3DO fan install

[qUE]

Hi,

You're all probably gonna scream heretic when you read the following; I've got overheating problems with my 3DO FZ-1, I've tried drilling holes in the top of the case to let the heat out (/me braces for flame), but it's not enough air flow to cool the unit down. My FZ-1 didn't have a fan in it when I got it, is there anyway to solder a fan onto points on the PSU, I assume the points still exist as I've read these units used to have fans. Also, what voltage should I expect 9v? 12v? could I use a standard PC processor fan?

Cheers

[mooseblaster]

What makes you think it's an overheat problem?

[qUE]

What makes you think it's an overheat problem?

CD drive protection plates become almost too hot to touch after about an hour of usage. tbh, I'm suspecting it's either the CD drive or the VDP chips losing marbles, as the fmv gets choppy then freezes. I also think it may be the VDP chips that are causing the heat as I've read they weren't a great design and are overclocked. with NEC cloning the ARM chip inside that console without ARM's consent, it wouldn't suprise me if there are a few more skeletons in the closet.

[pitsunami]

Indeed some FZ1s have a little fan in a side.
I will check later and fet back to you...;-)

[qUE]

Indeed some FZ1s have a little fan in a side.
I will check later and fet back to you...;-)

Hey man, thanks for the response. Even if you can just take some photos of the PSU with some kind of highlight to what wires are connected to the fan it'd be much appreciated.

[bitrate]

You can see an FZ-1 with the fan installed here:

LINK

9 volts is available adjacent to the mains transformer secondary hookup on the PCB.

[qUE]

You can see an FZ-1 with the fan installed here:

LINK

9 volts is available adjacent to the mains transformer secondary hookup on the PCB.

Awesome awesome awesome, thank you thank you!

Will have to get around to looking for CN660 on the board and trying a 9v fan on it :)

[ASSEMbler]

Probably some sort of eventual voltage regulator issue

[l_oliveira]

Probably some sort of eventual voltage regulator issue

Or the usual "bad caps" (bad capacitors)

[qUE]

You can see an FZ-1 with the fan installed here:

LINK

9 volts is available adjacent to the mains transformer secondary hookup on the PCB.

I've connected a 12v fan to the connector, it doesn't even kick which I would have thought there would at least be some movement even if the voltage is below required for the fan. Testing the contacts on the fan I can't see anything there. I'm thinking I may have missed something on the board. There is two bits which I can't see in your pictures. Both are near the rectifier, one is C660 and the other L660, L660 makes me think it may be a Link. Is there anything there?

[qUE]

Probably some sort of eventual voltage regulator issue

Would old filter caps cause the regulators to overheat? I was under the impression caps either were working or not, not partial.

[qUE]

Right finally got back to it and got it working!

[/URL]

Now I've probably been a bit naughty here just bridging the link from the voltage regulator to the fan, but if I were to do it properly I'd assume that L660 is a capacitor for smoothing and C660 is a grounding resistor to cope with any excessive pull on the voltage regulator. I've also used a standard PC CPU heatsink fan rated at 12V when the fan should really be rated at 9V, which again is probably not great but I gathered since the ampage is only 0.15 I doubt it's a huge load on the supply. Polarity isn't marked on the board, but you can figure that out by the contact which leads to the fat track on the underside which pretty much goes all around the board, that's ground.

I've hacked the side open and jammed the fan in where the official one should go.

Powers up fine, haven't tested it for any long period running, we shall see.

Yours as my milage may vary, for all I know it could cook the voltage regulator after several hours. But tbh, I've come across tech. like this before and it's pretty robust, so I'm pretty certain it'll run fine. IMHO if it was going to do anything it'd be within several minutes of it being on.

Now hopefully I can play a game without the CD drive getting shirty because of heat.

- qUE

[qUE]

Tested it on the weekend for a couple of hours with space pirates. Unit kept properly cooled, FMV didn't freeze up like normal. Now I can finally play some 3DO games without worrying about it bombing half way through \o/