connecting a water pump to a fan controller
 

Curious can you actually hook up a pump to a fan controller? I have a Swiftech MCP655 12V Industrial Water Cooling Pump. The pump has a the 4 pin Molex and it also has a single wire to a 3 pin connector but there is only the one wire.

I'm not sure what that wire is for other then for a ground wire?

Can any one tell me what that wire is for and also can this pump be controlled for a fan controller or is it totally different voltages?

It probably depends on your fan controller. It can be done on a Zalman ZM-MFC1. You can do so by cutting off the molex connector and connect to 1 of the two 5V/12V switches.

Why would u want to do that?

The separate, single wire is probably a tach lead. The 3-pin connector would let you easily wire it into a fan header on your mobo to get an RPM reading, which would then let you set up an alarm system to warn you if the pump suddenly dies (i.e. RPM=0).

As far as a fan controller is concerned, that pump pulls about 24W, which is more than a lot of fan controllers are capable of handling. The voltages aren't an issue, but the pump has a rated start-up voltage of 6V, so it's possible to accidentally set the fan controller lower than that, resulting in a pump that never starts. But as long the controller will handle the wattage, go right ahead and try.

BTW, I'm guessing that you're looking to slow the pump down? If it's the MCP655, I thought those had a speed adjusting option built into them? Or do you have the MCP655-B model, which comes without? If you have the built-in option, you'll get more adjustment range than you will with just changing the input voltage.

It's all about having total control over your system. The way i look at it is depending on my clock the pump should correspond with temp. ie; lower clocks less flow higher clocks more flow.. Make sense.

Yeah at first I thought I had the pot to adjust the speed but this model doesn't :blarg: Anyway I received a reply from Swiftech telling me not to incorporate the fan controller. Would be nice though wouldn't you say.

unfortunatly the pump has a small circut board that dosn't work so well when undervolted..

yeah, I will keep this thought in mind next pump.

I stand corrected on that point, then. I hadn't realized the pump's circuit needed the full 12V to operate properly. Which would make Swiftech specing a starting voltage of 6V a little odd, I suppose.