Silent Fan for Gboy Rev 3

[Darkside19]

Hi,
I'm looking for a quit fan for my Gboy. Do anyone know an an alternative for the BFB0305MA fan, that's about 30dB on full speed. I'm looking for one around 15dB.
Greetings

 

[Bryceshaw06]

Hello!

This has been a topic of debate recently because the Xii-Boy Ultra uses a 3010 fan as well. The problem with these 2-wire fans is that they aren't meant to be run on a PWM signal (what the PMS2 uses), and doing so can cause compatibility issues with some models of fans. There are four types of 3010 blower fans currently on the market:

- Sleeve (Cheapest and shortest lifespan, but ~3dB quieter than Dual Ball. Sensitive to gravity and should not be used upside down.)
- Dual Ball (Uses dual ball bearings, and is not sensitive to gravity for orientation. Loudest option.)
- MagLev (MagLev uses a magnetic levitation motor and is proprietary to Sunon. Most expensive option, but it's very quiet.)
- Hydraulic (Hydraulic fans are the best of all worlds here. They are quiet, cheaper than MagLev, and have the best lifespans. Only Winsinn sells 3010 hydraulic blowers currently.)

I bought 5 fans in total to test on my Xii-Boy Ultra build. I had issues with compatibility on the PMS2's PWM system for almost all of them. @Aurelio very graciously worked with me to resolve the issue as best as possible, and a future RVLoader update will add support for configurable PWM frequencies. For now though, if you use a MagLev or Hydraulic fan in your build, you will need to message him for a beta PMS2 firmware. Otherwise, it will not spin.

The fan I ended up going with in my build is the SUNON GB0503PFV1-8 5V (link). @Xenii purchased hydraulic Winsinn fans for the kits he's selling, and they work well. The only issue is that their website (link) has a minimum order quantity of 50pcs.

You will not be able to hit 15dB at full speeds with any 3010 blower on the market currently. However, the MagLev and Hydraulic ones will get closer to low 20dB ranges. They are still very quiet, all things considered.

 

[Xenii]

Hi!
Little correction on this:

The only issue is that their website (link) has a minimum order quantity of 50pcs.

You can easily find Winsinn fans on Aliexpress. They are a bit more pricy than the official website, but that’s what I used for the kits. They all worked great, zero issue with the product or the seller.

Link here: https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005003891730040.html

As Bryce says, 5V hydraulic bearing is what we use in the kits, they work really great and honestly pretty silent, the best of all fans I’ve tested over the years.

Have a nice day!

 

[Darkside19]

thank you guys, I ordered the winsinn hydraulic one :-)

 

[Seabear]

thank you guys, I ordered the winsinn hydraulic one :-)

Have you been able to test it out yet? Ive ordered a couple of these that should come by the end of the month that I wanted to try out.

 

[Darkside19]

Have you been able to test it out yet? Ive ordered a couple of these that should come by the end of the month that I wanted to try out.

Hi got the new fan now, it's perfect, very silent ordered two to have one for backup, but they nice. I just need some Information, because it only spins at 255

 

[Xenii]

Hi!
Yes, due to a capacitor inside the fan, the fan isn’t actually powered until the capacitor is charged. The only true way to avoid that is to put the fan at 255, or change the software to allow the fan to run at lower frequencies, which avoid that issues.

You should contact @Aurelio, he should be able to give you a file that works at lower frequencies. Though it makes a bit more noise, but still less than the old fan

Have a nice day!

 

[Shank]

If the issue is caused by PWM, why not skip using fan pin altogether and simply connect the fan either directly to one of the many power rails the Wii utilizes? Or if all the rails push either too much or too little current, utilize either a series resistor or a dedicated tiny linear regulator to provide the optimal voltage? I'm not privy to the conversation outside this thread, so there may be more to it than I am aware of.

 

[Xenii]

If the issue is caused by PWM, why not skip using fan pin altogether and simply connect the fan either directly to one of the many power rails the Wii utilizes? Or if all the rails push either too much or too little current, utilize either a series resistor or a dedicated tiny linear regulator to provide the optimal voltage? I'm not privy to the conversation outside this thread, so there may be more to it than I am aware of.

Well one of the key features of the PMS2 / Lite is to use adaptative fan speed control. Of course the Wii always draws roughly the same current, so the thermic dissipation should basically stay at a certain level, and shouldn't go much higher, which makes adaptative fan speed sometimes pointless. Though, it's really convenient when it's warm outside, or the portable has been put on a table without a great airflow.

Normally, fans compatible with PWM use 3 pins, two of them are power, and the third one is PWM speed control. However, since so many of those tiny fans don't have 3 wires, the PMS2 / Lite uses a simple PWM signal like we'd do with an LED. It works fine on LEDs, but since fans are generally not meant to be powered like this, it's sometimes a bit crappy. Technically if the fan only has a coil, it works, but if it has a capacitor or other components, like we have in the Winsinn one, it's cooked lol.

The best way would be to convert this PWM signal into analog voltage used directly by the fan. But it's tricky, complicated and pretty hard to add properly for this load.

To sum up, you can either plug the fan to a constant DC voltage (except that the fan barely spins at 3.3V if I remember correctly, so anything lower won't work). So basically 3.3V or 5V. I wouldn't recommend using a voltage divider using series resistances for a fan, which draws like 200mA. You'd need a pretty high power dissipation factor. Resistors are made to resist the current flow (which works perfectly to prevent too much current to go through an LED). A single resistor does not reduce the voltage, it slows down the current. So yes the fan will spin slower, but the resistor will probably heat a lot, it's just a huge waste of energy. To reduce the voltage, you need a voltage divider, which consists of two series resistors. But it's not meant at all for that kind of load. It's only used for comparisons, analog readings, and etc, but not for powering anything. Reason why all our custom regulators are not just resistors lol.

Or we tweak the frequencies of the PWM signal to allow the fan to charge its capacitor before spinning. That's what Aurelio will implement in RVLoader I believe.

@Aurelio, @Bryceshaw06 and I spend a lot of time trying every single frequency for the best use on our portables. That's for now the only solution we have to keep that feature.

 

[Darkside19]

@Bryceshaw06 Do the maglev Sunon GB0503PFV1-8 5V you used, work with the pms PWM signal that you used?

 

[Bryceshaw06]

@Bryceshaw06 Do the maglev Sunon GB0503PFV1-8 5V you used, work with the pms PWM signal that you used?

Like I said man, you need the updated firmware in order for it to work. Otherwise, it will only spin at speed 255.

 

[Darkside19]

Like I said man, you need the updated firmware in order for it to work. Otherwise, it will only spin at speed 255.

ok wasn't sure about your fan thanks