[Dunwa]

I thought I’d start this thread as a “work in progress” on my plans to add some cooling to a cabinet. So the story so far, my little 16 month old is now taking a great deal of interest in the AV equipment in the living room because it has “buttons” so the wife and I agreed it was time to lock it away.

We bought, well have on order, a side board that has solid doors and can be locked with the use of any Mothercare child lock around the handles. I might get round to adding a key lock at a later date but for now that will do.

The first problem was how to control the equipment with the doors closed. The Harmony 895 with its RF capability solved that little one so the next question was how to keep all the equipment cool within a confined space. The easiest option was to add fans to the back of the cabinet but I was adamant that these fans had to be quiet and I didn’t want them running 24/7.

The fans were an easy purchase and I opted for 2 silent 120mm fans that would be more than up to the job of creating some airflow in the cabinet. I settled on the NorthQ Silent Tornado Casefan, they operate around the 12 – 17 db range and shift about 38 CFM of air. These have the standard 3 pin motherboard connector.

The next problem was how to power and control the fans. Most PC fans tend to run at 100% when the PC is on and 0% when it’s powered down drawing their power from the PSU. I looked at fan controllers that fit in a standard 5.25 drive bay and whilst they adjust the speed of the fans from 0% to 100%, this adjustment is manually made buy you twisting a dial. I couldn’t find one that was temperature controlled. By luck I stumbled upon the Mcubed website and found what I needed.

The Mcubed T-Balancer MiniNG is a completely self contained fan controller. It can independently control 2 fans from its 2 temperature sensors. By playing with the jumpers and the small rheobus dials you can adjust the profile so the fans are at 0% until a certain temperature whereby they kick in at 30% with the speed increasing or decreasing as the temperature alters.

The power for this unit is a standard 4 pin HDD Molex connector. To keep everything neat and tidy I purchased an Akasa P2 Series 3.5" hard drive enclosure. The plan is the MiniNG will sit inside and be powered in the hard drive enclosure. Coming out of the back will be the leads for the 2 fans and 2 temperature sensors.

Everything but the cabinet has arrived. So I connected up the fans, MiniNG & enclosure to test that is worked. At normal room temperature the fans were stationary but when I pinched the temperature sensor the kicked in. Letting go they ran for a few seconds then stopped again.

Once the cabinet arrives I will post images and my progress here so hopefully others trying to do the same thing can get some ideas.

Links

Akasa P2 Series 3.5"" USB External Black Aluminium IDE Enclosure £21.14

120mm NORTHQ Silent Tornado Casefan 2 x £5.83

MCubed T-Balancer MiniNG £28

Total cost : £60.80

[sapper]

I have a simailr problem, in the sense that my equipment is now in a contained wooden enviroment, but my cabinent is slightly different:-

• firstly I have a speaker clothed grill rather then a solid wooden door
• There is no back to my cabinet

So how could I mount the fans? One option is to find a method to secure them to the wall/carcass of the unit. There is an open back of sorts to helppush the air upwards and ultmately outwards.

Altnerantively, there is a gap running along the entire length of the unit. Possibly I could mount one fan in the carcss of the unit, and mount it at the lower lever where there is an effective outflow for the air along the central heating and cable route.

I will have to see how feasible this is, but maybe having one fan in the centre of the cuboard to encourage air through the door over the equipment, and to mount the other unit in the carcess to drag the air along the pipes/cables and out. I do need to lag these central heating pipes.

But how hot is it safe to allow these Av boxes before they fail. After all, the TV-Drive runs hot all the time, as does the Denon amp, when its on.

but £60 and soem effort is relativeyl cheap, prevention is better then cure. As such I have ordered the equipemnt, and when it arrives, Ican decide how to install it.

Thank you Deepcore

Adrian

[Dunwa]

I’m no expert in thermal dynamics but the general principle I’m working on is that hot air rises. I’ll be mounting the fans at the top of the cabinet by drilling two 120mm sized holes in the corners of the cabinet and arranging them so they draw the hot air out. As the cabinet is not airtight I’m making the assumption I don’t need to have fans drawing air in.

