Parallella Community

I have a fan to cool the board as per Gen0 advice. Where can I take 5V from the board?
My power supply supplies 4A 5V, and the fan needs 0.03A.

If you solder a link into J15 that will connect the adjacent mounting hole pad to the 5v rail, and you can pick up ground from any of the other 3 mounting hole pads.

Cheers,

Andrew

I didn't quite understand your description of hooking a fan up to 5v. On the board J15 has two holes, a square and a round one, are they both connected to 5v? Are you also saying that the mounting pad next to it is ground? Looking at the board itself I don't see the mounting pad going to ground.

Any advice appreciated.

Herbert

If you solder a very short piece of wire to connect the two pads of J15, this will route 5V to the mounting hole pad next to it. The other 3 mounting hole pads are permanently connected to ground. So you can then power a fan by picking up 5V and GND from mounting hole pads. I did this by putting M3 solder tags on the ends of the fan wires, and then placing these onto the pads, with hex nylon spacers on top and M3 nylon screws coming up from underneath.

I will be getting some pictures of this setup to make it easier for people to replicate!

Cheers,

Andrew

Is this safe to do if you stack several Parallellas on top of each other with the supplied stand-off legs?

Many thanks Andrew, I will try this as soon as the fan arrives (1 month back-order......)

I'm all ready to go assembling the Parallella with fan into the case. I guess the name "mounting hole" should
have prepared me for a problem fitting a solder-tag using a plastic bolt to a hole required for mounting purposes ! The second picture of Step 3 of the assembly guide shows a mounting nub occupying the 5V hole.

I'll try the solder plus connector suggestion from FHuettig.

As a Gen0 owner,might I suggest that the phrase "we do recommend using some kind of fan" in the Quick Start Guide should be backed up with a practical implementation proposal?

There is no way I will risk damaging my board, when it is delivered, by trying to solder on a connection for a fan.
I am however intending to buy a powered USB hub for keyboard, mouse and fan by modifying a spare USB cable as demonstrated in this link :-

http://www.instructables.com/id/USB-Fan ... puter-Fan/

I intend to fit proper connecters to the wires and may use an old fan from a P1 system or buy a new fan, depending on what fits the case I have ordered. I note GCeline has also travelled down this route in this post, but appears to have used a soldering iron :-

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1038&p=6587&hilit=fan#p6587

I hope that this is a workable alternative for customers like myself who are loathe to use a soldering iron on their board immediately after delivery!

Regards,

Paul