arduino - how to read and control the speed of a 12V - four wire fan?

Question

I want to read the rpm and control the speed of a 12V - four wire fan through Arduino. There are many articles describing the procedure, yet I have some questions.

Read Speed:

So, 12V and Gnd are connected to the who wires of the fan, and the third wire is connected to the Arduino's input pin through a pull-up resistor (internal or external), in order to read the pulses, thus the speed of the fan. I guess that it works like in the schematic below:

^{simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab}

If so, how much is the voltage that the input pin reads when the sensor switch is closed, 5V ορ 12V? I believe that it is 12V, but that would damage the board, right? Should I put something like an optocoupler between fan and input pin, in order to isolate them?

Control Speed

Just about the same question for controlling the speed. Can I stick the fourth wire of the fan to a PWM pin? Is it true that the PWM pole of the fan accepts max.5.0V? Just to be on the safe side, should I use a motor driver IC, like L293D?

Thank you

Answer 1

If this is the type of fan you are using: http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/REV1_2_Public.pdf

-then the output sensor claims it is an open collector or open drain. (Meaning it only pulls down.) It also says "Motherboard will have a pull up to 12V, maximum 13.2V". Written this way I would take this as a recommendation. If the output is truly just an open collector/drain then you should be able to add your own pull-up resistor as needed. For the Arduino input you would have the resistor pulled up to +5 only. (You could add the 5k resistor as shown, or if you know how to enable the internal pull-up on the Arduino port pin use that, in which case you would not need the 5k resistor shown.) With a resistor in place the fan sensor pulls down (to 0v) then releases the pin, so it then climbs back up to what ever voltage the pull-up is connected too.

The hook up should look like this:

^{simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab}

But just as a precaution, before connecting the Arduino Speed input pin to Sense, you should measure the voltage on the Sense fan pin while the fan is slowly rotating (with 12v on the fan power input).

The spec lists the Fan's Control input to be a 5v PWM signal. So coming from the Arduino no extra driver circuit is needed.

Also the spec says the pulses from the Sense pin is 2 per revolution, so measure the pulses per second then divide by 2.

Answer 2

Here is the recommended way to connect up a typical four wire fan. I have used this design multiple times with good success.

The input signal here is a PWM signal of about 20 KHz frequency that controls the fan speed via the duty cycle. As shown the input signal was designed for a 3.3V swing signal but would also work for 5V swing. Most fans have a lower control range at about the 30% duty cycle range where they stop operating.

The output signal here is a 3.3V swing signal that is the tachometer signal from the fan. You measure the frequency of this signal to determine the fan speed. Note that fans vary and you will find fans that output two or four pulses per revolution on this output. If you need a 5V swing output from this output adjust the values of one of the two lower resistors in the divider.

The fan connection wire colors are typical but you may find some variations in the colors used by various manufacturers.

This circuit does several things that are important to consider. One this is that it isolates the on-board microcontroller from the voltage range used by the fan which can be important if there are ever faults or mistakes made in the fan wiring harness or connection. Secondly it provides an isolation in the case of static discharge.

Answer 3

Firstly the first question:

Please specify what you will be using as switch. Maybe an optical sensor with an encoder? Or maybe a transmitter and receiver infrared leds? Or even a magnetic, inductive or capacitive sensor? Assuming you already have an efficient way to count the pulses it's very important to feed the switch with 5V (the limit for arduino). Also, your resistor is misplaced. You can put it between the Arduino input and the ground or input and Vcc, but for this you will need to also move the switch to between the gnd and input. Look for your circuit, when the switch is open you will have 0V on input. When it closes, you will have 0V too, so it doesn't works. Since the switch probably is not an inductive load you will not need the optocoupler.

How to control

Except you will need also to feed another fan and need to do reversion, I will not recommend a motor driver for cost reason. If you are worried with only the speed, you can use a simple transistor to do the job. Just remember the maximum current Arduino can output is 40mA (if you are not using a modified one). Also you need to establish the maximum current you will want at the fan to verify the hfe of transistor to make sure it will have enough gain. Since it is a 12 V fan I believe it will not be a real worry.

Finally

Try to better explain your project, I really found it very confusing, but tried to answer with what you gave me.