All my EE classes from ME degree are two decades and a different career away, looking for advice on simplest solution.
Working on an audio amplifier project using an integrated class D board designed for passive cooling. The board has a nice complement of self monitoring and protection functions. One is thermal shutdown when max temp passes preset point. Another is output of current temp as a falling voltage with rising temp, from about 4V down to about 2V.
I'd like to add a fan, but don't need it to run constantly. I'd like for it to be a safety so that there is a chance to keep things cool enough before the amp shuts itself down. Probably with a bit of hysteresis so that it continues cooling until well below the point where the fan was enabled. I think the voltage at corresponding self shutdown temp is around 2.6V. So maybe fan on at below ~3V and off when above ~3.2 to 3.5V.
I have a 5V supply internal to the amp that powers the fan (its a 5V PC fan chosen because I had 5V, not 12V readily available), and can also be used for whatever control circuit or logic is needed.
What do you guys and girls suggest as a straightforward way of accomplishing this? I thought about a couple of zener diodes and latching relays, but realized my EE skills are too rusty to sort out without a lot of pain. Would this be easier to accomplish with an arduino? Never messed with one, but not afraid to learn if you think that is easier. Having a little flexibility in adjusting the set points would be nice. Probably easy with microcontroller, but was hoping this was an obvious simple circuit you could point me to.
Working on an audio amplifier project using an integrated class D board designed for passive cooling. The board has a nice complement of self monitoring and protection functions. One is thermal shutdown when max temp passes preset point. Another is output of current temp as a falling voltage with rising temp, from about 4V down to about 2V.
I'd like to add a fan, but don't need it to run constantly. I'd like for it to be a safety so that there is a chance to keep things cool enough before the amp shuts itself down. Probably with a bit of hysteresis so that it continues cooling until well below the point where the fan was enabled. I think the voltage at corresponding self shutdown temp is around 2.6V. So maybe fan on at below ~3V and off when above ~3.2 to 3.5V.
I have a 5V supply internal to the amp that powers the fan (its a 5V PC fan chosen because I had 5V, not 12V readily available), and can also be used for whatever control circuit or logic is needed.
What do you guys and girls suggest as a straightforward way of accomplishing this? I thought about a couple of zener diodes and latching relays, but realized my EE skills are too rusty to sort out without a lot of pain. Would this be easier to accomplish with an arduino? Never messed with one, but not afraid to learn if you think that is easier. Having a little flexibility in adjusting the set points would be nice. Probably easy with microcontroller, but was hoping this was an obvious simple circuit you could point me to.