Ouch! Laid off? Well, if you want to move to Oregon, I know the company I work at is starting to hire again. Go to website.

I'm so glad I found this thread =) My new project involves waste-water / peltier cooling for more or less all parts that generate any noticable heat in the PC.

It goes witohut saying, this project wont be complete without generous amounts of sensors!

Unfrotuantely I'm a real dunce when it comes to electronics, and even the simpler scematics leave me scratching my head :(

I have a ton of questions, but Il try to make them structured and straight to the point:

- The presoldered kits you are providing will basicly be completely ready to use, just plug 'em into the SMBus, provide current to power it and place the sensors right? Or is there anything I missed? This is exactly what I need, idiot-proofing ;)

- The kits your providing, do they come with sensors for all the possible connections, ie. 4 sensors for the 1668?

-The temp sensors you are using arent the same as the madhacker guide apparently. Whats the difference, and why did you choose these instead?

- Im having a hard time deciding wich type i want, mostly because Im not sure about the chips specs. the 1668 has 4 external sensors, and 1 internal right? and the external ones are +/- 3C ? What about the 6655? how many external and internal sensors does it have, and how many voltage sensors? What voltage-ranges can you measure on it? the temp sensor spec says +/1 1C, but at 60C+. Does anyone know how it handles 0C and up?

- I have heard you can calibrate these sensors, to minimize the incorrect readings. Does this mean that the +/-3 C sensors can be reasonalby decent after calibration, or what? Im not after super-accuracy, so 1 degree or so off the target is no problem at all, but 3 degrees of is starting to get pretty inaccurate.

- Can you connect these kits together? Like for example, a dual 6655 + a single 1668 kit? If so, does the currenct desgn allow for reasonably easy access to this?

- Lastly, since I'm obviously on a completely different (lower) level than you guys, I figure it would probably be best to just describe what I need, and get a recommendation instead of choosing for myself. So here goes:

Need minimum 9 sensors for: inflow water - outflow water - PSU (1 air temp, 1 waterblock temp) - GFX card ram-chips - harddrive - RAM - ambient air temp - case air temp (internal 1668 sensor?). I also played around with the idea of adding an external sensor to the GPU and CPU core, but I don't know if that is just redundant since these have sensors allready. Whats the verdict on integrated sensors? Too inaccurate, or just fine? In any case its something im willing to drop if needed to keep the cost down.

With my limited understanding it looks like a dual 1668 would do the trick, but atleast 2 of these sensors should be reasonably accurate, preferably 3. Will calibration of the sensors on the 1668 give reasonably accuracy to work with, or would I need some sensors connected to a 6655 for that? Again, Im not talking about centigrade fractions kind of accuracy. I can live witohut that. Lastly, I would of course be willing to skimp on some sensors if it would be required to be able to put it on just 2 chips or whatever.

I hope I didn't drive you all crazy with all the questions, and that I can get a recommendation or two.

This means of course, that I'm interrested. Exactly what I need will get will depend on the recommendations ect. but we are likely talking about a dual-chip, or 2x single chip boards together, depending on what works. I will obviosuly want pre-soldered, since I'm a hopeless case :p

-Stigma

EDIT: I'm very sorry to hear you got laid off :( I hope you get a new (and better) job soon :)

Stigma,

Yes, the presoldered kits will be ready to use. I will pretest all of them most likely.

Either of the two temp sensor kits would have four external sensors.

Don't know about the calibration issue, someone else will have to chime in on that.

I chose the smaller transistors because they are smaller and were recommended by part number in the Maxim documentation for the temp sensors. If you want, I can probably substitute the other type.

I believe you can daisy chain these together. At least according to others that have posted here. I just followed what was suggested. I'm no electrical engineer, but I can make basic circuits and understand specifications.

Hope that helps... Still sorting out stuff from work and going on two week vacation. I'll be back after the 12th and I'll try and post then.

have a good vacation

Have a nice trip =)

I will look forward to continuing the project when you return, and if I'm lucky, perhaps someone can explain to me the calibration procedure and issues by then ^_^

-Stigma

Just getting in line for one.

Wondering now if I could make it work on an I2C header as well, like the ones on mini-itx boards.

uhh? you talking about me? :confused:

lol

sorry to hear about loosing your job dude, trust me i know how that is :(

This won't directly effect this but development on MBM has been stopped.

http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

MadHacker also showed how the SMBus could be accessed on mobos that don't have a dedicated SMBus connector, by using an empty RAM Dimm slot...

This made me think. And I suggested to starbuck3733t that he could make a circuit on a Dimm-shaped PCB, so that all you have to do is slot it in an empty memory slot (which, of course, makes the right connections), hook up the probes and presto!

starbuck3733t is insanely busy right now, but if you happen to be making one, MMZ Timelord, I'm interested. Very interested.

That would open up quite a few problems if overclocking was involved. Not to mention it's potential effects on dual channel setups.

I would be very surprised if the insertion of a non-terminated DIMM into a slot didn't produce problems at high frequencies. Antenna circuit traces....

so, will you make this happen? how much will each soldered kit cost approximately?

Antenna effects? :rolleyes: It would be pretty silly to have contacts on your psuedo-DIMM for anything but SMBus, power, and ground.

I'm in for a dual 6655 board, as long as it comes with all sensors and presoldered for <$50

No more problems than if you hooked up on a dedictated SMBus connector on an overclocked system. As Groth says: you'd only have contacts on your psuedo-DIMM only for SMBus, power, and ground.

Most of my concern would be simply populating another DIMM slot... ;)

Hey, life is about compromises... ;)

:D not much need to worry about temps if you drop your overclock. LOL

I just envisioned someone piggy backing onto a std but empty DIMM PCB.

update??????

Yes... and the fun begins here: http://www.wizdforums.co.uk/showthre...&page=11&pp=10

first pic is a rough idea of teh dimm before I got the JEDEC specs on the 184pin DDR format. A few posts before that is the funniest post EVER by nexxo.

Wow, that sounds very interesting!

Do you have a design for the max 6655? I have 2 samples from maxim still unused, waiting for a pcb. If you have make it, i'm on for a couple boards, or better, a dual 6655 one.

If you want to make a PCB for the MAX6655 then you can just use the one they provide with the MAX6655EVSYS documentation

That was my initial plan, but choose to make a smaller one. But I have my samples ready since a month and no time to make the pcb, so buying one ready, that also fits in a dimm slot sounds great.

Is this project still going ahead as planned, or has it been indefinately delayed by Timelord's sudden unemployment?

Im still very much interrested, and up for 2 kits (or a dual), as long as the project is still a go within a reasonable amount of time.

Please give us an update.

-Stigma