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I have seen setups in which amps are cooled by fans that turn on when the the temperature is too high, and when the temp is low enough they do not operate.
How exactly is this done, is it expense? It someone could I would like a step by step procedure. Thanks D
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Posts: 72 | From: Fraser, MI | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Stinger sells a product called the SFC (stinger fan control) it sells for like $35 or something. This will do what you are talking about.
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Some amps already have built in fan control.
If not, you could buy some thermostat - fan controller. Soundquest used to have them, but I believe, that you could buy some in electronic parts stores too. When you will buy them check following:
- that they work on 12V - operating temperature (around 80 grad C (MO)) - max A output (to be enough to turn fans, otherwise use relay)
You could also buy 12V fans there. If you will put amps in boxes, use two fans in push-pull configuration. And of coarse, mount thermostat on heat sink of the amp.
I don't believe that this would be very expensive.
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Posts: 1820 | From: Ljubljana, Slovenia | Registered: Jan 2000
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There are a couple semiconductor manufacturers that make thermostats that come in regular transistor packages and will act as a temp controled switch, closing or opening their contacts at certain temps. I got some from www.elec-goldmine.com which is also a good place to find cheap fans.
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use a thermosister....Basically, a resistor that has less resistance has it gets hotter. mount it to the heatsink, or probably better yet on the inside of the heatsink, and it'll turn on the fan when it gets hot enough to let current pass through. I really dont know where to ge them, though i'd like to...so if anyone else does, let us know.
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Posts: 1930 | From: state college, pa | Registered: Sep 1999
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First, generally a thermistor cannot pass enought juice to operate a fan without an intermediate drive circuit. My favorite way to put one together (and can be done with junk parts out of an old amp) is take the thermistor, one op-amp, a driver transistor and the support components you need from an old board. Set up the op amp as a comparator or just a operational amp. This will depend on the fan. A brushless fan doesn't always tolerate a varying dc voltage so you need to do a comparator where the drive to the fan will be on or off. On a brush fan you can use the op amp to deliver a varying dc voltage depending on the resistance the thermistor is at. Then finally you need a driver to allow the current handling necessary to drive the fan/ fans. Works good and the circuit is simple. You can find the building block circuit in those learner electronic books. Parts can be free if you have junk lying around and it's rewarding
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It may be possible there is a thermistor out there that can turn on a relay but I haven't seen one yet. Most thermistors are just capable of turning a small transistor on. A thermalswitch however could turn on varios devices including a relay. HTH's
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