Tales from a Ventilation Lunatic

[sternwake]

The new cv, cc b 5 amp vBuckers, well I had same design before,.and it failed, for some reason i can't remember, though i suspect/hope thT i shorted it experimemting.

The constant current function, in my intended use, is to limit max voltage from nearly 21 ridgid volts to about 15 max, as the voltage pot can easily blow.past 15v at flick of wrist, potentially frying fan.

Problem is that the cc function is not as precise, and repeatable, in my experiments,.so far, with larger buck/boost converter. Limit current so voltage only rises to 14v with max votage set with jewelers screwdriver at 16v, unplug and replug, and then max voltage can go to 16v again, and.flutter.causing fan to speed up and slow.down and sound sick.

I get extremely annoyed when it does not hold a constant chosen speed/white noise level.

I use an inline mini pot in series to dial in a minimum speed/voltage, but would need a potentiometer with a max as yet unknown resistance, in order to limit volage to under 15.

So now contemplating methods to physically limit the fingertwist range of 270 degree pots, if th3 newly arrived 5 amp cc cv vbuckers show same disPpointing inconsistency of cc function, which seems likely.

One other potential option, is to put fingertwist speed control pot on CC circuit, instead of cv, but iirc this did not work as well, on other fans, a while back.

How each specific fan tolerates a converter inline on its power feed is an unknown until actually wired up and tested.
The ffb1212ehes some have china as coi, others have thailand. Their circuit boards vary in design and components.

[sternwake]

The new cv, cc b 5 amp vBuckers, well I had same design before,.and it failed, for some reason i can't remember, though i suspect/hope thT i shorted it experimemting.

The constant current function, in my intended use, is to limit max voltage from nearly 21 ridgid volts to about 15 max, as the voltage pot can easily blow.past 15v at flick of wrist, potentially frying fan.

Problem is that the cc function is not as precise, and repeatable, in my experiments,.so far, with larger buck/boost converter. Limit current so voltage only rises to 14v with max votage set with jewelers screwdriver at 16v, unplug and replug, and then max voltage can go to 16v again, and.flutter.causing fan to speed up and slow.down and sound sick.

I get extremely annoyed when it does not hold a constant chosen speed/white noise level.

I use an inline mini pot in series to dial in a minimum speed/voltage, but would need a potentiometer with a max as yet unknown resistance, in order to limit volage to under 15.

So now contemplating methods to physically limit the fingertwist range of 270 degree pots, if th3 newly arrived 5 amp cc cv vbuckers show same disPpointing inconsistency of cc function, which seems likely.

One other other to put fingertwist speed control pot on CC circuit, instead of cv, but iirc this did not work as well, on other fans, a while back.

[sternwake]

I should likely see if Delta offers a 92mm 24v fan, for compact pocket fan duty.

Powering my clamp 24v papst fan via the ridgid battery is worry free regarxdng overvolting, and moves tons more air for much less noise at same wattage drawn from battery.
...

I cut the cord on the ridgid charger between cradle and wall wart converter.
Installed Anderson powerpoles, then inline wattmeter.
Papst clampfan draws max of 35 watts through it. Its raTed for 60 but never supplies cradle with more than 41 watts.
My dc to dc 150 watt boost converter set at 21.12v fed over 100 watts to cradle.
No inverter needed. And there is the option to fast charge.
Can lower voltage to charge ridgid battery a bit slower.

Battery does not accept anything with cradle removed from between boost converter and battery., as expected

[sternwake]

DELTA PFB0924DHE 24V 1.74A 9038 4-wire high air volume cooling fan.

Rated at 175 cfm at 24v.
Bet it is powerful enough at 20v, that a buck only converter could be the speed controller vs a buck boost which could feed it upto 33v.
Time.will tell.

My 24v papst and other 24v deltas have no issues being fed 30volts. No smoke at 33v either, but not worth chewing up another 0.5 amps for just 75 more rpm.

[sternwake]

Powered the van's 92mm goosenecked delta clampfan, a lot, this paSt weekend, from 4.0ah ridgid 18v baTtery.

At first was using buck boost converter inllne to prevent potential overvolting, but this clampfan has 10 turn potentiometer, requiring 5 full wrist flicks to go from minimum to max allowable voltage, so i removed warm BB converter from.circuit and just fought the occasional, but ever present urge, to apply max power.

Battery never taken below 1 of 4 bars going 8 hours plus, BMS never kicked in and removed load.

Powered fan directly from ridgid wall wart too, when inside conditioned house for white noise.

Today, carrying 12oz water bottle, expandable dog bowl, and tennis ball and phone in cargo shorts pockets, realized there is not really room for a 92mm fan and ridgid battery too.

I think i will Attach 3 individual 18650 holders in series for a much lighter and more compact 12.6v battery, for cargo short Fiona 92mm fan duty.

Poor girl stepped on some discarded bubblegum on a broken shell trail today. Sharp shells stuck deep between paw pads on front footie. She didnt want.to put any weight on that footie.

