Adding a fan

[ace028]

Thoughts on adding a fan to your system?

I want to add a fan by pluging the leads into the aux port on my receiver. I was wondering if this will cause interference on a 2.4 ghz system, or decease the available voltage on the BEC system, or if it is ok.

I did this before with a FM system and it worked good, but the boat seams to have a limited range of reception, any thoughts? Thanks.

[Raydee]

I did that on my Matrix rigger using a Spektrum module and it worked perfectly. I think the fan even cooled better than watercooling on my ESC. I never noticed any range problems or glitches with the fan installed.

[ace028]

Ok, cool. I am thinking about using one in my renegade and hydromite, they are little 30 mm novak fans

[hex-dj]

I did that on my Matrix rigger using a Spektrum module and it worked perfectly. I think the fan even cooled better than watercooling on my ESC. I never noticed any range problems or glitches with the fan installed.

TRUE...I ve added fans to all my R/C s and they seem to duplicate an ESCs performance. In my 21 inch boat I use my little Radio Shack Hi-performance brushless fan. Seems to cool better than a water cooling system.

[ReddyWatts]

I use small 12 volt cpu fans and hook them up to the main ESC battery leads. One fan for 4s and two in series for 6s and 8s. They come in 40mm and 50mm sizes.

http://www.coolerguys.com/fans.html

.

[peells]

I added a fan to my esc and it screwed right on top of the cooling fins and it seems to work just fine I soldered it to the + and - of the esc where the batteries go to the board and it just works great no glitches at all with 2.4 ghz

[ace028]

Well I know it works on the esc, I was just wondering how it would affect the voltage in the receiever, but it appears to not have a affect. So I am going to set up my fans to blow on the outrunner motors to help keep them cool.

[Rex R]

well if you consider that I can run a 70mm bl fan for 6+ hrs on a 1500mah pack...I seriously doubt you'd notice much drain on your system .

[peells]

Rex,
that is important info thanks

[Rex R]

paid $5 for the fan (used) at a computer repair shop, got the strangest look when I inquired about buying some used fans...

[peells]

Yea those guys only think computer (in the box thinking) and they like selling new,
so what kind of computer did you tell them it was for?

[ace028]

I don't think the fan will fit in my renegade, so I may put 2 of them in my hydromite.

[Rex R]

I told 'em that since I was putting them inside a chunk of pvc pipe...it didn't matter if they happened to be noisy...when I explained that I was needing them for potatoe launchers there was a short delay and you could just about see the light bulb light up :). but getting back on topic, used fans can be quite cheap if you don't care about noise or a reduced life span(new ones are rated for thousands of hrs, used ones may only have a few houndred hrs left.)

[Simon.O.]

new ones are rated for thousands of hrs, used ones may only have a few hundred hrs left.)

A few hundred hours ??
Divided by 5 min runs = a whole shedload of run time.

I have a very small laptop based fan attached to one of my esc's and it appears to do the job well.
I used to thermal this esc regularly which made the rescue tug very tired.
Watercooling was going to be a B..... on this esc so I went for the fan.

In this application it is a 5V - 0.15A BL jobby that uses less than f-all battery power. I have it direct wired to the input side of the esc so that as soon as I power up the boat (7.2v) the fan is live, really 0.15A ??? is this a real amp hog, I think not.

As a part of my very destructive R&D program I have found that the "5V" BL fans go really well on up to 14.4 v

My fans are mine. If what you use goes bang then that is your game !

I do a lot of bench testing of gear and that includes the occasional smoke test.

In summary:
I believe that fans in some applications work well in boats for the purpose of cooling esc's.
IMO motors that are loaded or over volted need water cooling.

[Rex R]

to date I've only destroyed(and I mean totally) 1 fan...when the back of the launcher blew off (during an expiriment). course the end cap was toast too.
that was my point about 'recycling' used fans...I've heard of folks pulling the fans from otherwise garbage comps that were waiting at the curb on pickup day(you can get some nice magnets out of dead hard drives too :-))