Any used the mCubed Analogue Extension Set - Sensor Hub + flowmeters?

[ladderman]

I’m going to strip down my rig and clean all the watercooling part. When I rebuild it I want to use a mCubed Sensor Hub with a flowmeter on each loop,

I already have the T - Balancer

Has anyone used the Sensor hub?

Also which Flowmeter is the least restrictive?

And guess what no one in the UK has a Sensor hub in stock, so I’ll have to get one from Europe.

I dont like the look of the frist one. I'm I right in thinking that it's a U bend?

[MrToad]

Flow meter's restriction factor is inversely proportional to the money you pay for it.

Any flow meter that costs less than your entire water cooling setup is going to add a noticeable amount of restriction in exchange for... well... ehm... I will think on something later.

If you REALLY think you actually need one, this one is *reasonably* priced, readily available and not too bad restriction-wise:

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/pro...sp?sku=8544743

Bear in mind there will be some tinkering with resistors, wires and your friend the soldering iron in order to use it for our application.

Steer well clear of any of the options pictured in your post. Do a search of this forum for "flow meter", you will find plenty of discussion about the subject and a link to a "roundup" in a German forum a couple of months ago.

EDIT: BTW, if you haven't bought any of the m-cubed products yet, you may want to have a look on www.keiang.de
I got several things from there (main board, LCD extension, fan extension...) and they're brilliant. Only caveat is, at the moment, in perfect synchrony with my line of thought, you'll find no much Vista love there...

[ladderman]

Flow meter's restriction factor is inversely proportional to the money you pay for it.

Any flow meter that costs less than your entire water cooling setup is going to add a noticeable amount of restriction in exchange for... well... ehm... I will think on something later.

If you REALLY think you actually need one, this one is *reasonably* priced, readily available and not too bad restriction-wise:

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/pro...sp?sku=8544743

Bear in mind there will be some tinkering with resistors, wires and your friend the soldering iron in order to use it for our application.

Steer well clear of any of the options pictured in your post. Do a search of this forum for "flow meter", you will find plenty of discussion about the subject and a link to a "roundup" in a German forum a couple of months ago.

EDIT: BTW, if you haven't bought any of the m-cubed products yet, you may want to have a look on www.keiang.de
I got several things from there (main board, LCD extension, fan extension...) and they're brilliant. Only caveat is, at the moment, in perfect synchrony with my line of thought, you'll find no much Vista love there...

The main reason I want to use flowmeters is to give me a warning if any of my D5 pumps decide to pack in. One D5 is on a loop with two 8800 GXT so I’d like to know straight away if that pump shuts down.

If flowmeters are flow Killers! would I be better using Temp sensors instead?

[karl_eller]

I believe that most pumps (eg a D5) have RPM sensors identical to the RPM sensor on most case fans, so you could just plug the RPM wire into one of the fan headers on your board, and monitor the RPM there. The CPU fan header is a good choice, since most motherboards keep an eye on that by default, and put up warnings when the RPM drops below whatever the set threshold is.
I believe that SpeedFan can be set up to make a warning when selected fan headers drop below a set RPM, too.

Eller

[MrToad]

The main reason I want to use flowmeters is to give me a warning if any of my D5 pumps decide to pack in. One D5 is on a loop with two 8800 GXT so I’d like to know straight away if that pump shuts down.

If flowmeters are flow Killers! would I be better using Temp sensors instead?

Hmmm... the usual problem with the D5... which I don't face because my GTX is in the same loop as the CPU, and I rely (sort of a leap of faith) on the MB built in resources to shut down if the CPU temp goes south.

My next major upgrade (which I've been working on for nearly four months now, thanks to my limited financial resources) involves using the dreaded DDCs, which have rpm sensors, so I haven't looked much into flow meters, as they have very little use to me.

The flow meter I've linked is not that much of a flow killer (like adding an extra MCW60 to your loop if your flow is 1.5 - 2 GPM, you can find the pressure drop curves in the linked .pdf).

However, is £45+VAT, plus the fittings (around £5 for two, unless you can source them "cheapo" somewhere that's not Cole-Parmer, Tom Parker of WSP) and you have to "make your own cable". You'll have to decide how much in terms of restriction and money is your "peace of mind" worth.