For your situation you could try the side walls if that’s possible, but then the vents would be visible. But it might be possible to use some ducting, I remember seeing some ducting to route the airflow inside a PC. You could have something similar to draw air from the top of the cabinet and expel it out of the bottom.

I'll dig through my history to see if I can find any links.

EDIT : Just had a look at the pictures linked from your sig. I see your problem, Hmmm will have to have a think about this.

[sapper]

There is an open rear upward vent in the unit, to naturally encourage the hot air to rise at the back of the cabinet up between the external masonary wall, and the false board.

As I have already said, there is an inlet for air via the door.

I will innitially try just securing the two fans inside the unit, one on the TV-drive shelf, the other over the Denon, and see if just air movement itself will help. I could get soem plywood, drill the hole for the fan in, and then secure maybe to the side of the carcass near the top.

If not, Ihave ordered an 80 mm fan to place into the side of the unit, to draw some air out wards, and so taking the warm air two routes, upwards, and side ways.

Parts are ordered, and when they arive, I will have a play.

Nothing has failed yet, but it is a concern, especailly when the central heating come on.

Will keep youinformed.

Adrian

[wested]

I eagerly await any extra information & photos concerning this project as I too have a similar problem with all my components installed inside a cabinet.

At the moment I have 1 fan attached to the underside of my Sky HD shelf blowing cool air into the machine. The fan is currently connected to a 12v adapter/voltage regulator plugged into the mains. The down side is that it has to be controlled manually by me using the voltage regulator slider control to change the voltage output and thereby adjusting the fan speed which is a bit of a pain.

I really would like to add another fan into the mix and have them both temperature controlled automatically with something like the 'MiniNG' that you recommend so it can self-regulate.

Please post the results when possible.

[Dunwa]

Sorry for the delay

The cabinet arrived yesterday and the fans have been fitted. Hopefully I should have the results posted over the weekend.

[BruceH]

following your lead, I have purchased a T-Balancer MiniNG and two big quiet fans.
I have but the MiniNG into an external USB drive bay (the USB controller is damaged), so it's just a power supply and a case.

I will mount the two fans at the rear of the cabinet but my question is....

Should I close (as much as possible) the back of the cabinet so that the fans create the airflow? Front of the cabinet is speaker cloth.
If I leave the back open and just mount the fans at the top then I don't think it will create the airflow through the cabinet.

Thoughts ??

I have setup the MiniNG up in the curve response mode with a middle of the road start temperature and put the temp probes on the amp.

Thoughts ??

[sapper]

Originally Posted by BruceH

following your lead, I have purchased a T-Balancer MiniNG and two big quiet fans.
I have but the MiniNG into an external USB drive bay (the USB controller is damaged), so it's just a power supply and a case.

I will mount the two fans at the rear of the cabinet but my question is....

Should I close (as much as possible) the back of the cabinet so that the fans create the airflow? Front of the cabinet is speaker cloth.
If I leave the back open and just mount the fans at the top then I don't think it will create the airflow through the cabinet.

Thoughts ??

I have setup the MiniNG up in the curve response mode with a middle of the road start temperature and put the temp probes on the amp.

Thoughts ??

Bruce I think we are in a simailr situation.

I am going to mount mins this week end hopefully and see if things improve..

Adrian

[AMc]

BruceH - I think you're right that you need to close up the back.

I would imagine that the best solution would be to leave a gap at the bottom of the back about 2 or 3 times the surface area of the fans to allow air to flow in without the fans having to strain or cause noise. If the fans are mounted horizontally you should get a decent circular convection inside as long as there is space between the shelves and the front of the cabinet.

If you seal the back completely and draw air just through the speaker cloth then the fans will have to work harder which will be noisier. It might cause the material to pull and sag over time (?) and it will pull dust into the cloth which could be a real pain to clean (?).