I had to call for a ride back, and carried her 55+ lbs over my shoulders for a quarter mile in 85f noon time sun to Parking lot.

Had to cut out the shells and bubblegum from between paw pads, cursing the human who spit their gum on the trail.

[sternwake]

The ecarc ridgid bTtery adapter pictured last page, is a bit different than some no name brand which arrived later.
The latter no brand name arrival has a smidge of solder connecting low strand count stiff 12awg to contact, where as ecarc had a12awg to a barrell crimp, to which i added a smidge of solder, and heatshrink.

Here is a nice 3 amp, 8 to 23v dc to USB-C power converter.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/195489741156.

I do have a portable single 18650 usb supply/18650 charger, but my healthiest 18650 can only get my phone from 10% to ~55%, at no more than 1.56 amps, intially. Charge rate falls off.pretty quickly

The android phone itself an charge uoto 1.68 amps to around 85% before amps.start tapering, with a powerful enough source and short quality usb c cable.

Still deciding how to mount it, and wire it up. Will be a parasitic draw if left connected.

My ciggy plug USB power supply, did not let out its magic smoke, when fed 20v, but it.did not work either, requiring me to use bucker inline to charge Android phone via ridgid 18v battery or.ridgid wall wart.

So the unit linked above, can eliminates a lot of bulk, weight, and wasted wattage.

[sternwake]

So I ordered another proven 12v 92mm Delta, and a bit later, an unproven 24v 92mm Delta, both claim 175 cfm, about 25$ each, delivered.

I was playing with new CC, CV bucker on 12v model, from 18v ridgid battery. Set voltage unloaded to 14.2v, hooked fan up and it screamed upto huge rpms and flow, as expected.

I then lowered constant current pot until voltage/rpm's started falling, and left that pot there.
then i dialed in voltage trim pot down way low, to low rpm quiet fan speeds, but it was not smooth and linear with the turns like i am used to with other bucker, and then the impeller quit spinning and the magic smoke escaped from fan hub.

Great.
wonderful.
so very happy.
I love wasting money, time and smelling burnt electronics for hours and hours even after the device is removed from area.

I do not know what happened but I will NOT be experimenting with these CC/CV 4015xl buckers with any fan I care about again. Perhaps they are only good for dc to dc single cell battery charging or powering leds, and a fan is too dynamic a load.

So smoked fan,, the bucker seems to buck fine still with no load other than voltmeter. glad I did not modify it with external pot.
....
The Delta 175 cfm 24v version I received, has 7 fan blades, not nine as the 12v version does. Hmmmm. Seller's pics show 9 blades too.

A WAY different 4 wire connector than I have ever seen on any other fan, and 4 wire colors, red, blue, purple, and white, all 24 AWG.

a different ebay seller of same fan said red was + and blue was -. hook up thusly and it does not fire up.
Hunt internet for more info on which wire does what. Gave up.

Removed impeller, hoping I could see wire entry and a + and - printed on visible side of circuit board. Nope.
frustration winning.

Reassembled it and tried purple as negative, nope, white as negative, nope, said F it, magic smoke can escape, I'm Over this BS, and twist blue purple and white wires together and touch to - terminal on 12v battery and it fires up, but very slowly fires up towards huge rpms, rpms far beyond i would ever need for more than 15 seconds or so. Its at risk of pulling itself off table or chopping off my fingertip or both, so i disconnect while its speed is still increasing..

I try it with blue and white wire twisted together as negative, nothing.
I try it with white and purple twisted together as negative, nothing
I try it with blue and purple twisted together as negative, and it fires up.
i twist white and purple together and feed blue to -, nothing.

blue and white together and purple to -, nothing.

I hook it to Ridgid 18v battery and it does the same but starts pulling itself backwards across table in screaming fingertip removal mode. Seems way more powerful/violent/loud than 12v 92mm proven Delta, at 13v.

So I get 92mm fan grille and install it, and a cardboard covered brick to hold it down on table, and try again direct on Ridgid battery. It screams far louder than I can handle, so i disconnect.

So I plug in 10 amp buck boost converter to 12v battery, dial it to 12v, and hook it up. I never even brought it close to 24v and speed increase just did not seem linear with voltage increase. Like there was a huge delay in fan rpm after voltage was changed.
Then I dialed it down, to around 10.2v and it was still significantly louder than my proven clamp 92mm 12v delta fan dialed low, and then about 10.12v it shut off.
I quickly dialed voltage back up to get impeller spinning, but no immediate response so I immediately disconnect powerpoles. replug and try again, same.

put voltage back at 12v, plug powerpoles together, and it slowly winds up to ridiculously loud rpms, then try and control speed by current pot.

Fan just sounds unhappy with current control trim potentiometer, as speed control. Not going to happen.

It's almost like this fan has its own buck boost converter inside of it, and manipulating the voltage and current by external means is just not going to work as hoped.

The 24v fan simply does not want to respond to voltage as a speed control like its well proven 12v brother does.

There is still the issue of potential overvolting and frying a potential new 92mm 12v model on the 18v ridgid battery.

