HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

[sam_sam_sam]

I just bought two of these new version of there battery charger because I bought there 12 amp hour battery packs and the standard ones over heat

https://www.harborfreight.com/20v12v...rger58922.html Charger

https://www.harborfreight.com/20v-12...ery-59246.html Battery Pack

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403633842136 Cooling Fan

I put a battery on the battery charger and you can hear the fan struggling to get up to speed at which it is set to

Plus when taking apart the battery charger case the wires are extremely short so the PWM signal wire got ripped off the small circuit board on the fan

So I bought some computer grade cooling fans with longer wires and you can hear the difference in the speed pickup with these fans

But of course the fan connector to charging board is different so I had some computer boards that are from the Windows XP area these boards have a lot of bloated cap on them and they are multi layer boards which are a pain in the rear to deal with so I am using them for parts

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

Update on this modification to the battery charger it keeps the switching power supply board a lot cooler and the fan comes up to speed very quickly compared to the original fan that was in there I will not have an issue with changing 12 amp hour battery packs on these two battery chargers

I wish that other tool battery manufacturers would do this for the higher amp hour capacity
battery packs

Milwaukee battery charger has the same heat issue with the 12 amp hour battery packs the charger case gets very warm but not too the point that I am concerned about this issue however there is no real easy way to put a cooling fan in the case it would have to be mounted on the outside of the charger which to me is unfortunate
there is a section of the battery BMS protection board that also becomes very warm as well which to do any good you would have cool the space between the battery pack and the battery charger case like they do in the new HERCULES battery charger that was made for the new 12 amp hour battery packs

[stj]

Re: HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

those $3 fans you got for 9.99 are junk,
it really puts into perspective just how bad the originals were!!!

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

those $3 fans you got for 9.99 are junk,
it really puts into perspective just how bad the originals were!!!

It was 5 cooling fans for $9.99

Yes the ones that they used are junk in fact the reviews about this new battery charger there was a couple of complaints about the fan is noisy while charging I also wrote a review about this battery charger and my complaint was about the quality of the cooling fan

The fans that I am using are not very noisy you can barely hear it until the charger has been on for awhile and switching power supply board is generating heat and the battery is adding some heat as well it does get a little bit louder but it not terrible

Where can I find better quality cooling fans that are PWM controlled because this is the type used and they have to be 5mm X 5mm that are low profile there is no extra room for any other type of cooling fan

[stj]

Re: HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

i try to use Sunon brand.
i dont care about noise, i want CFM's

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

i try to use Sunon brand.
i dont care about noise, i want CFM's

Yes I want CFM but I want it based on temperature and just running at full speed for no reason


Sunon brand I will look at them and see if I can find the right one that will fit in the small space that it is

Is this the right one that you were talking about

https://www.ebay.com/itm/17093223234...Bk9SR_L2k6v6YQ

[stj]

Re: HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

thats the make, but i wasnt talking about a specific one - they make dozens of variations

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

thats the make, but i wasnt talking about a specific one - they make dozens of variations

Well it has to have 3 wires
50mm X 50mm X 10mm
PWM speed controlled

What else should I look for

[lti]

Re: HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

Are the original fans really 4-wire PWM fans? The two fans you linked to are just regular 3-pin computer fans without PWM. The third wire is a tachometer signal (two pulses per revolution).

With these cheap fans, you probably won't find full specs for the original fan, so you're kind of taking a guess about what will work as a replacement.

For brands, anything you can get from Digikey or Mouser will be better than what was in there. The CUI fans on Digikey look a lot like Sunon Maglev fans (so similar that I wonder if they're actually made by Sunon), and they're in stock.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

I thought it was one that was with the PWM control because with out the yellow wire connected the fan did not turn on when the battery was installed on the charger so I assumed that it was one those type of fans

No they are three wires ones I have use three wires before but they would work with out the third wire hooked up so that what got me confused about what type of cooling fan it was

[momaka]

Re: HERCULES 20V/12V Dual Voltage, PWM Cooling Fan not computer Quality

3-wire PC fans with their "standard" 3-pin connector (not sure what the part number / name for that connector is, if anyone knows to chip in here) are always non-PWM fans... i.e. just regular "always full speed" fans with the 3rd wire used for tacho / speed measuring output (which is usually yellow... but could also be blue or green, depending on fan brand.)

That said, 3-wire PWM fans DO exist. IIRC, Playstation 3 fans were of this variety - they had 3-wires: power, ground, and PWM. No tachometer wire.

One way to check what the old fans had is to hook them up to 12V (or whatever they require) and pull the 3rd wire with a 1k resistor to ground. If fan doesn't spin this way, but spins when you remove the 1k resistor from ground and connect it to 12V, then it's a PWM fan. If this is a regular 3-pin PC fan with a tachometer, pulling the 3rd wire to ground or 12V should not impact how fast the fan spins.

If you have the space (in the device that needs the PWM fans) and time + patience, you can build your own converter circuit to convert regular 3-pin PC fans to accept PWM signal. In most cases, the circuit will involve only 2 transistors (small NPN type and larger PNP type rated to handle the current of the fan) plus give or take 3-4 resistors. It should all fit on a small proto-board.