the controller by chance without a remote (which I would not recommend anyhow unless just showing off to your buddy), the extra 4 buttons on the XT come in handy
- as far as the actual buttons, the XT's capacitive touch buttons aren't that great to be quite honest and often times you'll need to press the screen twice to activate the button. The PRO's buttons are nice and crisp feeling, and have a very nice tactile feedback to them
- it would be nice if the on-screen display at least stretched the full size of the screen
- in the menus, the scroll bar.... ugh. When you scroll to the very bottom there's a nice space between the bottom of the scroll bar and the scroll bar container (outline)... but when you go to the very top the scrollbar pushes up to the top of the scroll container. Lazy design!
- the screen itself is... dare I say it: not that great. You can't adjust the contrast, only brightness. And, you'll notice you get vertical lighter coloured 'bars' that extend down from some of the on-screen graphics. Really detracts from the overall quality of the controller especially when this IMO, is THE premium bay controller device.
- the PRO screen visibility is much better than the XT. Why? The XT has an extra plastic cover over top of the screen that causes a lot of extra glare, and further sets it back from flush with the face of the unit which makes it impossible to read on even a slight angle
- my PRO came with a poorly soldered UP button that wouldn't press down or move at all when delivered. I had to de-solder it from the ICB, and re-solder it flush to the ICB since it was placed in at such an angle that it was being trapped in place by the faceplate. I'd rather not RMA for something I can fix myself, but I shouldn't have had to do that.
- the machining quality on the face plates.... a lot of small errors and ridges along the cuts. Not nicely smoothed or buffed.
- the IR LED isn't 100% squared with the cut out location on the faceplate both for the XT and PRO models. It is about 2x worse on the XT model. You can see even in the image posted above, that the IR LED is well above center of the hole cut out.

Now for the good
-----------------

- excellent, and I mean excellent array of controls and configurations
- sweet looking display output design and organisation. Makes me want to continuously cycle through all the cool readings and information. You can customize this with an untold number of information pages
- really cool array of hardware you can buy that directly interfaces with the Aquaero
- overall, very solid design despite the negatives. It feels like a well designed and very solid unit. No cheap materials used.
- quality IC design and circuitry
- ample power to control a huge array of fans and even can control your PWM (read: MCP35x) pumps, or voltage controlled pumps etc.
- cool to look at. It looks like a serious piece of hardware

Overall, I'm very happy with it. However... maybe next time some improvements considering what I paid for the XT, and also by the time I bought the PRO + IR controller and vrm heatsink. Hard to say, but I think in this case I might have paid another $20-$40 for some of my complaints to be dealt with.

[Shoggy]

@Phatboy69: that rpm problem is not know so far and also makes not much sense for us since the rpm detection of both devices is pretty much the same. Our technician thinks it could be a problem with wrong grounding which causes a messed up signal.

@pociej: with 12V it would work of course but when your PC is turned of you don't have them. Also the standby adapter would not help because it only provides 5V like the USB connection. It is possible that keys are acting like pressed, try to lower the key sensitivity - if possible only for the key which causes the problem. Another way is to raise up the key sensitivity of nearby keys a little bit.

@Paradoxxx: make sure that you only use USB or aquabus. Both at the same time will not work.

@kdmaka: a single poweradjust 2 controller is not able to handle two D5 pumps. Its way too much power - especially when they spin up.

@Paradoxxx: maybe the voltage regulator is overheating? Which temperature does it show for the fan channel?

@chorner: thanks for your feedback. There are a few things that we will look at. The thing with the menu bar should be able to fix via firmware. The faulty button is pretty strange because the final assembly is done by hand and normally the proper operation of all buttons is tested afterwards. Sorry that you had to twiddle on the button to get it working.

There are two things which are not quite correct:

The sensitivity of the touch buttons can be adjusted (user interface => keys => key sensitivities => key X)

You can adjust the contrast (user interface => display => contrast), note that there is also a second contrast control in the standby configuration which sets the contrast when the PC (main power 12V) is off and the aquaero is only powered via USB.

[pociej]

How goes with the Aquasuite 2012 and new firmware?

[Shoggy]

Step by step forward but I guess there will be no release this week because we had some problems which caused further delays.

[Phatboy69]

I've been elbows deep in dismantling, cutting and soldering cables for the Aquaero for 3 days.

Just 1 last Rad to do 6 fans on and then I can start putting it back together.

I had to cut all the aquabus and 12v molex cables as well as make 4 x 6 to 1 fan cables to clean up cable clutter.. So far Im very impressed with the results.
I just need to get some heat shrink or sleeving at some point to finish off the aesthetics.

I've worked out a neat mounting arrangement that allows me to fit the Aquaero and 6 x slave units in the same 5 1/4 bay with one of the 452X2 reservoirs and still look neat.

I also fitted 2 CPU inline water temp sensors (in/out) and inline water temp sensors on the other loop too. Still have to fit thermal temp sensors to CPU and other areas of the system.

I load up some pics tonight before i get back into it.

[zoomee]

Step by step forward but I guess there will be no release this week because we had some problems which caused further delays.

- I'm highly dissapointed.... How long has this product been up for sale and still no working software?

[Paradoxxx]

Ok I think I have some progress... I disabled "Startup Boost" from the PA2 via USB and now when I go into "Programmable Fuse" the fans connected to the PA2 stay on. The temperature doesn't display on the AE5 but via USB it reads 35C on full load. Still doesn't work as intended but at least the fans are spinning.

What causes the Fan Overcurrent error to be displayed int he first place?

How can I get Fan 5 to display on the front panel like Fans 1-4?