[Dunwa]

First off apologies for the late reply, a two to three week delivery turned into a four to five week delivery. So here it goes a guide to adding thermostatically controlled PC fans to you AV cabinet.

As I stated in my original post my goal was to add cooling to my cabinet. This cooling had to be reliable, thermostatically controlled and safe (no open circuit boards for little hands to find.)

By far the most difficult piece of equipment to find was a controller for the fans. Normal PC controllers are manual, they require you to twist a dial to speed the fan up or slow it down. The only controller I found that fitted the bill was the Mcubed T-Balancer MiniNG. It is a completely self contained fan controller. It can independently control 2 fans from its 2 temperature sensors. To power this unit I used an old HDD caddy which has a 4 pin Molex connector. The fans were two of the quietest 120mm fans I could find. So the full shopping list was ;

1 x T-Balancer MiniNG
1 x HDD caddy (Akasa P2 Series 3.5" IDE Enclosure)
2 x 120mm NORTHQ Silent Tornado Casefan
2 x Akasa 3 pin fan extension cables.
2 x Akasa chrome fan guards.
1 x Stanley knife

To begin with I cut two 120 mm holes in the back of the cabinet. I tried to make them a close to the top of the cabinet as possible to minimise on vibration noise and provide the best heat extraction. The fans were then mounted by screwing through the backboard into the fans. The backboard of my cabinet was 5mm; anything more and you might have to try longer screws.

Now that the fans were mounted, I set about cutting a cable exit for the fan power cables and temperature sensors. The back of the Akasa P2 Enclosure is actually coloured plastic, so with a sharp Stanley knife it was easy to cut a small hole that would allow the cables and plugs through.

Next it was time to wire the MiniNG up. Connect it to the 4 pin power connector and then set the jumpers to your desired choice as per the instructions. For my installation I went with Blockage recognition on, Analogue Silent mode on and Mode 3 – Step configured. I originally planned to use Mode 2 – curve but I was finding that the 30% power that the curve begins a was not enough to start one of the fans. I would make a buzzing sound, but didn’t start every time. The Mode 3 begins at 60% so the fans start every time without fail and there is still no noise.

So my jumper settings are :

0 : Open
1 : Closed (Mode 3)
2 : Open
3 : Closed (Blockage)
4 : Closed (Analogue)
5 : Closed (Mode 3)
6 : Open
7 : Closed (Blockage)
8 : Closed (Analogue)
9 : Temperature sensor A
10 : Temperature sensor B

Now the moment of truth, I connected the fans and position the temperature sensors.

Power on

The fans spin up quickly to 100% to check for blockages and then back down to 0%. I turned the potentiometers down to their lowest setting, which should mean they kick in at about 20C. By pinching the temperature sensors the fans would spring to life. Let go and they would continue to run for a few seconds then slow back down to 0%. I used a hairdryer and a digital thermometer to heat the cabinet to about 25C and then played with the potentiometers so the fans cut in at that speed.

All that was left to do was put the housing on, a little tip here. Don’t use the Velcro fastener that comes with the MiniNG as you wont be able to fit it in the case. Without it the case will close … just.

I decided to place the sensors near the hottest pieces of equipment so that their operations drive the fans. These being the Amp (bottom left) and the 436 XDE set top box (top right).

Over the weekend I’ll run it with everything on and the doors closed to see how things go. As well as sorting out the cables … god I hate cables.

[BruceH]

Excellent.
I assume you have both fans as exhaust (sucking air out).
Are you relying on air leaking in trhough the doors etc. for your air intake.
Makes we wonder though, if you are looking for the fans to run all the time your equipment is on (as I am), then maybe the trigger voltage from the amplifier trigger output would be enough to drive them without a fan controller, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Anyway, I've got totally carried away with this cooling thing now, so much so that I've designed an all new cabinet to take all my gear with enough space and fans to keep it all cool.

