Currently, I have 3 Antec TriCool 120mm fans on my rad for my watercooling setup. Cable management is a nightmare!
I want to know if it would be safe to connect all three power connectors together, as well as the wires from the three speed switches. Thus, one 3-pin power connector to the PSU, and one switch to regulate the speed of all three fans.
Does the fan speed control report back the speed the fan runs at? OR does it increase or decrease the speed of the fan by getting a signal from the MoBo? If you can answer those questions you would understand more about the fan. THEN you will know that if the fan reports the fan speed you can't connect it. If your fan is actually controlled by this wire then you can connect it.
Ok so the third wire is there to make the fan go faster or slower. (I don't have a fan like that so I can't say 100% for sure) It would be possible to connect all the fans together.
The switch has 3 wires, one being common and the other two are connected(i think) to the microontroller, i.e. if wire one is connected to ground fan speed is LOW, if wire 2 is connected to ground fan speed is MEDIUM and if no wire is connected then fan speed is HIGH. I could be totally off with my theory but thats how i think it works.
So you should be able to connect the wires together, altough i would be wary of connecting all the grounds together(they may also be the V+ rail and not ground) so i would say use one ground, and the other wires connect together.
I think I should connect the 3 power cables together, but keep the three switches separate. I don't want to blow one (or all) of the fans. 8O TriCools aren't the cheapest fans.
I want to mount everything in an ABS plastic box with all the (sleeved) cables entering the box. The three switches will then be mounted on (in) the lid of the box. Maybe add a 3mm LED to show there is power from the PSU.
Since the fans have a PWM output, can I use this to drive a LED as a quick and dirty indication that the fan is indeed turning?
Since this is what you have on the third wire I would suggest you do not connect that one to ANY of the others. The powers (red and black) you can connect to the same connector even, won't make a difference to the fan. Because to the fan its an input and it uses what it needs to turn at a certain speed which is controlled by your little switch.
Samaya wrote:I would suggest you do not connect that one to ANY of the others.
Why, there should be no harm? My case has 2 120mm fans, both connected to the same connector (came like that). And PWM sensing works. obviously though only reporting the speed that one of them is turning at because they're identical.
Edit to clarify: Stopping one or the other by hand does not change the rpm read by pwm, stopping both however does.
Since this is what you have on the third wire I would suggest you do not connect that one to ANY of the others.
If was planning on not connecting the pwm wire. If possible, I would rather connect the pwm wire from each fan to its own LED to show that the fan is spinning
What happens if you connect 5V to ground? PWM is basically a signal with 1's and 0's that vary their time on and off. SO if you connect your PWM line together and the fan speeds are not the same, you could in theory blow that part of the fan. BUT as you already proved that on your fans this didn't happen,you can assume that the PWM output has short circuit protection. Now if I am not mistaken I think your fan speed is reported in correctly at some stage. Do this test: switch on ONE fan make sure its speed is stable. Then while that one is still running, switch on the second fan and look at the speed. It should show a different speed.
I of course do not take any responsibility for your actions And I can also be wrong...
Hehe, yeah I've run the fans independently, they are connected to a set of wires coming from the shared connector that splits in to two connectors one for each fan. And, I have at a stage plugged a different slower fan in place of one of them, and the pwm reading lowered to the speed of the slower fan. So ja, I don't know how it works, but it does.
RobThePyro wrote:What if its not PWM??? lol... could just be a varing voltage from so sort of a resistor...
Rob~!
/me being an idiot
That is the reason I asked all those questions in a previous post. If you don't know what that wire does exactly, then use it as it was intended in standard configuration
And I can also be wrong... 
