Anybody seen this or used one. Looks fully programable and has some good features.

http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.c...d=43/prd43.htm

 

Does look pretty cool and reasonably priced for DD stuff.

Nick

 

Dunno about DD prices, but you have a guilded 5 dollar lilly....

which is what I have invested in a 4 way electronic alarm thingy for an alert if anything goes wrong.....and I just may make the unused portion into a fan controller.....

helps to be a old retarred ET......

 

Looks interesting.

Upside:
- Very simple design that turns one or two fans on or off at set temperatures.
- Would be a nice (albeit overkill) unit for a dual Spal setup - one fan on at "low" temp setting, the second at the "High" temp setting - if you WANT such capability.
- It does not have circuitry that "directly" drives the fans (i.e PWM Speed control, SSR's - both of which are the #1 failure points of the Spal and other "exotic" controllers) - it simply activates relays - which, in my [qualified] opinion is a major plus.

Downside:
- It's an ON/OFF switch - period. If you are looking for SPEED control of a fan that doesn't have dual speed inputs (one wire for LOW and one wire for High), this isn't it.
- It IS another point of failure - electronic devices can be touchy in auto applications.

I'm a gadget person! As one of the earliest adopters of the infamous Spal controller, I was excited to have an all electronic fan power and speed controller. I defended the thing whenever possible. It failed just like most (all?) of the others. I went to a simple "temp sensor connected directly to the relay "energize" piins and I haven't had to even think about since - maybe 2 years now. It simply WORKS! Yes, both fans come on at full speed when the temp reaches the switch temp - but the job gets done, very quickly and efficiently at the highest temperature summer days.

KISS strikes again!

 

I also bought into the PWM controller. I still have it in there and it is still working. Keeping my fingers crossed. If it goes I was going to go back to the simple on/off route with the temp sensors and relays. This did look interesting though. I wonder long term how it will work.

 

and since I'm paranoid, for backup, I also have the ECM turn the fan on if temperature goes high. I'll be installing a Hand-Switch next....been busy so I'm relying on one backup. I really oughta put a handswitch in. Actually the relay is right on the fender so I can just short the leads together if necessary.

The DC Control is quite fantastic. When the car warms up, the combination of DC Control and Thermostat, keep the temp from varying more than 10°F.

A friend of mine uses a relay sensing off a Temp Switch and his swings are about 35°F between Start and Stop.

 

DD has been in this game for quite a while now and I would think they have got it down pretty well. I don't see any reason it wouldn't last quite a while without issue.

I have actually designed and built a unit very similar to the DD unit and it is in breadboard stage on my bench. It was for another application - sensing the temps around a camper refrig unit and turning on fans to exhaust the heat. The camper is being sold, so the application went away, but I also had the 'vette in mind when I designed it. It has 2 temp sensors (Dallas DS18B20), two MOSFET driven fan circuits, an LCD that shows each sensor's temperature, limits, and current fan state, date, time. Presently I have it attached to two small 12V computer fans. It actually works great (on the bench!!). I also have a separate circuit built and tested that has a multi-channel ADC (Dallas DS0834) that can sample the value of the [mechanical] temp sensor (in the head or block) and provide input to the control circuit above in place of the 18B20's. I panned on putting them together and sending the circuit out to a board shop. The main reason I haven't is because the simple relay to temp sensor is working so well, I haven't been motivated!

The bottom line on these things is if you don't get into controlling the actual power to the fans with the controller, you avoid the two main causes of failure - spikes and environmental noise (very simply stated). As I said, the DD unit does not, so it should be a very dependable unit - but that's MY theory - YMMV.

 

Are the DC Control units still available? These had great potential - Brian had a very good understanding of the subject and had what appeared to be a solid design. I haven't heard much about them in a while, and If I remember, the last I heard was he was no longer selling them. Your observation is correct, though - there can be (and typically is) a much greater swing with the all mechanical solution. The swing on mine was much tighter with the Spal before it died!