NEW: aquaero 5 series

[Phatboy69]

Are you able to turn down the D5 pumps very low and still be able to keep them at these levels for extended periods of time?

Or do the PA2s get overheated when you have them at a low voltage?

Yes you can turn them down to the lowest start/run voltage of about 7.2v and the PA2 doesnt have any trouble at all. The D5s generally only draw about 1.5A at max power and .9A at the lowest as you can see in my monitoring pics. The 6 fans though pull 2.1A at startup and push the limit of the PA2, without some active air cooling they overheat when run at a low voltage. Thats why I have a ram fan cooler on the PA2's to help regulate temp.

[mBrane]

...@churchy: the PWM channels have no rpm monitoring nor a separate rpm line since this already is a PWM signal. The signal is just a pulsed (16kHz) power signal. It can not be used with pumps since they would not start.
...
@Brodholm: You can connect two of these pumps to the analog fan connectors, but not to the PWM connectors since the pumps will not work on them.

Still confused, Shoggy. Why would an MCP-35X on a PWM connector "not start?"

I want to control 2 MCP-35X pumps, one on each PWM connector. I would then use fan channels 1 and 2 for RPM. Is this possible?

If I recall correctly, Aqua Suite's virtual sensors should allow me to monitor the MCP-35X RPM through motherboard RPM inputs, instead of wasting fan channels on the A5. Is this possible?

P.S. Where is the A5 Manual / User Guide?

Thx!

[Church]

mBrane: MCP-35X can fully be regulated only from channel 4, which is fully featured 4-pin pwm channel as well. From all the rest of channels that are 3-pin analog voltage regulation channels, you technically CAN regulate MCP-35X, but just as much as any other DDC pump, via voltage regulation, which is at way less range (minimum rpms are way higher)/different range then one regulated via PWM and AA5 will heat up way more then via PWM, so you won't get 1:1 regulation of both pumps (probably wished for, if pumps are serial connected in one loop), and won't get benefits of PWM (less heat-up of controller, lower minimum rpm-s).

I at the end decided to workaround this aquaero5 limitation (who knows, maybe in future versions there will be more channels capable of both analog and pwm regulation, but so far Shoggy on my question answered that it was too hard to find space on PCB for other channels to add PWM mode too. +he claimed elsewhere, that even if release of new version is next day, he will deny it's possibility ) by connecting and regulating simultaneously by PWM Y splitter that is customized a bit (most of them have rpm wire from one cut, i asked to readd it but with separate connector), but only rpm wire going to another channel.

[mBrane]

@Churchy: I understand about channel 4, but I want RPM for each MCP-35X. Sharing RPM connector would not give accurate RPM readings (eg. could double reading!).

I also would never consider trying to voltage-regulate the MCP-35X; PWM only!

So, I still have my original questions:
Q: Can I use 2-pin PWM connectors to *control* 2 MCP-35X's?
Q: Can I use A5's or motherboard's fan channel RPM connectors to *monitor* each MCP-35X?

[Church]

mBrane:that's why i wrote,"customised Y pwm splitter". - Y splitter that regulates simultaneously both pwm pumps from one pwm connector, with rpm wire only from one pump (so far like all the Y splitters) + rpm wire from 2nd pump instead of being cut goes to _separate_ 3-pin connector that i can connect to another channel, not for regulating, just to get rpm readings from 2nd pump too.
So as to your first question - i still haven't got my AA5, so i cannot say for sure, but imho pwm pump shouldn't be any different from pwm fans, and i should be able to regulate them both from that single pwm connector using mentioned Y splitter.

[SpuTnicK]

As i see the possibility to connect two mcp35x pump to Aquaero 5 (if it can handle them, that is) is first to convert standard mcp35x pump connectors into single full-fledged 4-pin one. So, you get such adapters, take out two pins of a fan header and stick them into 4-pin PWM header of mcp35x pump. Do the same with the second pump and then you have two pumps with power and PWM control provided via 4-pin fan headers. Then just follow the scheme below to connect pumps to Aquaero 5, and you should have rpm readings for each pump while both are controlled via same PWM signal

[Church]

SpuTnicK: aren't black and red wires for MCP35X already on separate 4-pin molexes for direct connection to PSU? I don't see need to add extra unused wires on those connectors. Just more sleeving work

[cx-ray]

I think the best option is to connect the power for the mcp35x pumps directly to your PSU. Then, route each RPM line to an individual fan header on the AE5. Finally, join the PWM lines, and connect those to the PWM signal of the 4-pin fan header on the AE5.

