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Re: Problems with custom fans on Pro6 with 6.2.3 beta

ddoming73
Tutor

Problems with custom fans on Pro6 with 6.2.3 beta

Hi Everybody,

I had an idle Pro 6 lying around, so I did some tinkering and upgraded it with a Q6700 + 8 GB RAM. In order to handle the CPU I upgraded the CPU heatsink and the fans. I changed the case fan and CPU fan to Noiseblocker fans, and added a small fan on top of the chipset heatsink.

With OS 4.2.27 everything worked perfectly. The fans were all detected by frontview, and the CPU and case fans were correctly controlled.

I then decided to take the plunge and upgrade to OS6. The upgrade went fine. However, the fan control is not working well. I only see one fan on Frontview, which I "think" is the case fan, but I'm not sure. The CPU fan does not seem to be under control at all.

I'm wondering if my unusual setup with 3 fans, (and all of them unfamiliar) has confused the system.

I'm thinking of removing the chipset fan and doing a reset to factory defaults to see if the CPU and CASE fans are then correctly detected. Any idea if this will work?
Message 1 of 4
ddoming73
Tutor

Re: Problems with custom fans on Pro6 with 6.2.3 beta

OK, an update of what I have been doing with my Pro

1) Checked fan/pwm connections (all pwm files in /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon1/device): The case fan is controlled by pwm1, the CPU fan is controlled by pwm2, the small chipset fan I added was controlled by pwm3
2) I removed the small chipset fan from the system, so that the config was more standard.
3) I checked by directly changed the pwm1/pwm2 values to see if any of the fans were under system control. I think that the system reacts to temperature changes by moving pwm1 and pwm3. Strangely, it sets the same value in both of them. pwm2 (the CPU fan) is not changed at all.

4) Tried upgrading to the latest OS6.3.3 beta. No change in fan behaviour.
5) Tried a reset to factory defaults. Again, no change.

So, right now I'm at a loss. I found the following file: /var/readynasd/db.sq3, which contains a table called enclosure_health_spec, which has interesting data:


cd /var/readynasd
sqlite3 db.sq3 ".d enclosure_health_spec"

PRAGMA foreign_keys=OFF;
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
CREATE TABLE `enclosure_health_spec` ( `controller` INT NOT NULL, `name` VARCHAR(63) NOT NULL COLLATE NOCASE, `devid` VARCHAR(45) NOT NULL COLLATE NOCASE, `min` INT NOT NULL, `max` INT NOT NULL, `label` VARCHAR(45) NOT NULL COLLATE NOCASE, PRIMARY KEY (`name`, `devid`, `controller`));
INSERT INTO "enclosure_health_spec" VALUES(0,'Fan','CPU',712,9999,'CPU Fan');
INSERT INTO "enclosure_health_spec" VALUES(0,'Fan','1',712,9999,'Fan');
INSERT INTO "enclosure_health_spec" VALUES(0,'Temperature','sys',1,80,'System Temperature');
INSERT INTO "enclosure_health_spec" VALUES(0,'Temperature','cpu',1,85,'CPU Temperature');
INSERT INTO "enclosure_health_spec" VALUES(0,'Temperature','aux',1,80,'AUX Temperature');
COMMIT;


This table seems promising, it seems to be the config for the fan control system. Has anyone tinkered with this table? Currently it does not make much sense, and does not seem to match the fan information presented by the web interface.

Help, anyone?
Message 2 of 4
ddoming73
Tutor

Re: Problems with custom fans on Pro6 with 6.2.3 beta

Another update. I now seem to understand better what might be happening.

The CPU fan may actually be under control of readynasd as hinted at in other threads, but the system may be using the 84ºC threshold (reported by the CPU?) in coretemp.

But since I want a lower limit than that, I need my own solution for now.

I remembered that in OS4, the CPU fan was actually under automatic control of the Winbond hardware monitoring IC, so what I have done is a small script that setups that control on system startup. Here it is (I have it on the /root directory):

#! /bin/sh
#
# Calibrate W83627ehf driver for controlling Noiseblocker S-Series M8-P PWM fan
# on PWM2
#

# Start Voltage - 5V according to fan datasheet. We set 75 as that's what
echo 75 > /sys/devices/platform/w83627ehf.2576/pwm2_start_output
echo 75 > /sys/devices/platform/w83627ehf.2576/pwm2_stop_output


# Set targer temperature - There is around 10-15!��ºC difference between the
# thermal diode sensed on temp2 and the CPU core temperature shown
# on the Web interface. I set the target to 45 to keep the cores and the board
# at a around 55-60 ºC
echo 45000 > /sys/devices/platform/w83627ehf.2576/pwm2_target

# Set Auto Mode
echo 2 > /sys/devices/platform/w83627ehf.2576/pwm2_enable

exit 0


In order to get it to run on startup, I created the following systemd service file (called CPUFanControl.service)

[Unit]
Description=Setup automatic CPU Fan Control
After=readynasd.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=-/root/CPUFanControl.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target


This file must be saved on /lib/systemd/system/ and then enabled.

cp CPUFanControl.service /lib/systemd/system/
systemctl enable CPUFanControl.service
systemctl start CPUFanControl.service

The service simply calls the script once at startup and exits. The "After=readynasd.service" line ensures that it is called after the readynasd daemon is started, just in case the daemon is setting any of the pwm settings to other values.

So far this works for me. I'll be monitoring the fans and temperatures over the next few days to see if things stay stable.
Message 3 of 4
ddoming73
Tutor

Re: Problems with custom fans on Pro6 with 6.2.3 beta

OK, Apparently the CPU temperature is stable at 35-37ºC

The chipset temperature stays at 55ºC-57ºC.

I got more or less the same temperatures on OS4. So this seems to be working.

I have seen that some users have managed to show the status of the CPU fan on frontview. I'll now see if that is possible for me.
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