So the 24v fan works, it moves air, I can hook it directly to a 20.47v ridgid battery, and it screams, ridiculously loud and powerful, but I cant control its speed, as i had hoped.
Perhaps the purple wire is a PWM signal wire. I have a clunky inefficient PWM signal generator, but...already wasted enough time. This 24v 92mm delta without a wide ranging speed control is basically useless to me. It's way too loud at 12.0v and shuts off around 10v, and seems just as powerful at 18.34v as it does at 12.0v. Spec sheet says it can handle 27 volts, but spec sheet said nothing about purple or white wires

The new, and freshly smoked 12v 92mm delta, well I basically need another one, for a cargo shorts pocketable fan to aim at a potentially overheating Fiona water dampened belly, and a different strategy.
My proven 92mm clampfans will not be messed with, and the goosenecks make them unpocketable.

Either I limit the travel of potentiometer so I cannot unintentionally feed it in excess of ~14v, via ridgid 18v battery, or I make a 3 series 18650 holder with my proven buckers as speed control, just for pocket fan duty, and risk overdepletion of the 18650 cells.

The Ridgid battery internal BMS is a nice feature.
Its getting hot outside, and I need a cargo short pocketable, speed/ noise controllable fan.


The range of motion limiter on a 3/4 turn voltage pot, controlling a 12v delta powered by 2.0Ah ridgid 18v battery on a proven bucker model, is likely the path forward for the safe reliable pocket fan



Crap, I hate it when a plan fails so miserably, and causes a product failure too.
I guess at least I did not smoke 2 fans this night experimenting, just one. unfortunately the one still containing its magic smoke, is not going to meet my needs, and I will struggle to find a task for it, likely wasting time and effort in doing so.







I can power 12v deltas via 18v ridgid battery but have to be careful to not ask for max power. It's easier with their 10 turn potentiometers to not go over, and I feel the slower voltage changes are likely better for fan and buckers. The 120mm 4$ Jaro fan uses same bucker and 3/4 turn pot and seems happy enough, on a 12v battery, and I have powered it on the 18v ridgid battery, but a wrist flick could equal magic smoke escape.

[sternwake]

My favorite buckers come with a 10K ohm voltage trim pot.
I desolder this and then add wires to its location, then use the trimpot to dial in a minimum resistance, so that when the in series 10K ohm finger twist pot is dialed all the way down, the fan still spins.

The buckers can handle 30v, so a lot of the upper range in a 10k pot is unused, on a 12v battery, especially with the trimpot inline dialing the minimum speed.

limiting the degree range of the 10K pot itself is one method to prevent overvolting a 12v fan with an 18v battery, but perhaps I should see what a 5k ohm pot does, probably still too much voltage potential though. but will have to try it. a 2.5k ohm pot might be the answer.

I really want to have the option of feeding the future 12v cargoshort 92mm delta 12 to 14ish volts, and no more, via the 18v ridgid battery, and also dial it way way down to a whispering light breeze.

[sternwake]

With more time to think and contemplate, I suspect a 2k to 2.5k ohm pot will solve my issues, powering delta pfb0912dhe through full speed range, via ridgid battery and cv only bucker.

I do see 2 wire pfb0924dhe,s that might work as hoped for, but.......
Will make.something work with what I have, for now
Screaming 50s, screechnig 60s..

[sternwake]

I made some custom Atc fused 18awg leads to fit in screw terminals on the cc cv bucker, inout and output.

Played with 92mm fan again.
As long as i give 10.55v, it coukd be the ridgid powered wet fiona belly pocketfan.
And if i very slowky lower voltage further, it can be dialed down to tolerable noise levels, but then abruptly shuts off after 30 seconds.

I then substituted 18650 holder in place of fan. Dialed Voltage to 4.19. The specific 18650 battery only needed 0.45 amps to hit 4.19v, and when I diaiLed current trimpot down to 0.25 amps, voltage fell to 4.03, and was only very slowly rising from there.

So these cc,cv 4015 buckers do work ok, as a single cell battery charger.

On necropsy of smoked 12v Delta fan, one component , as mosfet, which was partially melted was rated for huge voltage and amperage. One other smoked component was so burnt i could no longer read its specs..

My 50mm fan grilles arrived, and surprisingly, came with fan screwsz, already painted black.

Ive been considering ways to run respectable gauge wire to my cheapo AA/14500 and 18650 single cell holders and ordered.some 18659 holders which hold 2,3, and 4 18650s in series.

The clamp MOAF, is on hold, the clamp papst more than adequate, for now. Even in FL heat and humidity, if i hook bottom of sweat soaked T shirt over fan edge, crank it uop, and shirt balloons till i impersonate the michelin tire man, i can get chills and goosebumps in under 10 seconds.

I meant.to dial in 13.6v, on a CV only bucker, remove V potentiometer, and measure OHM across it, see.f I can dial in a min and max desired voltage range with a 2k or 2.5k ohm pot via ridgid battery.