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- QUIET FAN FOR ST
-
- THE SOUND IS DEAFENING..........
-
-
- Having saved enough money to buy me a super new Mega STE
- only to find out that Atari still had not learned from
- the past... The fan inside this Mega STE is so loud it's
- actually deafening... Roooaaarrrrr...
- But ok, it's possible to live with that, if your already
- deaf... But when you are trying to make some decent
- music with this machine nothing is so irritating as a
- loud fan.
-
- I looked over some magazines and found several solutions
- for the 'loud fan problem' most of them involve
- electronic or handcraft skill to install.
-
- But on Sunday the 26th of January when I was in
- Eindhoven at the Atari Benelux Expo, I found the perfect
- solution:
-
- A fan with built in thermocontroller called: PC-Demper
-
- The price is fairly high at first sight (79 Dutch
- guilders) but compared to the external electronics you
- need with an ordinary fan it's not so bad. And you get a
- very high-tech fan indeed !!
-
- Here are some basic facts: (quoted from the manual!, Yes
- you get 6 pages of manual with this fan)
-
-
- This fan offers a superb 'easy-to-fit' solution for most
- of the Personal Computers around. With most of the
- computers the noise is produced by the hard-disk and the
- fan of the power supply. Nowadays as hard-disk get
- quieter, the fan is most the most audible noise source.
- A lot of computer users don't notice the noise anymore
- as they get accustomed to it. Nevertheless, loud noise
- still has it's impact on the human body. You loose
- concentration and get easily tired. Expecially in
- offices with more than one computer the PC-Demper can
- make a big difference.
-
- The PC-Demper or Thermo-Fan is the best solution for
- this problem: it's a fan which varies it's speed
- according to the temperature of the inside of the
- computer, when temperature rises, the fan spins faster.
- Ok, this fan isn't noiseless but then again, which fan
- is ???
-
-
-
-
- The PC-Demper has two special features, first it's built
- in a very special way so it produces a lot less noise.
- The motor of the fan is a fully static system without
- brushes or collector. The blades of the fan are unlike
- most of the fan blades of other brands, aerodynamically
- designed, the housing of the fan is also constructed in
- such a way that the air flow is never obstructed.
- The bearings of the fan are of the 'ball' type, and the
- whole fan has a expected life of over five years of
- continuous runnig (50.000 hours)!
-
- Second it has built in electronics for controlling the
- speed of the fan according to the temperature.So it's
- the best of both worlds. No hasle with printed circuit
- boards which have to be mounted somewhere in the case of
- the power supply with sticky tape or something, it's all
- in one piece.
-
- Installing the fan is quite easy, just remove the olde
- fan, install the new fan, cut the wires of the old fan
- and connect the wires of the PC-Demper with the supplied
- connecting blocks. A screwdriver and a pair of pliers
- will do the job.
- You can choose to use the connecting blocks ('Scotchlock
- UY connector) or solder the wires together, both ways
- are possible, the package contains two connecting
- blocks, but also 'shrinking tube' to isolate soldered
- wires. You even get two so called 'Tie-Wraps' to bundle
- exessive wires together. Two rubber strips are supplied
- to fill in the space between the fan and the case if
- your old fan was a little more 'heavy-weight'.
-
- If you accidently change the red and black wire, it will
- do the fan no damage, it just doesn't run...
-
- For those who are interesetd, here are the tecnical
- specs (at the end of this article is the distributors
- name and address) :
-
- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-
- SD 6018 BT Specification
- ========================
-
- (1) SCOPE:
-
- This specification defines the electrical and mechanical
- characteristics of the D.C. brushless axial fan, Auto
- cut-off, Auto-restart and thermic controlled.
-
- (2) ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
-
- 1. Rated voltage : 12 V DC
-
- 2. Operating voltage : 10,2 to 13,8 V
-
- 3. Air flow : 0,32 M3/min (25C)
- at rated voltage, zero air flow 0,70 M3/min (50C)
- (minimal value)
-
- 4. Input current : 0,10 A (25C)
- 0,15 A (50C)
-
- 5. Input power : 1,2 W (25C)
- 1,8 W (50C)
-
- 6. Speed : 3000 rpm (25C)
- 5500 rpm (50C)
-
- 7. Life : 50.000 hours
- continous at <40C
-
- (3) MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
-
- 1. Dimension : will fit most
- Mega ST/STE and
- TT models.
-
- 2. Frame material : PBT + fibre 30%
-
- 3. Impeller material : PBT + fibre 15%
-
- 4. Bearing system : Ball bearing
-
- 5. Weight : 60 grams
-
-
- (4) ENVIRONMENTAL:
-
- 1. Drop test: Designed to withstand one free body
- drop from 30cm in height onto 10mm thick wooden
- board. (I didn't test this one...)
-
- 2. Acoustic noise : max 32 dBA at 1m
-
- (5) PROTECTION:
-
- 1. Polarity protection:
- The circuit withstands reversed connection between
- positive and negative leads.
-
- 2. Locked rotor protection:
- Motor winding protects the motor from damage in 72
- hrs of locked rotor condition at rated voltage.
-
-
- The distributor for this fan in Holland is:
-
-
- Microstorm Electronics
- P.O. box 12134
- 1100 AC AMSTERDAM
- tel: 020-6132268
-
-
- ----
-
- Well, what more can I say, it's running great in my
- machine, I only hear my harddisk now.....
-
- KGE
-
-