Would love your input.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-cinema-building-diy/409612-plans-proposed-new-av-cabinet.html#post3610130

Whichever cabinet I end up fitting the fans to, I'll post some pics.



Cheers,
Bruce.

[Dunwa]

Thanks for the complement.

Yes you are correct both fans run as exhaust and each can shift 38 Cubic feet of air per minute at 100% speed. I have no inlet fans and cool air will be drawn from around the edge of the doors and through the cable inlets at the bottom of the cabinet. When the doors are closed there is no increase in fan noise.

Sorry I can't help on the amplifier trigger output, as I'm not sure how these work.

I "soak tested" the setup over the weekend, everything thing on and running. The fans cut in and reduced the temperature as expected, but I still had to tweak the potentiometers to get things just right. So all in all I'm more than happy with the results.

How have the others got on with their "projects"

[RajP]

Excellent Job. Just what I am looking for. I know the MiniNG controls 2 fans.... can it however, power 4 and control 2 sets? I have a cabinet with 4 shelves and each will need cooling. I can either buy 2 of each item you have specified or go with 1 MiniNG and get it to control the 2 shelves which I know will be the hottest.. the shelves with Sky HD box and Mediacenter PC?

Thanks for creating this.

[Dunwa]

This is the information from the manual.

max. consumption: 10A
Combined power: 100W (PWM)/25W (analogue)
power per channel: 50W (PWM)/20W (analogue)

Unfortunatly it's been a while since my GCSE electronics and I'm not sure if I can be of any more help.

[sapper]

Originally Posted by Deepcore

This is the information from the manual.

max. consumption: 10A
Combined power: 100W (PWM)/25W (analogue)
power per channel: 50W (PWM)/20W (analogue)

Unfortunatly it's been a while since my GCSE electronics and I'm not sure if I can be of any more help.

Cheers Deepcore, your post was very informative and useful.

My stuff came this week, and I wish I had thought about the fan extension leads, I shall have to order/buy soem fairly soon.

I too had a longish delivary wait for the Control Unit, but it arrived towards the end of last week, and so on Sunday afternoon I had a quick play.

At the moment, my control unit is mounted in the open box in my cupboard, with the fans mounted on the basic setting, as in controled by the sensor; and seems to be working. The fan and sensor next to my TV-Drive on the top shelf which runs hot is on regularly, whist the one closer to the AV-amp runs less frequently. At the momnet, the fans are just at the front unmounted, but standing vertically, and the thermometer under the TV-Drive does seem to drop quite rapidly.

I will take a picture of the unit, to help explain, but would I be better of mounting both fans on the top shelf, or do I mount one closer to the bottom, near the AV amp and DVD player?

So my next aim is to get the extension leads for the fan power leads , and to make holes in the IDE box to allow the cables to exit, and then to mount the fans at the back of the unit, out of harms way.

Again thanks for your comemnts, and I will read your post again in more detail later.

Adrian

[Dunwa]

Ebay is your friend, you can pick them up for around £2.50 including P&P for next day delivery

Do a search for "Akasa 3-pin Extension"

I had a look at the photos linked in your sig. I’d try it with one fan on the lower shelf and one on the top. That way when the lower one is triggered it will draw the hot air to the back of the cabinet where it will then rise through gap at the back of the shelf. This way you should prevent a hot spot growing under your dvd player.

[sapper]

Originally Posted by Deepcore

Ebay is your friend, you can pick them up for around £2.50 including P&P for next day delivery

Do a search for "Akasa 3-pin Extension"

I had a look at the photos linked in your sig. I’d try it with one fan on the lower shelf and one on the top. That way when the lower one is triggered it will draw the hot air to the back of the cabinet where it will then rise through gap at the back of the shelf. This way you should prevent a hot spot growing under your dvd player.

I did a google search of "Akasa 3-pin Extension" which took me to an ebay supplier, and ordered a couple, but thank you

I am in a simialr feeling to you about the location, I will endeavour to take pictures tomorrow.

