DIY Gizmo - Honda ATV Programmable Fan Control Unit

[Outnback 101]

It's the mystery ones that tend to be the most uncomfortable and need extra attention.

[Fishfiles 20,145]

16 hours ago, retro said:

I either pulled a muscle or cracked a rib on my left side Monday, can't lift or move my left arm very far yet without a bunch of pain, so it might be a couple more days before I can get back to work on this project. Thanks for being patient Fishfiles!

Retro , sorry to her about the back , not too much ascorbic I hope , I laid off of it and my back and sides are 100% better  ------ I am in no hurry at all , patience is something I have a lot of , and I got a project going on with that red 300 engine rebuild and mods that is keeping me busy and work has picked back up 

 

I think I might have missed out on a good deal , one of the venders at the flea market had  a soldering station last Friday , it was a box with some dials and a soldering iron that plugged into the box , he told me $10 and plugged it in and it did get hot , this was before I was reading this post about soldering stations and seen Goober spent $101 for one , I had no clue how much these are worth , it was a Weller ------  I just went to e-bay and it looked just like this one that goes for $199 , I had first dibs on it as I was opening the boxes of stuff from a storage unit and another vender bought it behind me , George is the guy that bought it , I know he is not a electrical guy and I might be able to talk him out of it this weekend  

 

 

[Goober 1,555]

I found the owner manual for that WTCPT, just wait for the ad to clear and page to load.

https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/manuals/372-140-weller-wtcpt-manual-41680.pdf

Glad we started discussing tools as well—part of the fun!

 

i lifted an empty 55-gal drum a few years ago and later thought i was having a heart attack. Searing pain in my left shoulder arm and chest. Just rest it, stay hydrated and get that gardening done for momma, lol!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Goober

[retro 4,048]

Ya @Fishfiles soldering equipment can be very pricy! Prices for good, non-china made hot air reflow units are even more insane! That WTCPT model you pictured is an entry level unit and was in production for about 10 years I think. It was priced at about $80 when it first came out. It uses PT tips rather than ET tips like most other Weller units and does not have a digital temp display, but its still probably worth $80-$100 nowadays due to inflation if it is complete and fairly new looking. If you solder on occasion you'd appreciate having a temperature controlled station along with a small selection of tips of different shapes. Genuine Weller tips are plated with iron and may last for several decades if kept tinned with solder during storage and kept away from acidic fluxes. All of my ET tips are more than 20 years old and still appear to be in perfect condition. There have always been cheaper (and more expensive too) brands available, but for the average hobbyist the Weller units are the best value, in my opinion.

 

 

[retro 4,048]

My pain began to fade a bit last night and there is even less this morning, so I'm gonna go back to work today. I increased my daily ascorbic intake to 45 grams a day all week until yesterday I bumped up to 55 grams by mixing up a second water bottle. I've already got 15 grams down this morning and I'm getting restless. I either gotta find something to do today or I'm gonna start smoking again, so this project is back on go now! 😀

[Fishfiles 20,145]

  Gald your feeling better , lack of smoking is doing it , LOL  ---- I went to the flea market and he wouldn't cut loose on that  soldier station , says he is keeping it for himself 

[Fishfiles 20,145]

Since we talking electrical connections, please give me some advice on this :

My Air Conditioner clutch burned up this week on my Dodge 4500 , it melted the plug end of the harness wiring , so I found and got a replacement plug kit , which  came in today , no instructions , they sent two exact wire sets only going to use one each of those wires  , and three sets , 2 in each set , three different size crimp looking thingies , and some heat shrink----- I am thinking throw the brass crimp things away , soldier it and heat shrink with some smaller heat shrink that what they gave ----with taxes and shipping this cost me $52 with quick ship , could have maybe went to the junk yard and walked for a couple of hours and not found it , so the  price I can live with , A/C I can't live without 

 

[retro 4,048]

Yup, I'd solder those connections too. The clutch probably burned up because there was a poor connection in the plug. As the plug overheated and began to melt, current carrying capacity in the plug was dropping fast due to the fact that resistance goes up as heat in the wire/connection increases... think of it like an electric stove element works... as soon as it gets red hot current through the stove element drops to a very low level.... otherwise the element would melt. So the clutch began to slip and burn up at the same time that plug was melting down. I'd give it fat wires with soldered connections to fix it if it were mine.

[retro 4,048]

Alright, I started with a fresh W1209 board today. First thing make sure that the LED module is down against the PCB where it belongs. If not, suck the solder off it and push it down against the PCB and reflow the LED connections. This one was looking good.

 

 

Then desolder the onboard relay, power/ground/relay output headers, the pullup resistor labeled R2 (on this PCB version) and the thermocouple headers. Throw them in the trash if you wish, they're useless china garbage. Use either a solder sucker or rosin desoldering braid to clear the pads on the PCB of any old solder as you remove those parts. Here is a populated board and the one that I stripped of parts today for comparison.

