Fantastic Fan variable speed control

[Vic Harder]

see post #75 above... added a large capacitor across the power leads. Squeaking gone.

 

[buckland]

Not sure what's going on... mine is silent on exhaust (a bit of a cyclical clack on intake)... it might be the unit as they are not well made and may have interference of some kind. A couple folks have said that they bought two after the first failed. Might just be a crap shoot as to the quality. Mine has held out for a total of daily use for 3 months over two years (touch wood). Could the noise be coming from the motor bearing? With uneven weighted fan blades putting a piece of duct tape on a blade to balance can help if that is the source.

 

[buckland]

Hey Vic... just saw your post (read the other post from mail) ... do you have a link to said capacitor? Or info on it?

 

[LAWNMOWERMAN]

Yes-more info on the capicator you used,please.

 

[Vic Harder]

oh man, I just looked in my spare parts bin and put in the biggest one I could fit. Electrolytic type for sure. I could get pics?

Vic

 

[LAWNMOWERMAN]

oh man, I just looked in my spare parts bin and put in the biggest one I could fit. Electrolytic type for sure. I could get pics?

Vic

Polarized or non polarized and the values of the cap would be good info if possible.Thanks

 

[Vic Harder]

OK, so here is a trial fit of the PWM speed controller:

And this is the capacitor, 25V 4700 microfarad polarized version. No fancy testing here to see what was best. I just had this lying around and used it.

 

[LAWNMOWERMAN]

Vic,Thanks for the info and pics.

 

[Stokeme]

Quick heads up/caution ...
With my front vent I had to order a fan & other material to install. Decided I liked having a rear fan. Not much draw. The front vent was more problematic than the rear vent. The rear was just about altering the already installed FWC 3spd fan. The front went pretty smoothly with the actual controller unit much like the rear install. Here is where I had an issue ...
Turned the fan on & it instantly blew the fuse. New fuse, blew it, third fuse blew it. I figured it was the controller. Ordered another controller & finally got around to install months later. Same issue, instantly blew the fuse. My son suggested the incoming FWC wiring could be the issue. Well, Yes, the White & Black were Reversed. Not sure if this is typical. Luckily the fuse took the hit like it should. I have not read this entire thread to see if this occurred elsewhere. Encountering reversed polarity is not expected.

 

[Vic Harder]

Black/White reversed? Yup. Been there, seen that. In my world, black is ground. NOT in the RV world.
https://www.google.com/search?q=rv+wiring+color+code&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA873CA873&oq=rv+wiring+color&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l6.4882j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[ntsqd]

When I rewired all of the low voltage DC in our old camper I used the automotive color coding scheme. Black is GROUND! Red is BATTERY +!

My conjecture is that whomever first came up with the RV low voltage DC color coding scheme was trying to follow house wiring methods so as to avoid electrician confusion. It was doomed to failure from the beginning, but now it's codified and will be very hard to change.

 

[PaulT]

*2

If wiring in area with, a white negative, I either replace white with black, splice in a section of black, or use Anderson connectors with black for negative. Otherwise, at some time in the future, I will screw it up with perhaps very negative results.

Paul

 

[lmwilco1]

I finally added a speed control to my Fantastic Fan. I used the wiring directions found here to get the job done. I used this PWM controler https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MK1SKRT. i removed the factory speed control and filled in the hole with plastic epoxy. Once it dried I drilled out the hole for the speed control pot size so I could install the PWN control. I did have to remove some of the plastic on the back side of the fan cover as the threaded portion of the pot was not long enough to go through. I ended up with just one knob instead of the original speed control knob and the new one. It works great.

Now I need to find the parts to convert the front vent into a powered fan as well so I can adjust it from the bed. If anyone knows the part numbers I would appreciate it,

 

[Vic Harder]

An aside.... I did the PWM mod a while back, and have added LED strip lights with hand wave activation to the camper. The sensor on the new lights has died twice... BOTH TIMES it was when the fan was on and I changed the speed (slowed it down) of the fan with the PWM controller.