I shall need to finish the box, after palying around with the pots, and close it all up, together with moutning the fans; I have a cunning plan for that.

But thank youfor sharing your advice and comments.

A case of where the internet is a god send.

All the best.

Adrian

[sapper]

Originally Posted by rexgold

Excellent Job. Just what I am looking for. I know the MiniNG controls 2 fans.... can it however, power 4 and control 2 sets? I have a cabinet with 4 shelves and each will need cooling. I can either buy 2 of each item you have specified or go with 1 MiniNG and get it to control the 2 shelves which I know will be the hottest.. the shelves with Sky HD box and Mediacenter PC?

Thanks for creating this.

I have ordered two 80 mm fans and several 3 pin splitters.... as they were realtively cheap.

When they arrive, the plan is two have two fans (the 120mm) in the cabinet coolong the boxes, the other day, i had the fan on the tv drive on for an hour witht he tv drive off, and the box was cool to the touch.

The gap between the amp and the DVD shelf is about 83 mm. So the plan is to place two 80 mm fans if the mini-g will power them, to cool the AV amp.

the fans should arrive today but not sure when the y splitters will arrive.

Will keep youall informed

adrian

[jason g]

im not having my equipment, dvd player xbox 360 etc, inside a cabinet they will be on open shelves, however the plugs will be inside a cabinet so they are out of sight do i need a cooling fan for these, they will be plugged into a 6 socket extension lead.
also plugged in will be the led lights from aldi.
any advice would be great thanks.

[sapper]

Originally Posted by rexgold

Excellent Job. Just what I am looking for. I know the MiniNG controls 2 fans.... can it however, power 4 and control 2 sets? I have a cabinet with 4 shelves and each will need cooling. I can either buy 2 of each item you have specified or go with 1 MiniNG and get it to control the 2 shelves which I know will be the hottest.. the shelves with Sky HD box and Mediacenter PC?

Thanks for creating this.

My new additioanl fans and 'Y' spliitrs have arrived.

I connected one power lead to two 80 mm fans, and the other poer lead to two 120 mm fans.

The unit seems to be able to power the addtiaonl fans, though some times only one of the larger fans will kick in.

Will tinker today with settings and take photographs, but the unit seems able to power 4 fans.

Adrian

[BruceH]

cool.
What settings do you have the fan controller on?

stepped?
curve?

If you tweak the potentiometers does it make them both start up?

[sapper]

Originally Posted by BruceH

cool.
What settings do you have the fan controller on?

stepped?
curve?

If you tweak the potentiometers does it make them both start up?

Switching the unit on causes all fans to start turing.

If the pots are on the lowest settings, all four will turn, but i suspect the strain on the unit might be damaging.

In stead thay are on sensors using the method of cjumpers as describer earlier.

Adrian

[Dunwa]

Originally Posted by sapper

My new additioanl fans and 'Y' spliitrs have arrived.

I connected one power lead to two 80 mm fans, and the other poer lead to two 120 mm fans.

The unit seems to be able to power the addtiaonl fans, though some times only one of the larger fans will kick in.

Will tinker today with settings and take photographs, but the unit seems able to power 4 fans.

Adrian

Glad to hear it's all working fine, looking forward to the photos.

Hey ! My first post to AV Forums, but have read on and off for years. I moved to Cyprus recently and need to cool my cabinet as its toasty! My original plan with the cabinet maker was to have totally open back but to keep it closed and sort out ventilation at a later date.

Anyway furniture was delivered a week or so ago and my current setup is HTPC and AV Receiver, both of which get very hot after approx 1 hour usage.

So i`m now looking into temp. controlled fan system, and found your "how-to" guide via google !

My cabinet has two seperate sections, left side has two shelfs, right side has two shelfs. I was thinking to have two fans per pushing air into the bottom sections (these currently have the AVR and HTPC in) and then two fans per side pulling air out from the top shelf. There is 1" gap between the shelf and the front door, through which i hope the air will travel.