EDIT: In other words, the cost of buying and rigging the flow meter, even w/o having to buy the "add-in" for the m-cubed, because you can, in most motherboards, connect the flow meter to the CPU fan header, and set the MB to shut down if the rpm signal drops to 0, is greater than buying a DDC pump w/aftermarket top, that has rpm sensor and therefore renders the flow meter useless for this particular application.

[ladderman]

I believe that most pumps (eg a D5) have RPM sensors identical to the RPM sensor on most case fans, so you could just plug the RPM wire into one of the fan headers on your board, and monitor the RPM there. The CPU fan header is a good choice, since most motherboards keep an eye on that by default, and put up warnings when the RPM drops below whatever the set threshold is.
I believe that SpeedFan can be set up to make a warning when selected fan headers drop below a set RPM, too.

Eller

I know you can hook up DDC pumps to a RPM sensor but I don’t think you can do that to a D5

[MrToad]

I know you can hook up DDC pumps to a RPM sensor but I don’t think you can do that to a D5

I've seen pictures of a D5 with rpm sensor, but I've never seen one IRL or for sale.

[ladderman]

Hmmm... the usual problem with the D5... which I don't face because my GTX is in the same loop as the CPU, and I rely (sort of a leap of faith) on the MB built in resources to shut down if the CPU temp goes south.

My next major upgrade (which I've been working on for nearly four months now, thanks to my limited financial resources) involves using the dreaded DDCs, which have rpm sensors, so I haven't looked much into flow meters, as they have very little use to me.

The flow meter I've linked is not that much of a flow killer (like adding an extra MCW60 to your loop if your flow is 1.5 - 2 GPM, you can find the pressure drop curves in the linked .pdf).

However, is £45+VAT, plus the fittings (around £5 for two, unless you can source them "cheapo" somewhere that's not Cole-Parmer, Tom Parker of WSP) and you have to "make your own cable". You'll have to decide how much in terms of restriction and money is your "peace of mind" worth.

I’m gong to do some research on flowmeters to see whether it’s going to be viable for me.

I may buy some and do some tests. Because I don’t like the idea of frying £720 worth of Graphic cards if the D5 packs in.

[ladderman]

I've seen pictures of a D5 with rpm sensor, but I've never seen one IRL or for sale.

Mine defiantly don’t have them

[MrToad]

I’m gong to do some research on flowmeters to see whether it’s going to be viable for me.

I may buy some and do some tests. Because I don’t like the idea of frying £720 worth of Graphic cards if the D5 packs in.

As I edited in my post, if you are reaching for your wallet, forget about flow meter. Flog you D5 on ebay and get a DDC. It has built-in rpm sensor, just connect it to your CPU fan header, and set in BIOS to shut down if the CPU fan fails.

If you are hit by the ghost of the failing DDC, your GPUs will be safe because the system will shut down. You RMA the DDC, get another one in exchange, and up and running again.

If (like I suspect most DDC users experience) it works fine, happiness and blisss...

[ladderman]

As I edited in my post, if you are reaching for your wallet, forget about flow meter. Flog you D5 on ebay and get a DDC. It has built-in rpm sensor, just connect it to your CPU fan header, and set in BIOS to shut down if the CPU fan fails.

If you are hit by the ghost of the failing DDC, your GPUs will be safe because the system will shut down. You RMA the DDC, get another one in exchange, and up and running again.

If (like I suspect most DDC users experience) it works fine, happiness and blisss...

My friend I think you might be right. If I buy a DDC and use it for the loop cooling the two graphics it will save me buying the mCubed Analogue Extension Set - Sensor Hub anyway, which I can’t even get in the UK.

That would leave me a spare D5 to go with all the other bits of gear I keep as spares.

I must admit I was put off buying a DDC because of all the bad press people were giving about them burning out. But if I hook it up like you say that will do the job and give me piece of mind.

I think I'll go the Laing DDC 3.2 18w & Plexitop.

What do you think?

[0xdeadbeef]

Mine defiantly don’t have them

The Laing D5 Basic/Swiftech MCP655-B has RPM-monitoring capabilities with a 3-pin connector. Here is a link to Petras. It is the D5-version without the potentiometer.

[ladderman]

The Laing D5 Basic/Swiftech MCP655-B has RPM-monitoring capabilities with a 3-pin connector. Here is a link to Petras. It is the D5-version without the potentiometer.

I might e-mail Laing to see if there is away to mode my two D5 - vario?