[Church]

cx-ray: = what i proposed in the beginning with customized standard pwm y-splitter with addition of missing tach wire to separate 3-pin connector.

[cx-ray]

I seem to be posting lots of double stuff...first I thought I was sleepy...but maybe it's because of the new forum layout. I'm just not seeing right

[SpuTnicK]

then i see no need to use aquaero 4-pin fan header for PWM pump control. just use CPU- fan header and monitor/control it as virtual sensor in aquasuite.

[Church]

SpuTnicK: gains - regulation & monitoring from within aquaero (for AA's emergency shutdown to work), and no actual power load on AA5 leaving more power for fans connected to it.

[Megalamaniac]

If I want to control two loops and monitor two flow meters whats the best configuration.
Both loops are the same and as follows.
3x fans
1 Flowmeter (FM17N)
Laing DDC 3.25
1 inline temp sensor

My question is would I need a A5 XT or Pro and an LT, or use PA2's instead of the LT. It would be nice to have control over the pumps but not necessary. Running the pumps from PSU and just monitoring RPM is fine. I've seen in this thread that the PA2's and Koolance flowmeter don't read accuratly.

[Church]

AA5 XT|Pro + LT imho will be cheaper then AA5 + PA2s per channel count you get.

[Megalamaniac]

North american distributors? Preferrably US and carries the full line.

[ohms]

So any ideas whats wrong with my AE5 Shoggy? More specifically that horizontal line right in the middle of my LCD.



Not to mention at the fact that the Aquasuite 2012 b3 won't upgrade my firmware to 1011. When I hit the button to "Upgrade Firmware Now" it just sits there and does nothing and the button becomes greyed out with no progress on the bar.

[Shoggy]

(removed an answer since it was wrong)

@ohms: I already had a look into your e-mail but had no time to answer yet and also wanted to get some advice from our electronic technician who already left. It is likely that you will have to exchange the display. If you want to do that yourself (pretty easy, it is only plugged to the board) we can send you a new one. If you don't want to try that yourself you will have to send it in for a repair.

One thing that you can try yourself. Remove the front cover, unplug the LCD and plug it in again. Maybe you are lucky and it is only a bad contact.

Well, I will also answer your question by e-mail tomorrow with maybe some further assistance.

[zoomee]

Can someone confirm what the Aquacomputer Aquaero power connect cable is used for please?

Is it to shutdown the PC in the event of a triggered alert for example? or is it for use with the Aquaremote to power the system up and down.

thanks.

[Shoggy]

Both :-)

It can shutdown the PC in case of an alarm or start the PC with a timer. If you are only interested in the shutdown option you can also use a parallel connection from the wires of your power button (computer case) to the relay. In my opinion this method is easier to setup and you don't need the ugly adapter.

[cx-ray]

Wait...so now you can use the PWM channels for pump regulation? I thought they were meant for some other accessory and wouldn't work with pumps due to the range or something to that extent (can't search the forum as it isn't functioning at the moment).

[Phaseshift]

is the Aquaero 5 able to shut down or turn off the pc when it detects a drop in flow through the sensor?

[ohms]

@ohms: I already had a look into your e-mail but had no time to answer yet and also wanted to get some advice from our electronic technician who already left. It is likely that you will have to exchange the display. If you want to do that yourself (pretty easy, it is only plugged to the board) we can send you a new one. If you don't want to try that yourself you will have to send it in for a repair.

One thing that you can try yourself. Remove the front cover, unplug the LCD and plug it in again. Maybe you are lucky and it is only a bad contact.

Well, I will also answer your question by e-mail tomorrow with maybe some further assistance.

Thanks Shoggy, I await your response! I did try unplugging the LCD and plugging it in again and it did not help (Phatboy had suggested that to me on the Aqua Computer forums). As for exchanging the display, I have no problems doing that at all, it's easy enough work =)

[Phatboy69]

Thanks Shoggy, I await your response! I did try unplugging the LCD and plugging it in again and it did not help (Phatboy had suggested that to me on the Aqua Computer forums). As for exchanging the display, I have no problems doing that at all, it's easy enough work =)

Hi Ohms,

I think what Shoggy is suggesting is one step further than I had suggested. I think he means unplugging the LCD from the front circuit board by removing the front cover off it. Just be careful they are fragile!

[theseeker]

North american distributors? Preferrably US and carries the full line.

Sidewinder carries the full line.

[Church]

cx-ray: only 4th, 4-pin, channel (that can regulate both analogous & pwm way), not those two 2-pin pwm channels.