Deano Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I have a thread on cooling my Wood Hood with 4 T5 24" bulbs. Was looking on Newegg for a Fan and speed controller for this hood and then I ran across this NZXT Fan Controller and temp monitor. Looks fun and interesting. What do you think? Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I have a thread on cooling my Wood Hood with 4 T5 24" bulbs. Was looking on Newegg for a Fan and speed controller for this hood and then I ran across this NZXT Fan Controller and temp monitor. Looks fun and interesting. What do you think? Looks really cool but do you really need that much control on your fans? Link to comment
Deano Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 Looks really cool but do you really need that much control on your fans? Probably not. But I thought since I have 4 T5's in individual reflectors I could mount a 40mm fan at the end of each reflector and put a temp probe on each bulb then the controller would be able to control the temp at the perfect operating temp of 95F for each bulb. Link to comment
Noryb Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I run a Coolerguys setup for my cabinet area to control heat from all of the powerstrips, timers, sump, heater, etc. The unit I have has a simple controller that controls up to 4 fans. They have an air temp probe or you can also order a waterproof temp probe if you ever need to control a fan to cool your water through evaporation. Just an idea of what other choices are out there for you. Here's their link. http://www.coolerguys.com/ Link to comment
Deano Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 I run a Coolerguys setup for my cabinet area to control heat from all of the powerstrips, timers, sump, heater, etc. The unit I have has a simple controller that controls up to 4 fans. They have an air temp probe or you can also order a waterproof temp probe if you ever need to control a fan to cool your water through evaporation. Just an idea of what other choices are out there for you. Here's their link. http://www.coolerguys.com/ Thanks! That is some cool stuff. I can seen I am not going to get any work done today trying to deside how I want to do this. Link to comment
Deano Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 I received my 2 speed fan controller with Temp Monitor today. I will be installing this into my Wood Hood with X4 24" T5. Hopefully I can attached the temp probes to the two of the bulbs and adjust the fans speeds to set at the perfect operating temp for T5's, 95F $22.00 Fan controller $14.00 5V - 12 V Power supply. $8.00 2 qty. EverCool Fans. $6.00 4 qty. 60mm fan covers. _______ $50.00 total. Priceless for the cool factor. I will update once installed, most likely this weekend. Forgot I can set the temp to F once I make a trip wire. Default is Celsius. Link to comment
phi delt reefer Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 i was looking to do something similar in my thread. Definately looking forward to the results. Link to comment
fote03 Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 very cool cant wait to see installed pics Link to comment
Deano Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Ok I got the Fan controller hooked up and running. Everything was going great but I just couldn't leave it alone I had to tweak it a bit. Well! 1st thing I did was try and move my temp probe. These things are VERY delicate, I broke it and had to order a new one. The other mistake I made was to unplug the bulb from the ballast while it was on, I fried my ballast. I am a total D/A. So I now have a pair of Fulham WH3 ballast on order. Other then the money this is a good thing. The Odyssey ballasts are not the best quality any way. SO! before I messed everything up, here is what I had. On my back lights I was running 50 C and the front ones were 39 C at 50% fan speed. If I increased the fan speed to 80% - 100% the temps would drop to 45 C on the back and 36C on the front. This is within tolerance but in the attempt to lower the fan noise I would like to run them at 50% fan speed. I think the reason the back bulbs are running hotter is how the bulbs are setting in the hood. So what started my big mess up was I was putting a plastic tube between the fan and bulbs. I am hoping this will help draw the air directly down the length of the bulbs and not just around them. I then wanted to move my temp probe to the center bulb on the back ones, failed. ONE other thing I removed my splash shield before I screwed everything up to see what the temps were and you would think the bulbs would run cooler without the splash shield. NOT although 47 C is close it is still a bit high. So shielding the bulbs with the fans is a plus. Any way when the new ballasts and temp probe comes in I will do some more experiments. Link to comment
snoopie702 Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Where did you order your items from? Link to comment
hexbasher Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 I was going to buy this for my DIY CREE LED build, but opted for this Link to comment
Deano Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 Where did you order your items from? The fan controller came from ebay. The dual ones are very hard to find. It seems they are sold out where I got mine. The 1st one I ordered was coming from Hong Kong but it sold out and they refunded me in full. You can fine lots of quad controllers but they are $40.00 or more. The fans are from Newegg. The covers are from Frozen CPU since Newegg doesn't sale the 60mm covers. Also this controller takes a 5v-12v power supply I got that from Frozen PC as well. Coolerguys have a good selection of stuff but I was not inpressed with there 12v PC fan selection same with Frozen CPU. Newegg, hands down, has the best selection of 12V PC Fans. I was going to buy this for my DIY CREE LED build, but opted for this I checked out both items you show. The 1st one was intriguing but only controlled 1 fan or a series of fans. I wanted to be able to control 2 fans separately, The second item I looked at as well but it only shuts the fans on and off depending on the high/low temp. I was afraid of the fans coming on full blast then off again. Sounded annoying. Besides T5's need to run 95F at the label end. Your controller turns on at 87 F and off at 80 F. Due to this the fans would run all the time. Link to comment
Deano Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 I received my Fulham WH3-120-L Ballasts Friday. I removed the Odyssea Ballast from the Odyssea ballast housings. As you can see the WH3 fits perfect. My initial thoughts are the the bulbs run cooler with the WH ballast then the stock Odyssea. Warning: Odyssea owners, NEVER unplug the bulbs or light fixture from the ballast while the ballast is hot/plugged in and turned on. It appears that the Odyssea ballast has no way to regulate the current in this case. The result is a burn out ballast. I have had this happen to me twice.1st with my MH ballast and then on the T5 ballast. You can see the burnt out ballast in the provided photo. I can see how someone can think this is a fire hazard, due to the smell but since the ballast is in an aluminum case and once the ballast fails the event ends, so I really don't have a big fire concern with this issue. BUT! Odyssea really needs to address this issue. Odyssea housings complete with a top quality WH3 ballast. Link to comment
redfishsc Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Nice work. I ordered a few panel meters for reading the current going through my LEDs, going to install them on the hood that I build the plywood swing arm for, which you totally inspired with your TV mount. Nice work on the WH3 ballast install. Link to comment
Deano Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 Nice work. I ordered a few panel meters for reading the current going through my LEDs, going to install them on the hood that I build the plywood swing arm for, which you totally inspired with your TV mount. Nice work on the WH3 ballast install. Thanks and I am glad someone could benefit from this. Link to comment
Deano Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 There is no doubt that the Fulham Ballast run the bulbs cooler then the Odyssea ballast. I can run the fans at 40% and I am 40C which is perfect. 95 to 113 F is the correct operating temp for T5's. Link to comment
redfishsc Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Very cool. It's nice to know that you're running them at the right temp. Link to comment
Deano Posted March 13, 2011 Author Share Posted March 13, 2011 Very cool. It's nice to know that you're running them at the right temp. Link to comment
Deano Posted March 17, 2011 Author Share Posted March 17, 2011 Got pretty warm today and my office ambient room temp got up to about 78 F. Finally had to turn on the AC. I received a couple ATI Aquablue Special bulbs today from BRS. Installed them the color is a much crisper/blue then the stock Odyssea 10K's. Anyway the bulb temps with the 78F room temp are running at 40-41 C with the fans speeds at 40%. One other change I made to the hood. Since the frt bulb was running hotter, about 48 C. I added a 50mm fan to the rh side of the hood blowing air into the hood. This helped to bring the frt bulb temp down. Link to comment
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