Some kind of noise on the line caused by the PWM must kill that sensor.

Newer FWC are using these same lights. Be aware.

 

[Vic Harder]

I could use some help. As stated in the post above there is a strange interaction between the PWM fan control and the LED light strips that I installed. The LED vendor has been fantastic (pun intended) and replaced the LED bar with the hand wave sensor in it without question. Not wanting to push my luck, I have left it alone for now, and installed a separate push button controlled dimmer/switch from the same vendor. It works fine.

However! When the lights are OFF, if I use the PWM speed control on the fan and turn it to extremely low, the LED lights come on again (at their dimmest level).

I started investigating this today. I was thinking there might be a ground problem in the roof/ceiling wiring. This is the one area of the camper I left stock when I gutted/rebuilt my Puma. I used a length of wire that was grounded to the house batteries at one end, and used it to provide a solid ground at various points in the circuit.

1) No effect when grounding the white ground wire coming out of the ceiling to the fan
2) Grounding the white wire when it comes "out" of the PWM puts the fan at high speed... so the PWM is modifying the ground, not the power wire? Interesting.
3) Probing the ground side of the connection to the LED light bars puts them at full on as well. So the dimmer there also modifies ground vs power. Doubly interesting.

I'm stumped. I assume that somehow the PWM is changing the "relative" level of ground for the lights, and thought that adding a solid ground would fix that.

My next test will be doing much the same but with a jumper wire connected to the +ve terminal on the house batteries.

 

[pvstoy]

run a positive and negative jumper to the battery from the fan (use fuse for positive) as a test to have just the lights on the ceiling circuit. Then see if the lights are reacting to the frequency of the PWM controller. I have seen low grade (low quality) led lights do weird things with other stuff being used.

 

[CoreyTrevor]

The dimmer I used for my LEDs also did the PWM on the ground side.

My 2012 Eagle had a bunch of my arch nemesis little blue Scotchlok wire tap/ wire destroyer clip things throughout the wiring in the walls. I didn't get into the ceiling, but I'm sure they are in there too. I've seen so many of those things lose connection and/or cut the wire in half or both, I can't believe they still sell them.

I don't know if you have those horrid things in your camper, but I, like you, was wondering if a weak connection on the positive side somewhere in the ceiling could be your problem.

 

[Vic Harder]

run a positive and negative jumper to the battery from the fan (use fuse for positive) as a test to have just the lights on the ceiling circuit. Then see if the lights are reacting to the frequency of the PWM controller. I have seen low grade (low quality) led lights do weird things with other stuff being used.

To make sure I understand the test:
1) Pull fuse for the ceiling lights/fan (these are still wired as per factory so they are on one fuse)
2) Power the fan directly from the battery (fused). The lights will also have power now too
3) Adjust the PWM to see if the problem continues.

Right?

 

[Vic Harder]

The dimmer I used for my LEDs also did the PWM on the ground side.

My 2012 Eagle had a bunch of my arch nemesis little blue Scotchlok wire tap/ wire destroyer clip things throughout the wiring in the walls. I didn't get into the ceiling, but I'm sure they are in there too. I've seen so many of those things lose connection and/or cut the wire in half or both, I can't believe they still sell them.

I don't know if you have those horrid things in your camper, but I, like you, was wondering if a weak connection on the positive side somewhere in the ceiling could be your problem.

Yep, those devices are in there for sure. The ground wire from the ceiling (one of the places they HAD to run a wire to create a ground... otherwise the frame is usually the stock grounding source) was redone by me when I gutted the camper, so I know that's good. I ran a fused wire to the ceiling wires as well, so the source power is good. Not sure of what happens to that after it makes it up into the ceiling.

Worst comes to worse, the ceiling fabric is removable per my installation method, so I can get at the wiring if I need to.

 

[ntsqd]

I don't play an EE in real life and I didn't stay at the Holiday Inn last night, but I'm thinking that some of the PWM's switching high frequency is bleeding into the power supply. Maybe try a small capacitor across power & ground at the light controller?