I`m hoping to use 120x120 fans as i've already got a couple of them from http://www.acoustiproducts.com/en/ac..._dustproof.asp.

So in total i`m thinking 8x120mm fans, all thermo controlled via the MiniNG. Now i`m struggling to remember my science math, but if the fans are wired in parallel then they will run at high speed ?, if they are worried in series they will run at half speed due to half voltage ? At half speed they'll draw less current but also be more quiet !?

Also how do you power the MiniNG ? External 12v PSU ?

[Dunwa]

First off, lovely set-up and thanks for the complements

When I was doing the research I discounted the need for inlet fans on my cabinet as it was in no way airtight and sufficient air would be drawn in naturally through the gaps around the doors and the cable inlets (2 x 80mm holes).

Looking at your set-up I would add 2 fans per cabinet, the 120mm fans shift around 56.3 cubic feet of air per minute that should mean the air in the cabinet is circulated every minute or so. If the cabinet were relatively airtight then I’d have 1 inlet on the bottom shelf and one outlet at the top.

If possible try to position the outlet fan in line with the exhaust from your HTPC. This way as the HTPC expels the heat it will be pushed straight into the fan and out of the cabinet.

If you have a look at the previous page you will see that I placed the miniNG in a hard drive caddy that has a 4 pin Molex power connector. There is the a 12V power pack with a standard UK plug that comes with the caddy. Mind you, you could always put the MiniNG inside your HTPC if you have a spare Molex connector ?

Actually the more I think about it the MiniNG is not for you.

Mcubed who make the miniNG make a much more powerful feature rich controller but it needs PC based software to configure and run it. I chose the MiniNG as it is standalone and I don’t have a HTPC. The caveat is that it will only run when you HTPC is running.

Have a look at the bigNG http://www.t-balancer.com/english/bng.htm. This can control 4 fans independently and using the software you can configure each temperature sensors (upto 10) individually. They also do a PCI version so it fits better in your case.

Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas, let me know how you get on.

[david.miller]

Inspired by Deepcore's work, I now have a cooled cabinet of my own! I went for a slightly simpler/cheaper solution, and I'm happy with the results - so I'll post what I've done here in case it's of interest to anyone.

I don't have huge amounts of kit - just an amp, Sky HD box and DVD player. However, my cabinet has a solid wood back (messy to remove, and probably helps to keep things rigid anyway), and even with extra ventilation holes the Sky HD box and amp were getting pretty hot - much too hot for my liking.

I decided to try having fans on at a constant speed all the time (rather than temperature-controlled) - partly to avoid the cost of a fan controller, but mainly because I find fan noise most noticeable when fan speed is varying. It may be that decent fan controllers hide this, but I've had very irritating speed-changing fan noise from PCs in the past.

For a power supply, I've opted for the rather chunky Maplin VN10L (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...10L&doy=29m12). This gives 1.2 amps at various switchable voltages of 1.5, 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9 & 12V. I have this connected to a pair of 120mm fans (wired in parallel).

My cabinet has one shelf almost completely separating it into two regions. (The amp sits on the bottom; the DVD player and Sky HD box are on the top.) I considered making holes in the shelf to try the ventilate the whole cabinet at once, but in the end I decided that using a separate fan for each region would be easier. I cut a fairly large hole in the bottom right of the back panel in each region, to allow extra air in (in addition to the smaller holes I'd made before), and a 120mm hole in the top left of the back panel in each region. The fans blow hot air out of the 120mm holes.

Frustratingly, I couldn't find a 120mm drill bit. I'd assumed that my local B&Q superstore would have one, but the 'circular saw' drill bits (if that makes sense) around this size were expensive and measured in inches. Instead, I drew round a CD (almost exactly the right size) then used a jigsaw.

Tests showed that my fans spin with just 4.5V applied, so I opted to start testing at 6V to be safe. They're still almost silent at this voltage. (Too low a voltage risks the fans stalling on startup, as I don't have a fan controller to apply full voltage initially to get them spinning.)

