[pHaestus]

The plan
This is the newest of the half-baked ideas here a procooling: a monthly electronics project designed by committee in our forums. I am going to decide upon an electronics project every month, and then we are going to agree upon features and design parameters for this project. Then, we will come up with one or more than one design. I am going to put a cap of ~$75US per month on parts (but I am not counting resistors, capacitors, breadboards, solder, wire, or anything that people probably have around if they are building electronics projects at home) because I am paying for this out of my pocket. So if it is an involved project I may not be able to make as many variants as if it is a simpler project. I have never etched a PCB before, but if it is agreed that this is the way to go then I can either get a kit or get someone in the EE department to have the pcbs made for me. Unless we agree that a design either does not meet the goals or has a major flaw, I will build all of the completed designs (that I can afford to make), compare/contrast them, and give a final analysis. Parts lists with digikey numbers, pcb drawings, and all other information needed to reproduce the project will be posted on Procooling. I think that we should take 2 weeks in the discussion/ design phase and then I will have 2 weeks to assemble and test the designs. Maybe, just maybe, I can track down a sponsor for this article series to get some goodies for contributors (like the Pro/Geeks section). If not I will just sign you up for pr0n via e-mail or something.

The project
Peltiers seem to be gaining in popularity with water coolers every day. Sure they are expensive to run and potentially dangerous, but they get CPUs COLD and are a lot less of an investment than a commercial phase change system if one already has a watercooling setup. The dangers of peltiers aren’t inherent, but they add complexity to a cooling system and can fail catastrophically when care isn’t taken. I can’t count the number of threads I have seen on forums that detailed someone’s spectacular meltdown from a pelt mishap. These are usually due to: pump failure or running the peltier without the pump being on, but I am sure you guys can imagine some other scenarios. Peltiers on graphics cards seem to be the hip thing now, and the thought of burning up a $500 vid card makes me cringe. So I am proposing that we develop a comprehensive control system for peltiers that makes them more suitable for use in the system of an absent-minded person like myself.

The goal here is peace of mind while using a peltier-based system. The features that came to my mind immediately are:

1) Turns peltier PSU, pump, and fans on and off with the PC so that there is no danger of running the pelt without pump.
2) Shutdown if temperatures exceed a certain point (the cold plate seems a logical spot to measure to me).
3) Shutdown of system in the absence of flow

And I can think of one other feature that would be interesting to add: A delay for PC boot until the cold plate is cold (a la phase change setups).

Ok then let's get this party started!