Cooling fan hookup?
 

I would like to install a cooling fan on my 9920 controller when I build my truck just to make sure it wont overheat. I have a micro fan made to go on a 540 motor heatsink that seems to have a very low current draw.(although I haven't measured it yet) My question is what would be the best way to hook it up? I was thinking I could tie it into the output line of the Kool Flight BEC I will be running.Would this work without causing any problems for the reciever? If this will cause problems is there a better way to tie it in to a voltage source?

hmm, i usually attach my cooling fan leads before the controller - so i would probably put them before the Ubec or even at the same location.

justin

I thought about that but I dont think the fan motor can handle the voltage from 20 cells. Its probably made for 7.2v. Maybe it can handle 14v at most. I know it would work on the 6v from the kool flight without cooking but I'm not sure about it causing interference or drawing too much power away from the servos, or even burning out the kool flight. I guess I should take my voltmeter home from work and check the amp draw it has? Was really just wondering if anyone else has done something like this and does it work without problems?

Put it in a spare RX socket. Thats what I did, runs off 6v.

I was wondering the same thing, so I did an experiment with a cpu fan I had laying around. It is rated at 12 VDC and 0.18 amps on the lable. I just cut the leads and touched them straight to the battery leads of my 5s lipo set (18.5 volts). It ran fine so I straped it to the motor for a test run and It seems just fine, kept the motor cooler and didn't blow up or anything from excess voltage.

To hook the fan into the system I just terminated the pos. & neg. leads from the fan to the same connectors I use for the esc, ubec and lvc so all leads are soldered to the appropriate terminal and then plug the whole thing into the batteries. I guess time will tell if it burns up the fan prematurly.

if you mean you want to run one on the motor and one on the esc then i would just get a Y addapter and use the 3rd channel in the reciever or in the one for a reciever pack.

I use a 5v fan, plugged into the 3rd channel on the receiver. Works great. Easy to hook up and replace. Perfect. :)

Can you get these fans with the plug already attached and if so where. If not where can you get the plug to attached to the fan leads. Thanks

I install the plugs myself, actually. I have these little kits that you build onto the wires from the fans(build into a receiver plug). Takes a few minutes, but then it is plug and play.

I would hook up to the 3rd channel but I'm using it for the shift servo still. I think I'm just going to tie into the BEC output wires and see how it works. I don't think this little fan should drop the voltage to the reciever too much.......I'll let everyone know how it works when its finished.

You can also place a small resistor from 1 pack to the fan to limit the volt's.

I was thinking about that too but I think a resistor would "waste" too much electricity compared to the fan alone. Even though I'm going for power in my truck I want to keep as much run time as I can.

I run a couple of 12v pc fans straight from the main cells.
at 22v they do spin some :030: never last too long though :027:

Heres a picture of mine, it's a small 25x25mm Laptop fan (plugs into 4th reciever channel). It blows air onto the ESC and has a switch near the transmission, so I can have it on when it gets hot rather than just on all the time. :)

Zip-ties are your friends.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2238/dscn09229fu.jpg

That looks like a winner - Thats basically the same as Mike and I have on ours - cept we keep ours on all the time - cause ya never know when some nitro knucklehead needs a good reality check. You wanna race out Emaxx with a nitro http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...d/untitled.jpg

Put those two fans in series instead. Assuming they are rated the same current/voltage, each will get 11v and will last longer.

Using a resistor is not really bad as long as it is used to control one fan and that fan draws .2A (200mA) or less. To find the resistor value, just subtract the fan voltage from the supply voltage, and then divide that by the fan current. To find the power rating for the resistor, simply square the current, multiply by the resistor value, then double the final value for safety. Usually a two or 5 watt resistor is fine.

If CH3 is being used, hooking them to the output of the BEC. or the output of the on/off switch would be the best choice IMO.

Now were's the fun in that?
thay last about 2 months..thats good enough for me :003:

I hooked it up to the BEC output wire and it seems to be ok.....although the speed control isn't hooked to the motor yet. Since this is the first time I powered up the system I noticed that the steering servo seems to pulse/twitch when no steering input is being given, even when the wheels are off the ground. I disconnected the fan and the twitch did not change. The shift servo does not do it. I have an Airtronics MX-3XS controller and reciever and an Airtronics ERG-VB high torque steering servo. Does anyone have any idea what this might be caused by? The BEC is all the way in the back of the truck as far away as possible. I tried moving it around with no affect. Radio interference maybe? I was inside by the entertainment center.

Metal=BAD
 

Is the antenna wire touching, or very close to any metal parts? If so you should try relocating it. Sometimes this can cause the twitching you described (I experienced this with my rustler). Usually, if you can just run it straight up through the body and not snake it around other components, it won't recieve any interference. Oh, is that a DIGITAL SERVO? I have a Futaba S9451 and it does twitch every so often, but, not enough to affect my control.