Actively Cooled HDPlex 300W AC-DC adapter

[AleksandarK]

Looks like a train . Realy corious to see it completed.

 

[royalba94]

Looks like a train . Realy curious to see it completed.

I know right - I was seriously considering making a pic of it with wheels like an offroad monster-bus or something

My main criteria for this version was:

• Use 2x 20mm PWM fans
• Still have a good airflow path
• Keep it as small as possible (especially height-wise)
• House the 6pin and filtered C14 connector

So that's why it ended up shaped that way (in case anyone was curious).

Tomorrow I'm picking up the 3D prints of Version5 so I'm excited to see if I modeled everything correctly and all that. If it turns out good I'll most likely order the Version 6 parts and then once I have the 400w DC-ATX it'll be time for a bunch of testing

 

[royalba94]

Got it all (pretty much) assembled!


The 3D prints came out pretty much perfect! I had them printed in Taulman Bridge which is a nylon that is very durable and resistant to heat, there was a little bit of stringing but nothing that wasn't easily handled with a minute or two with an Xacto knife.

The only thing that didn't end up how I wanted it was that I messed up the total length and two of the top screw holes. Missed all of it by 2.5mm :/ - I also forgot to design a way for the wires to re-enter the enclosure from the 6pin output (they're the power takeoff for the Step-down unit to power the fans) so I have it set up to test that part externally right now.

I got enlisted to help my sister go to a movie apparently tho so I haven't had a chance to power it up yet. Should hopefully have another update later on tonight tho

 

[royalba94]

So I did a little test with the setup pictured below at idle for a couple hours just to see how much cooler it was. The result was nice because instead of being pretty hot it was just a bit above the ambient temp. I know, super un-definitive as far as numbers and stuff but my thermal gun and current clamp haven't arrived yet.


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On another note, I got the HDPlex 400w today!

Here are some pics of it with the modded 300w AC-DC unit:


Hopefully, I'll have more updates soon but it might be in about a week cause of everything I have going on.

Looking forward to playing/testing with it all more!

 

[Biowarejak]

I'm glad it appears to work well so far! was thinking about doing something similar to the 160 watt version, but it doesn't appear to disassemble so nicely.

 

[royalba94]

I'm glad it appears to work well so far! was thinking about doing something similar to the 160 watt version, but it doesn't appear to disassemble so nicely.

Thanks, I'm glad as well

That 10mm Noiseblocker 40mm fan (XM-2 model) is fairly noisy though, course I'm sure that has a good amount to do with it being inside the enclosure and no vibration damping at all. The 20mm Noiseblocker (PM-1 model) is dead silent tho, I could barely hear it with my ear right up next to it. Same goes for those Noctua fans I got so I'm looking forward to trying out version 6 with the two 20mm fans.

And yeah, the 160w version actually looks like it's a complete 'tube' of the aluminum extrusion with only the ends that could possibly come off. Not to mention since it's smaller the 40mm fans won't fit with it as well. Would be interesting tho

 

[Biowarejak]

Thanks, I'm glad as well

That 10mm Noiseblocker 40mm fan (XM-2 model) is fairly noisy though, course I'm sure that has a good amount to do with it being inside the enclosure and no vibration damping at all. The 20mm Noiseblocker (PM-1 model) is dead silent tho, I could barely hear it with my ear right up next to it. Same goes for those Noctua fans I got so I'm looking forward to trying out version 6 with the two 20mm fans.

And yeah, the 160w version actually looks like it's a complete 'tube' of the aluminum extrusion with only the ends that could possibly come off. Not to mention since it's smaller the 40mm fans won't fit with it as well. Would be interesting tho

Yeah, maybe a radial fan would work best for that one, I do have a few At some point I'll get one and test that with 3D Printed end caps

 

[CubanLegend]

so are you able to get it up to or near 400W peaks without issues now that it has active cooling?

 

[royalba94]

so are you able to get it up to or near 400W peaks without issues now that it has active cooling?

Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to test it yet cause I've been busy trying to hurry and finish a bunch of orders before I have to go out of town for the rest of this week.

Hoping to actually get the proper testing underway by next Wednesday.

If I can hurry and get what I need to do today done I'll probably try and get it all hooked up to my rig tonight, update my bios (so I can hopefully actually overclock [since I still haven't done that yet lol]) and then run a couple preliminary tests.

I'm not totally sure if I can get my current rig up to 400w draw or not yet (5820k, 64gb ram, gtx 1060, couple SSDs, Predator aio) but I think I can if I get some decent overclocks going. If I can't I should be able to borrow a 980 (or 690) from my old work and bump the draw up that way.

I'm also gonna be getting a temp gun and current clamp in in the next few days as well so then I'll be able to measure the draw and temps I'm getting at stock and with then with the mod.

If anyone has any requests or other ideas for the testing then now would be a good time to let me know

 

[msystems]

This unit shut down from heat the other day, so surely a fan would prevent that from happening again. I have a temp sensor I'll put on it today, so I can see what it can handle heat wise.

Edit: Temp sensor showed 58C after 30 mins of superposition (I estimate avg. 250-275w load at the wall). Temp sensor was positioned on the top center of the unit between the vents. No issues

 

[royalba94]

So I have another little update:

I didn't have a chance to get it all hooked up for testing last night but I had a little time before everyone else was ready to leave town so I tried to get it all set up.

I say try because I unplugged all of the cables from my other psu, plugged in all the cables for the HDPlex and AC-DC unit, and then after all that cable wrangling I tried to power it on and nothing happened :[

Yes, I triple checked the right cables were in place and everything but still nothing so I unplugged it from the components and hooked up my power switch to the new PS_ON pins on the HDPlex next to the 24pin and tried to power it on. This time it powered on for a second (while the button was being pressed) but then turned right back off. So I held in the power button and then checked to see if power was being fed out from it with my multimeter (yes it was a tricky one hand each job since I have a giant CaseLabs case) and it was so I'm not sure what it's deal is.

Anyways, I didn't have anymore time to try and figure it out so I wasn't back to my regular monster(both large and 3x the power) PSU and it all booted up normal.

So needless to say, I have done more troubleshooting to do with that when I get back in town.

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Besides all that, I did also happen ti get the mail before I left as well and I got the other PCBs I ordered from eBay (China) for the fan control. Pic:


The one with the enclosure is basically gigantic and the other new one isn't that small either so I know that my favorite option will likely be the smallest of the three but we shall see I guess lol.

So, with all that said, I'm hoping to have done more results and such on next Monday and/or Tuesday but I do have a rush order that came up so we'll see hope things go.

Thanks for reading!

Oh, and P.S.:

Temp sensor showed 58C after 30 mins of superposition (I estimate avg. 250-275w load at the wall). Temp sensor was positioned on the top center of the unit between the vents. No issues

Thank you very much for that test/info, should help me know if my own results are similar

Thanks again!

 

[msystems]

That sucks, maybe check the connection on that white 3-pin Molex connector in between the unit and the AC plug. It was snapped close but the pins weren't seated. One of the pins was loose. After pushing the wires in on both sides of the connector it worked.



Edit: Oh it sounds like your problem is just with the Dc-ATX not powering on? No idea, except there were some issues with the cables having the wrong connector on CPU.

 

[royalba94]

That sucks, maybe check the connection on that white 3-pin Molex connector in between the unit and the AC plug. It was snapped close but the pins weren't seated. One of the pins was loose. After pushing the wires in on both sides of the connector it worked.



Edit: Oh it sounds like your problem is just with the Dc-ATX not powering on? No idea, except there were some issues with the cables having the wrong connector on CPU.

Good point, I didn't really think to check that one but I didn't move any of the AC-DC unit's connections or anything (cause I knew it was on from the fans spinning) and like I said it worked when I hooked up the power switch and held it but not when it was all hooked up to the computer.

