By allowing you to run a fan at slower speeds when cooling needs are moderate, the EMC2101 can help ease the vibration noise caused by fans running at full speed.ĭelivered to you on our custom Stemma QT form factor PCB, the Adafruit EMC2101 breakout is ready to help you integrate a fan into your project by making it easy to use with a range of devices. You might even be able to use it to help quiet down an existing project or hack a noisy piece of electronics that has a loud fan. This neat little chip can easily be used to help provide cooling or ventilation to your next project. If you use an external temperature sensor, you can even configure a lookup table (LUT) that allows you to set different fan speeds depending on the temperature, and the EMC2101 will automatically adjust the speed depending on the temperature. In addition to allowing you to control a fan, the EMC2101 includes an internal temperature sensor, as well as connections for an external temperature sensing diode.

Instead of using a PWM output and counter input on your microcontroller, this chip will take care of that all for you, all over every-day I2C. The last TACH pin is for a tachometer output that allows the EMC2101 to monitor the speed of the fan to make sure it's working as expected.

One of those extra pins, the PWM pin, allows you to set the speed of the fan. Programmable PWM output and tachometer input, with both internal and external temperature sensing, with a 1☌ accuracy, it's a perfect friend for any 3 or 4-pin PC fan you may find.įour pin PC fans have a power and ground pin (those are red and black) and then two more pins. The EMC2101 from Microchip/SMSC is a fan controller with temperature monitoring, and it will take care of all of that for you. OK, power takes two pins but what are these other pins for and how do I use them to convince this fan to keep my things chilly? One might rightfully think: 'these fans are pretty good at moving air to keep things cool maybe I can use one of these neat computer fans to keep my widget frosty' followed closely by throwing up one's hands in confusion at the sight of a 3 or even 4-pin connector. Cooling fans.They're everywhere, and they serve the important purpose of keeping things cool, generally electronics.

Computer fan controller