Guest La Viva Sativa Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Yep I read that post on the hidden settings with great anticipation... sadly mine is about 3-4 years old and doesn't seem to have that functionality... must have got an old even crappier model. Besides for idling I want to be running at 20-30% at which speed the Echotechnics utterly fails it's like 4x louder than 100%. Stepped voltage from the transformer on the other hand produces no hum at all. So until such time as they provide an environmental controller that uses a transformer as opposed to a resistor to vary fan speed, what you make will (always) be better than what you can buy in my humble opinion. yeah i totally agree i have a sms 5 step smart Mechanical voltrage controller and its awesome but ways a ton and no ggod for my tent cost me £250 and is awesome. you dont want to run any fan under 40% as it causes lots of damage on the windings and your fan wont last very long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laphroaig Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Hehe best way to tell how good your fan controller is, is to weigh it! Didn't know that below 40% will damage the fan though, thank you for that, will probably keep it on the number 2 or 3 setting and avoid 1. Although I have been running the 12" at low speeds allot over the past 12 months and I'm concerned I may have buggered it up long-term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laphroaig Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Hmmm, I dunno after reading a bit on variacs it seems that I need to switch both neutral and live not just the live for the transformer to work. Need help cos I'm stoopid, perhaps something like this would work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NetFisher Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Hi. I've just put one of these together and could really do with a second opinion from a sparky before I try it. Does this look right? Also, on the actual fan dimmer there is L1, L2 & C. I've connected Brown Live to L1 & Blue Neutral to C. Is this right. Thankyou. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NetFisher Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Hi. I've just put one of these together and could really do with a second opinion from a sparky before I try it. Does this look right? Also, on the actual fan dimmer there is L1, L2 & C. I've connected Brown Live to L1 & Blue to C. Is this right. Thankyou. E2a: I realise that the 2 wires coming from the dimmer are considered live regardless of colour. Just need to know if this will work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trichomedome Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 I,m not saying it,s not the case but i,ve used a rvk 100 for 5/6 years with a speed controler, a lot off the time it was at 25/30% Also i have an ecotech controler which i have preset to switch off below a certain temp, due to it,s hysterious ability when it switches back on it,s only at 25% power it will then turn it,s self up or down acordingly but can go down to as little as 20% the factory defualt setting. The ecotech and 2 150,s are almost a year old and no probs to report ? Like i said, i,m not saying it,s not the case but i,ve never had any trouble with any and always used a controler. Odd if it is the case ??? CR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trichomedome Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Yep I read that post on the hidden settings with great anticipation... sadly mine is about 3-4 years old and doesn't seem to have that functionality... must have got an old even crappier model. Besides for idling I want to be running at 20-30% at which speed the Echotechnics utterly fails it's like 4x louder than 100%. Stepped voltage from the transformer on the other hand produces no hum at all. So until such time as they provide an environmental controller that uses a transformer as opposed to a resistor to vary fan speed, what you make will (always) be better than what you can buy in my humble opinion. mines is under a year old and does not have these aleged setting either ??? CR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trichomedome Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 shit,it is great thing..thanks mate.i will make my own. You can also wire a humidistat into it aswell. I used a thermo and humidistat mix for years 100% hassle free. I have an ecotech now But £ for £ a thermostat and humidistat wired together is the best value enviroment controler you could get £20 or a delux varible model £32 . Why not it works ! CR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laphroaig Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Hurrah! After several attempts I've just about finished building and testing my adapted stepped voltage fan controller. Just waiting for a couple of trailing sockets to finish it off. Just to remind you here's the original. And here we have the almost finished article. The dial sets the idle or night time fan speed. The thermostat sets the minimum temperature which defaults to 20 degrees Celsius which is fine by me (will never need to worry about resetting it if there's a power cut). Below 20 the fan is idling and the heating output is active. Above 20 the relay bypasses the stepped voltage controller and runs the fans at 100% until the temperature drops below 20 again. Blew a few fuses (just the 2A quick-blow ones on the PCB) getting the wiring right, managed to wire the relay backwards first time so it shorted out every time the thermostat kicked in . After that I was running the heating and maximum fan speed at same time . Finally I managed to figure out what wires to stick in what holes and it all worked perfectly as envisioned .. ... well almost the hole where I stuck the DIN rail isn't wide enough for the on delay relay I was going to use for the heater, but I'm not too bothered. In fact I'm very pleased, will be so nice to loose that horrible and useless Ecotechnics unit. Peace 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scraglor Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 (edited) laphroaig, your voltage controller has an input for a room thermostat, edit: or is that input just to control the damper motor o/p i'll take another look.... if it's a true input, your fan simply connect to u1 and n1 and the thermostat to the rt terminals i see you've used a relay to disconnect power to the controller when it switches over, so all good and safe there... Edited December 11, 2011 by scraglor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scraglor Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 forget i spoke, just had a look and the model you've got doesn't even have the built in relay or terminals connected, so wouldn't matter anyway, nice job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laphroaig Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 forget i spoke, just had a look and the model you've got doesn't even have the built in relay or terminals connected, so wouldn't matter anyway, nice job High praise indeed! Thank you Sir! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Petrelli Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Nice info guys I was just about to post a thread on whether I could adapt this twin fan varaic based speed controller I found on ebay for £65 to accept a thermostat and something to trigger the oil rad, seems Laphraoig is on the case already Nice work mate... The controller I found seems to be pretty much a twin speed version of what you have there. I need to read through to see what you've done... Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laphroaig Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Cheers Peter! Good luck to you mate. Very pleased with mine, have had one instance where it has let me down, one of the 20mm 2 amp fuses on the PCB blew bout a week ago, replaced it and it's been fine since. Thinking of swapping out the 2amp fuses for 3 amp ones or maybe use slow blow as opposed to fast blow. Dunno much about fuses but the unit is only running a 10" Ruck cabinet fan, should be able to handle that. Fortunately only the reduced speed setting was affected, full speed still functioned as intended and so no great harm was done as a result of the fuse blowing. As an frequent sailor on the bay of e, I'd recommend you keep your eye's peeled for a nice cheap wireless thermostat. Reason being the coil generates heat, only a little but it's enough to skew the temperature reading by several degrees with the 'stat mounted on the case. Having a wireless unit like the Danfoss RX1 I've just used on my lighting controller (cost me about £25 with p+p) is the way to go in my humble opinion. Well that or a piece of flex to allow you to mount it away from the transformer. Peace (and don't forget to tell us how you get on!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laphroaig Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I thought I better update this for completeness. Took the box off the wall today as I was sick of the thermostat lying to me. Transformers produce waste heat, putting the thermostat on the case was a bad idea. So I took it off. Which kind of left an ugly hole, so I made it bigger and put a 3 pin socket there, wired up to the variable output. Drilled a 22mm hole in front of the case, installed a cable gland and threaded the wiring for the thermostat through. So now it just hangs in mid-air and gives a far more accurate reading. In addition the second socket lets me plug in the wall fan. I guess I could have lived with it as it was but to be honest I was getting withdrawal, needed to feed the DIY monkey on my back! I've really got the bug! Had to start buying stuff for the next project too! This time it's for the babies and mums room and it's going to be groovy! Peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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