Of course I was in a bit of a hurry to maybe something was just a tiny bit loose or whatnot, idk but I did check pretty thoroughly since I wanted to get it right. I'll just have to find out when I get back I guess.<shrug>

 

[msystems]

I'm starting to think that this AC-DC brick wasn't the smartest idea to put in my semi-passive build. At only 86% efficiency, I estimate it is dumping up to an additional 42 watts of waste heat into the chassis under full load and that is a real problem now. The additional cooling (space) required to eliminate this extra waste heat might negate the benefit of internalizing this component in the first place. I really did not anticipate how much heat this thing can put out, it's almost deserving of it's own heatpipe.

 

[BeerNsoup]

Too bad :/ Really professional looking job you did. I'd guess the best implementation for actively cooling this is to have the fans against a vented case wall exhausting directly out of the case.

 

[Biowarejak]

The one with the enclosure is basically gigantic and the other new one isn't that small either so I know that my favorite option will likely be the smallest of the three but we shall see I guess lol.

I can do PCB work in eagle if you wind up needing a smaller footprint

 

[royalba94]

I can do PCB work in eagle if you wind up needing a smaller footprint

Thanks, I'll see what I can work out and keep you posted

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In other news, I figured out a few things yesterday:

First, I figured out that the 6pin DC input on the HDPlex is touchy and it only recognizes power most of the times I plug it in to in my first test it probably was one of those times that it didn't recognize it.

Secondly, after I figured that out I got everything all plugged back in and whatnot but then the PC would start for a second, beep, and then turn off. After some investigating of the cables, I found that pin 20 on the 24pin had a wire in it (supposed to be unconnected according to the pinout) and after removing it everything powered up fine.

So after that I tried updating my mobo's BIOS so I could hopefully OC better but was ultimately dissappointed as several of the controls and things are still locked and XMP still doesn't work.

Post that disappointment, I tried doing what overclock I could and ruining some stress tests and I only got the system to pull about 13A max (measuring at the 6pin DC input) which at 19v is around 230w or so. So that means I need right to see if I can borrow that 980 or 690 from my old work.

So that's the update for now, note to come hopefully on Saturday but it depends on if I can get the card(s) or not and some other things.

Thanks!

 

[royalba94]

Finally another mini update!

I've got the card in hand to do the load testing with now


It is a quite power hungry card so I should have no issues hitting the 400w (and above) mark. The only thing is I have to dig out some DVI to HDMI adapter to even use the ancient thing

Hoping to get it running tonight but we'll see.

Thanks!

 

[Biowarejak]

Finally another mini update!

I've got the card in hand to do the load testing with now


It is a quite power hungry card so I should have no issues hitting the 400w (and above) mark. The only thing is I have to dig out some DVI to HDMI adapter to even use the ancient thing

Hoping to get it running tonight but we'll see.

Thanks!

Woah, that thing looks interesting!

 

[royalba94]

Woah, that thing looks interesting!

Yeah, it's an ancient GTX 690 dual-gpu card from 2012

It's life has been spent in a CAD department computer until last year when I got demoted to shelf duty to make room for a 980ti upgrade. And now I have it to test with (not sure if permanent yet )

________________________________

So speaking of testing, I did manage to dig out my old 1080p Asus monitor with a DVI port along with a cable and got the card installed and everything.

So I tested a cinebench openGL run which it completed without issue but only topping out at 14A (measured at the output of the AC-DC converter) so I hopped into 3dmark and tried to run the cloud gate benchmark but as soon as it got a taste of the end of the loading screen OCP was tripped and the system restarted. I'm not entirely sure what amperage tripped the OCP but I saw 15.3A (~285w) for a few seconds and it was still running fine and then I got that spike that tripped OCP.

Now I can't say that I'm surprised at the results because I did some research on the power draw for this card and it can get up to 475w at load so I'll have to figure out how to underclock and/or undervolt it so I can actually run tests without tripping OCP immediately.

Anyways, that's mini update part 2 for today. Hopefully more to come very soon!