With the fans spinning quietly at 6V, my kit is now at least as cool as it was in the open (front, back and sides) shelves of my old TV. The Sky HD box has internal exhaust fans, to my fan collects the hot air it blows out. The amp is passively cooled, but the gentle air flow across its metal case keeps it cool to the touch. I'm amazed at how much difference the fans make.

It's not perfect: I can hear the fans when the room is otherwise silent. However, with 3 children this is very rare - and when TV or music is on I don't notice it. I don't think it's any noisier than a Sky HD box that's not in a cabinet!

I could get some better fans (these are scrounged cast-offs from a colleague who builds PCs as I wanted a quick solution) and lower the voltage further or even add a thermostatic fan controller - but at the moment I'm happy!

[mrm3]

more info to add to this useful thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=772637

http://svconline.com/mag/avinstall_hot_stuff/

[pemberto]

Great Thread, here is some additional info from Middle Atlantic Products, http://www.middleatlantic.com/rackac/cooling/qcool.htm

COMP-COOL Component Cooler NEW!
Remove heat right at the source. Optimized for components on open shelving, this quiet cooler turns on automatically when satellite/cable boxes, receivers and other heater generating components get too hot. Place the component cooler directly on top of equipment vents. The COMP-COOL-3 is available for systems that require multiple components to be cooled.

The low-profile unit produces minimal noise and fits beneath most equipment. Rubber discs are included to raise the height of stacked equipment if necessary.

CAB-COOL Cabinet Cooler NEW!
Remove heat generated by components located in smaller cabinets and entertainment centers. Operating only when needed to minimize dust, this quiet cooling device features an aesthetically designed vent that can be painted to match its environment.

The quiet, internal fan activates automatically when temperatures generated by hot-running equipment reach damaging levels.

CLS-COOL Closet Cooler NEW!
Remove heat from equipment racks located in closets. Larger installations located in closets have greater cooling requirements. The Closet Cooler has been designed to quietly handle the heat produced by a full rack of equipment. Two solid oak vents will be visible and can be stained or painted to match any room’s décor.

This cooling solution runs only when needed, mounts to closet doors and is available with an active exhaust and passive intake for closets with gaps, or an active exhaust and active intake for tightly sealed closets.

I have know idea what they are like or if they are even available in the UK.

Pemberto

[MI55ION]

Originally Posted by BruceH

Excellent.
I assume you have both fans as exhaust (sucking air out).
Are you relying on air leaking in trhough the doors etc. for your air intake.
Makes we wonder though, if you are looking for the fans to run all the time your equipment is on (as I am), then maybe the trigger voltage from the amplifier trigger output would be enough to drive them without a fan controller, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Anyway, I've got totally carried away with this cooling thing now, so much so that I've designed an all new cabinet to take all my gear with enough space and fans to keep it all cool.

Would love your input.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3610130

Whichever cabinet I end up fitting the fans to, I'll post some pics.



Cheers,
Bruce.

Just to pick up on that point, I've recently enclosed my equipment with the addition of some diy front panels. The thing is my AV amp runs extremely hot even when there's enough ventilation but I fear the worst now and was wondering if anyone has had success in using the 12v trigger to operate a single fan??

[MI55ION]

Hi Deepcore,

Hope this isn't hijacking your thread but I'm in a similar position where my AV amp requires cooling inside the cabinet, I initially thought it'd be possible to use the amp's 12v trigger but that plan is now out the window.

There is approx 4cm of available space between the cabinet door when it's closed and the AV amp. I want to fit two fans in this space so that it's in FRONT of my AV amp facing the back so that the air is directed out the back of the cabinet (where it's open). I don't really need a self regualting fan system because I know my AV amp starts to get real hot soon after I turn it on and close the cabinet door so if I purchase a Fan Controller unit and a couple of those silent fans you suggested, do you think it would be sufficient, would I need anything else?

Cheers