Circuit is for controlling the fan on a Raspberry Pi, just on/off according to temp, no PWM. Not sure about the diode as it has a .7V drop and it’s a tiny brushless DC motor. No markings on the fan so I measured the current with a multimeter when hooking it up to a USB charger. Circuit was adapted from here using what I have on hand.

Suggestions? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

*EDIT: Confirmed, this circuit works on a Raspberry Pi 4. Base was wired to GPIO 17 and manually tested using commands:

raspi-gpio set 17 op dh

raspi-gpio set 17 op dl

I didn’t use a breadboard, just hack-n-slash with the wires coming out of the fan, the leads on the thru hole components, a jumper connected to gpio 17 as a socket for the base/resistor lead, and heat shrink tubing for insulation. Folded it up as I closed the housing. Case combo including heatsinks and fan here.

  • glibg10b
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    1 year ago

    The transistor is a 2N4401. From the datasheet, VBE(sat,max) = 1.2 V and hFE(min) = 20, so it could drive ~60 mA in the worst case