Upgraded ESC fans using high end CPU fans

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DemonRC1

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My main trade is a software developer which means I'm also digging into CPU's on a regular basis. I'm always ordered "name brand" CPU fans with high CFM's (air flow) with LED's and all that. Typical medium flow fans in the 40mm range which is what our ESC uses draw about .08 amps. Higher flowing fans around the .12 to .15 range. That's pretty minimal over a typical 15 minute runtime. So.... I want a cool looking fan. Here's what's on order. It's a 3 pin setup which I'm pretty sure the 3rd wire is used for RPM. You should be able to splice it to the "hot" wire and just run full RPM the whole time. Our fan cover is transparent so a LED setup would look pretty trick. This unit flows 8.8 CFM. There are some that flow 10+ that are brushless but they are a little loud. At least inside a office comp. In a car it doesn't matter. Anyways here's a list of a bunch of fans that fit our ESC. Also, you can stack these mofo's by using longer bolts. You have to do a wiring job if you wanna stack em. http://www.coolerguys.com/401.htmlhttp://www.coolerguys.com/840556086833.html


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P.S. If you don't wanna jack with the 3 pin, just get a 2 pin like the stock fan.
 
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That's pretty f'n cool. Great idea. Luv the lighted fan. I can see a xbe in my future.
 
Unless the fan your using is special:

The yellow rpm or signal wire shouldn't have to be spliced at all.

Just cut and heat shrink the wire back.

It's just used for monitoring when installed in PCs and other related hardware.

There are 4 pin fans... These use a power, ground, signal(rpm), and control wire.

The control wire is used to change fan speed using a PWM signal of varying duty cycles.

If I've missed something here, feel free to share.
 
Ok, so just cut the 3rd wire. That makes it easy. I'm hoping my fan comes in this week. I'll get some snapshots of it.
 
Computer fans use 12V. The ESC sends power to the fan via the BEC. Which only gives you 6V. You are not going to be getting any better air flow. Only thing you will get is the LED glow. And possibly a warmer ESC...
 
XBENOOB said:
Computer fans use 12V. The ESC sends power to the fan via the BEC. Which only gives you 6V. You are not going to be getting any better air flow. Only thing you will get is the LED glow. And possibly a warmer ESC...
Click to expand...
Ya that's correct. I gave the specs from 12v which isn't correct if you plug it in at 6v. The same applies to the stock fan however. It's carried over from CPU fans but running at 1/2 the voltage. If you did run that stock fan off 12v though it'd be specced like most other generic chinese 40mm CPU fans in that it uses bushings instead of duel bearings and would be low CFM compared to name brand fans of the same size. In either case the quality 40mm fans should still outperform the stock fan when running at 6v. Especially the 40x20mm fans since the stock fan is a 40x10mm.

If you really want a good fan you can pick up an Evercool 40x10mm which is built to run at 5v. It has full bearings and flows very well at 5v with 5000 RPM and 6.24 CFM's.

Here's a link for that fan:

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556069195.html
 
Ahh crap... I forgot the fan dimensions aren't measured by square hole distance. The 40mm fan is slightly smaller than the stocker. I got a 40x20mm and off the 3s lipo it's defintely pushing more air than the bigger stock 10mm fan. I guess I'll order a few 50mm's 5V fans in 10mm and 20mm thickness as see what I end up liking. I'll post up some pics and let you guys know how much more or less they flow.
 
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I've been playing around with more 40mm fans on the Leopard 5692. Here's what I've found:

6V BEC setup: I used 2x 5V 40mm x 10mm fans first and temperature decrease was around 15 degrees F.

12V BEC setup: Using 2x 12V 40mm x 20mm fans I dropped the temps around 25-27 degrees F. I used a AEO 12V 2.5A BEC to power them which can be purchased for $7.50. Total cost on the project was under $20.

The total draw from the fans is .14 amps which didn't noticanly effect my runtime or performance. If I run out of juice 15 faster than normal I can live with that as along as my motor stays cool like it has been.

Next, I'm going to try running a 60mm X 20mm 12v fan on the ESC to see what the temperature drop is compared to stock or even the aftermarket 50mm x 20mm 5V fan I'm been running. In either case we've been running hotter than we should. A few bucks is making a big difference especially on the 5692 with no heatsink. So you got a choice. Run 5V fans off the stock BEC or pick up a 12V BEC for a few bucks and run better 12V fans. Personally, I may try larger 50mm x 20mm 5V fans to see if I can drop motor temps by 20 F. If it works I'll run that scenario since it's alot less wiring and looks cleaner.
 
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