Hacking a PWM PC fan with Arduino

I made this solder fume extractor fan from a spare PC fan I had laying around. It seems to somehow work pretty well, and doubles as a decent desk fan now that summer is finally here in the UK.
This hopefully is a nice and easy project for you to mess around with controlling fans with an Arduino!
Let me know in the comments if you have any ideas of things to make, with spare hardware you have laying around in your "tech box".
🌐 3D printed file links
www.thingiverse.com/thing:488...
www.thingiverse.com/thing:488...
www.thingiverse.com/thing:488...
⚙️ Source code
github.com/Matchstic-Project/...
🎵 Music Attribution
Music: www.bensound.com
Music: www.purple-planet.com
🖼️ Image Attribution
Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com/

[@bertram-raven]

If you do this with a 12V external supply for the fan, ensure the ground wire on the external power supply (-ve) is also connected to the ground on the Arduino. If not, the PWM will not work correctly. This was not explained in the video; as I see many comments about this problem online, I thought I would mention it in one of the best videos on the subject. Also, some common PC PWM controlled fans can take up to 3A - this will can damage the VIN pin and traces - it is best to bypass this and run the fan directly from an external power supply.
FYI: Superglue + PLA = future failure as the PLA breaks down. :-(

[@akamatchstic]

These all are excellent points, thank you 😊 I must admit, electrical engineering is definitely not my area of expertise.

[@Boredistan]

Can I still connect my Arduino to my laptop?

[@simpernchong]

Awesomely creative work. Thanks for the video.

[@GamerMartin96]

Nice video! This feels like an eternal paradox… you need a device to extract solder fumes, but to make that device, you need to solder some wires together :P

[@akamatchstic]

haha exactly! I tried not breathing whilst doing the wiring but that didn't work too well funnily enough

[@GamerMartin96]

@@akamatchstic it was worth the sacrifice 🤣 I don't think the fumes are as bad as they once were though, but still great to have an extractor when you're doing a lot of soldering

[@user-nm8nq8hd1i]

Genial! Muito bem feito, parabéns 👏❤️

[@musicalmanish7656]

Thanks 👍

[@RTemiy]

So you saying that you will use a giant arduino in the box only for controlling fan speed?
Why not use smaller chip in the end and arduino only for test of the concept ?

[@gerald4027]

Is there anyway to power 6 computer server fans rated at 2.4 amps each and they are 4 pin.

[@manohar3787]

can we replace the arduino with a 555 timer which is a lot cheaper

[@EBestLetterE5]

where should I pin the tachometer?

[@martinmacko7297]

Hi, is the code correct? Compilation error: 'TCCR1A' was not declared in this scope

[@gerald4027]

How many RPM's is at max setting?

[@user-nm7kq9kx9j]

Very interesting. It's not correct to power a fan from an Arduino directly. You need to split the power between the board and another device without running a risk of damaging the board.

[@akamatchstic]

You are right about the power, it’s something I didn’t do correctly in this video - don’t have much experience with circuits yet 😅

[@raztabraze]

powering anything directly from a control board (arduino, esp, whatever) is wrong. the ports can only deliver a very limited amount of current (I dont remember if it is 40 mA)

[@stephenwhitfield2679]

It is 40mA max per I/O port for the ATMEGA8U2 however VIN he's using would come straight from the USB port.