Bigben2k:
I was also wondering about the temperature. But I had it all set up about six feet away from my computer. I could hold my finger on the voltage regulator tab, it was hot, not burning hot. When I got the fan controller I removed the plastic (very thin) shell that was folded around the controller. I did not like the idea of confining the heat generated inside with no way to get out.
When you asked for temps I moved my test setup over next to my computer and put a DigiDoc probe on the aluminum heat sink mounting tab of the voltage regulator.
The fan controller is isolated from the air movement created by the fans.
The room temp next to the fan controller is 31c.
The temp of the voltage regulator is 45c.
When I made the fans work very hard (a coat over the large floor fan, a heavy work sock in front of the case fans) (radiators and heat sinks can make fans work hard) the temp increased to 49c.
With the fans back to being unimpeded I placed as small fan next to the controller and the temp of the voltage regulator dropped to 34c.
The above temps were for the fans running at full speed.
When I lowered the fan speed to just above start speed for the fan that was hardest to start the temp dropped to 43c.
If that’s to hot for you a small heat sink bolted to the hole in the tab of the voltage regulator and a little air circulation will lower the temp of the voltage regulator. Nothing else (capacitors, diode, resistors, pots) in the circuit produces heat of any significance.
All of the above temperature values are rounded to the nearest whole value, and were made using the same probe from my DigiDoc. The probe is not calibrated, and I do not mean to imply that there is any accuracy in the values displayed by my DigitalDoc 5. End of disclaimer.
The test has been running for over six hours with no problems. After this post I will turn it off, and call it a success.
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Have fun, FuzzyFace
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