Sensor use on Papst Large Fan

Posted by Joe Balint at 1/19/2001 12:08 AM EST

Engineer on team #537, Domo ARIGATO, from Sussex Hamilton HS and GE Medical Systems.

Anyone have any idea what kind of signal is coming off the sensor wire on the Papst Large Fan that came in the KOP?

Posted by Justin Stiltner at 1/19/2001 12:26 AM EST

Student on team #388, Epsilon, from Grundy High School and NASA, American Electric Power, Town of Grundy.

In Reply to: Sensor use on Papst Large Fan
Posted by Joe Balint on 1/19/2001 12:08 AM EST:

: Anyone have any idea what kind of signal is coming off the sensor wire on the Papst Large Fan that came in the KOP?

I dont know for shure but I would guess that it is some kind of rpm thing.

just tie it up in my opinion.

Justin Stiltner
Team #388
Epsilon
Grundy Va,

Posted by Anton Abaya at 1/19/2001 11:09 AM EST

Coach on team #419, Rambots, from UMass Boston / BC High and NONE AT THE MOMENT! :(.

In Reply to: Re: Sensor use on Papst Large Fan
Posted by Justin Stiltner on 1/19/2001 12:26 AM EST:

yeah we had a mini-debate on this one…

someone said it was prolly to measure the temperature…somehow. and someone else suggested that it regulated the RPM whenever.

-anton

Posted by Nate Smith at 1/19/2001 12:01 PM EST

Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.

In Reply to: we were just talking about this!
Posted by Anton Abaya on 1/19/2001 11:09 AM EST:

: yeah we had a mini-debate on this one…

: someone said it was prolly to measure the temperature…somehow. and someone else suggested that it regulated the RPM whenever.

: -anton

While I don’t know for sure about this fan, the only other 3-wire fans I’ve seen are newer computer fans, and the third wire is a pulse line that is decoded to determine the RPM of the fan…

Nate

Posted by Adam Krajewski at 1/20/2001 5:58 PM EST

Engineer on team #221, MI Roboworks, from Michigan Tech and Houghton Area Schools and Meritor Automotive.

In Reply to: Looking at similar fans - RPM
Posted by Nate Smith on 1/19/2001 12:01 PM EST:

All but one of the three-wire fans I’ve seen/used (computer fans) used the third wire to monitor RPMs. The only exception simply reported whether or not the fan was spinning at all.

Adam

Posted by Joe Balint at 1/20/2001 11:06 AM EST

Engineer on team #537, Domo ARIGATO, from Sussex Hamilton HS and GE Medical Systems.

In Reply to: Sensor use on Papst Large Fan
Posted by Joe Balint on 1/19/2001 12:08 AM EST:

Actually, I’m fairly ceratin it is an RPM signal. I was wondering if anyone had played with it to see what format the signal uses or if someone had a more detailed spec sheet on it. As lead on this team I don’t have alot of time to do fun stuff, but I think I’m going to help one of the students look into this. We’ll let you know what we find out.

Posted by Michael Betts at 1/21/2001 10:47 AM EST

Engineer on team #177, Bobcat Robotics, from South Windsor High School and International Fuel Cells.

In Reply to: Re: Sensor use on Papst Large Fan
Posted by Joe Balint on 1/20/2001 11:06 AM EST:

Joe, et al,

The RPM signal will probably not be of much use as the RPM of the fan is pretty high and the update time of our CPU is pretty low.

If you need an RPM sensor, a better tack is to use the optical sensor with a small “flag” attached to the shaft in question.

Mike