help with fan speed

[Levitationofme]

I have a 4 inch can fan pulling air out thru a filter. Full power is way overkill. I purchased a Titan regulator and it is really difficult to get right. Very touchy. It's full power untill you dial it real low then I have to baby it to get it where I like it.
Is there an easier way or a better regulator ?


Much appreciated

 

[queequeg152]

u are trying to regulate the speed of a shaded pole(probably) induction motor, so there will always be problems.

the best way is with a special single phase VFD but even these waste electricity are insanely expensive... and still sometimes ruin motors.
these things can cause your windings to vibrate excessivly causing them to short out.

from what i recall the cheap ones basically chop the tops of of the AC signal with a varistor? i could be wrong here... i dont know enough about electronics.

the other cheap way is with a rheostat which lowers the voltage somewhat more uniformly.

if u tried only one of these speed controllers, id suggest trying the other type.... though its possible neither will give you the results you are looking for.

 

[Vanilla Phoenix]

Not sure if it's the same, but I have a cheap ol 4" Hurricane fan on a Speedster fan control and it works great. Easy to use.

 

[Donkeybrains]

Maybe a potentiator knob might work better? I use them to dim my LEDs. You can find them on Amazon for cheap I got 10 for around 10 bucks. Look up Pot Knob. They are volume knobs for guitars.

 

[Donkeybrains]

The pot knob is very accurate. If I turn it a hair I can see the light change in brightness.

 

[Donkeybrains]

queequeg is correct I'm no electrics guy but it uses PWM Pulse Width Modulation to simply reduse the amount of power it gets.

 

[noyd666]

using a 6inch can on intake filter with speed control on it with no problems.

 

[Levitationofme]

Thanks guy's

 

[queequeg152]

Maybe a potentiator knob might work better? I use them to dim my LEDs. You can find them on Amazon for cheap I got 10 for around 10 bucks. Look up Pot Knob. They are volume knobs for guitars.

we are talking abiout 120v ac power here.

a pot like that would explode into blue smoke in a milisecond.

a rheostat is what you are thinking of. its essentially the same thing but FAR larger and unfortunatly far more expensive.

in school we hat a pair of 100 watt units for adjusting the temps of our heating mantles.

for a pissy fan like the OP is talking about, something half that size would probably do.