Jon Elson wrote:
On 07/20/2020 07:00 AM, Peter Coghlan via cctalk wrote:
> I have a MicroVAX 3100 which has a H7822 power supply. The power supply
> and the machine itself mostly work (there is a problem with the SCSI
> interfaces but that's another story) except that the two fans in the
> power supply don't run. If left on for a long time, the machine gets
> too hot and a thermal trip operates, shutting it down.
>
> The fans are DC 12V 0.2A and if I connect them to +5V or +12V, they
> work fine and don't draw excessive current so there would seem to be
> a problem with the section of the power supply which drives the fans.
> Unfortunately, it's operation is not obvious and the power supply is
> a pig to work on.
Yes, it probably has a temperature sensor and a fan speed
controller. If you don't care about noise, you
could probably just rewire the fans to 12 V directly.
I was thinking about wiring them to 5V because it was only marginally
overheating after running for a long time. However, I started
poking around with the multimeter and discovered a low resistance
across one of the connectors for the fans. This led me to a
1N759A 12V 400mW zener diode which read about 20 Ohms in both
directions. Looking at the H7821, there was a 1N4742 12V 1W zener
diode in a similar position. It had much more plausable readings
so I borrowed it and fitted it to the H7822 in place of the dud
1N759A. The fans are spinning nicely now with about 7.5 to 8V
across each one. This was a lot easier than I was expecting :-)
Jon