[Snyxxx]

Is it possible to have the D5 output flow as the suction input flow into a DDC. I know the DDC has more power and I have both and always wondered if using the lower powered D5 as a supercharged input to the DDC would work and have redundancy as well. Then you can use the RPM function of the DDC as a warning. As long as one is working nothing will burn up.

Just a thought and curious.

[ladderman]

Is it possible to have the D5 output flow as the suction input flow into a DDC. I know the DDC has more power and I have both and always wondered if using the lower powered D5 as a supercharged input to the DDC would work and have redundancy as well. Then you can use the RPM function of the DDC as a warning. As long as one is working nothing will burn up.

Just a thought and curious.

I wont have the room to try that in my TJ07 but if I go ahead and buy a DDC I will do some tests before I rebuild my rig. And I may just try what you are suggesting.

I will also be looking at different ways to liquid cooling my 4 gig of OCZ ram as well

[ladderman]

Just been reading about Swissflow, they may be heading in the right direction for us watercooling guys.

Check this thread out seems interesting on the subject of Swissflow

http://www.wizdforums.co.uk/showthre...?t=1786&page=6


http://www.swissflow.com/html/800_5.htm

[billb]

I’m gong to do some research on flowmeters to see whether it’s going to be viable for me.

I may buy some and do some tests. Because I don’t like the idea of frying £720 worth of Graphic cards if the D5 packs in.

If you just want the flow meter to warn if there is no flow. put it into a by pass loop any where. Split the tubing into two lines (wyes?) both the same size. Put the flow meter in one and nothing in the other, then recombine the tubes after the flow meter. The meter will measure flow (though not accurately), and the restriction of the setup will be less than a piece of straight tubing. You can even put a shut off valve in the regular line (so that all the water goes through the flow meter) for the times when you want to actually measure flow.

I used one of these. It has a digital readout (saves a lot of wiring) that I removed and remote mounted into a modified 5-1/2" bay cover:
https://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-...=10050&qid=859
Yeah, it's a 3/8" turbine, but like I said, on a bypass, restriction is not an issue. Bling factor..very high. Usefulness....average.

[Jedda]

The Swissflow is a hall effect sensor so little drag and reasonable at 25€ each. One more item to fit in though and they're not tiny by the time you put fittings on one.

[MrToad]

The Swissflow is a hall effect sensor so little drag and reasonable at 25€ each. One more item to fit in though and they're not tiny by the time you put fittings on one.

I have one of those. I bought it back on January when I was doing my first loop.

Is accurate and fairly cheap, and the people @ swissflow were most helpful.

However, the pressure drop @ 1.5 gpm is 3.6 psi.

For comparison purposes... the Fuzion w/o nozzles has a pressure drop of 1.5 psi @ 1.5 gpm.

You can see the pressure drop curve (as supplied by Swissflow) below...

[Jedda]

Yes, perhaps I should've worded that better.
In comparison with other flow meters its less restrictive but they all charge a high price in pressure and flow.

[billb]

Yes, perhaps I should've worded that better.
In comparison with other flow meters its less restrictive but they all charge a high price in pressure and flow.

...bypass.

[headala]

Just been reading about Swissflow, they may be heading in the right direction for us watercooling guys.

Check this thread out seems interesting on the subject of Swissflow

http://www.wizdforums.co.uk/showthre...?t=1786&page=6


http://www.swissflow.com/html/800_5.htm

Wow, that's a sweet read over at WizD. Too bad that the circuits don't show because the thread is so old.

You don't have access to those circuit diagrams to convert the swissflow signal to a lower pulse rate, do you?

[Xilikon]

Wow, that's a sweet read over at WizD. Too bad that the circuits don't show because the thread is so old.

You don't have access to those circuit diagrams to convert the swissflow signal to a lower pulse rate, do you?

Unfortunately, we need those circuits so if someone else has saved it, it would be nice to post this

[headala]

Unfortunately, we need those circuits so if someone else has saved it, it would be nice to post this

I emailed the guy, will let you know what happens (if anything). That thread and they guy's email address are a couple of years old.

[ladderman]

Wow, that's a sweet read over at WizD. Too bad that the circuits don't show because the thread is so old.

You don't have access to those circuit diagrams to convert the swissflow signal to a lower pulse rate, do you?

Try this one. It has the schematic for the Flowmeter plus a PCB layout for a flowmeter reader.

Also check out all his projects. I wish I knew half of what this guys knows about electronics.

http://www.turbokeu.com:80/myprojects/flowmeter.htm

http://www.turbokeu.com/myprojects.htm