 

 

Next I filed off the PCB along the lower edge (lay an aggressive file on the bench and pull the edge of the PCB down the file) to match the contour and shape of the enclosure back to locate the W1209 board as low and as close as possible to the bottom of the back half. This is necessary so the LED display will fit inside/below the raised section of the enclosure top. You'll see what I mean later on when the top gets dremeled out for the display LED window and the three buttons. I am shooting for an .008" gap between the lower edge of the PCB and the back half of the enclosure, once the PCB is mounted. So the PCB is no longer square on its lower edge once that filing is done... it matches the shape of the enclosure. After the filing is done center the PCB over the four mounting lugs and mark the four locations on each corner of the PCB for the next step, as shown in this photo.

 

 

Here is the back side view of the PCB after filing the lower edge. Notice the contour... you can see that I filed away as much of that lower edge as I could without filing into the ground plane trace on one side and without severing one of the relay output trace holes on the other side. Once this PCB is fitted into the enclosure the gap between the lower edge of this PCB and the enclosure will be no more than .008".

 

 

I use a round file to notch out the corners where I marked for them so the PCB will fit down over the lugs in the enclosure back. I also used my dremel with a 60 degree pointed burr chucked in it to grind away portions of those four mounting lugs in the enclosure back so that the PCB will fit down just barely below the top of the widest part of each lug. So two steps... first file the PCB corners where they are marked. Then grind portions of the mounting lugs down so that the PCB, once it's located on those four lugs, is recessed below the top edge of those lugs. Photos can explain it better than I can... I'll post them in a bit... but lets move on, got other stuff to do too.

 

Next I soldered two short #24 AWG leads onto the two pads where the R2 labelled pullup resistor was removed from the PCB. On the opposite ends of those leads I soldered on a multi-turn (25 turns)10K Ohms Bournes (series 3386, or alternately, series PV36) trimpot. I pre-adjusted the trimpot to measure about 5.1K ohms initial setting before soldering it onto the leads, since I am using that trimpot for calibrating the homebuilt oil temp sensor to the STM8S microcontroller, during final assembly.

 

At this point I screwed the home made aluminum mounting bracket onto the back of the enclosure back using four screws that I had shortened already, which threaded into drilled and tapped holes in the bracket. Before starting those four screws each hole and screw was squirted with Ultra-black silicone gasket maker to prevent water from getting past those screws and getting inside the enclosure.

 

Then I drilled six holes (#53 drill bit) in the back of the enclosure for the six #24 AWG wires (two separate harnesses) that will need to be connected up inside. The two-wire oil temp sensor harness is made of #24 AWG stranded & tinned copper wire that is about 67 inches long with a waterproof connector soldered onto the opposite end and sheathed with black shrink tubing. The other four wires coming out of the enclosure go to the Power Supply & Relays box. Those four #24 AWG wires will be sheathed in shrink tubing and have a waterproof connector soldered onto their ends tomorrow to complete that 32" long harness. Here is a pic showing the notched PCB and almost everything else that has been explained so far.... except for the grinding I do on the mounting lugs, that's in the next photo.

 

 

Inside the enclosure back half where the six wires enter through their respective holes, those wires are folded over sharply (to prevent them from pulling out when glued) then soldered onto the PCB pads where each of them belong. There is a green wire and a blue wire inside the two-wire oil temp sensor harness that get soldered into the PCB pads where the original thermocouple header was removed. The four-wire PS/Relays box harness contains a red wire that supplies 10 volts positive, a black wire 10 volts negative, a yellow wire 5 volts positive going to the primary relay and a white wire 5 volts negative that goes to the primary relay inside the PS/Relays box. Then those wires are drowned in JB-weld where they enter the back of the enclosure to seal out water and to prevent those wires from being pulled back out. The plastic is roughed up with 400 grit sandpaper then wiped clean with 91% alcohol before the JB-weld goes on. I also clean all residual soldering flux off from the PCB after soldering those six wiring connections as part of final preps for the back half of the enclosure. In this photo you can see the grinding that I did with the dremel burr in order to recess the PCB slightly below those lugs. The PCB should be recessed down about .008" below the top of the fattest part of each lug. You don't have to make those recesses pretty when you grind them out either, just get them the right depth. Because JB-weld is gonna fill and cover all of the ugly that is created in the next set of steps...

 

 

I like to wet a microfiber cloth with alcohol before beginning these final assembly steps of the back half of the enclosure, so I can wipe away any stray JB-weld fingerprints from the enclosure before clamping the entire back half in the vise while the JB-weld cures. I precut two pieces of masking tape for holding the trimpot in place as well. I tend to make messes when I only got one hand trying to control two shifting parts at once. Anyway, this looks pretty easy but its not.... I took a shortcut here... by gluing every part at once with JB-weld rather than one step at a time.

 

So with an alcohol cloth and tape at the ready, I coated the recessed areas of the mounting lugs with JB-weld and also spread some on the back of the PCB where each of the four corners were filed out. Then the PCB was pressed down into those four recesses and held there while I used my other hand to add JB-weld to the tops, sides and holes in the PCB to securely and permanently mount it. Once those four corners were done I spread some JB-weld onto the bottom of the trimpot and held that down in place with tape. Then I wrapped it in another piece of cloth and clamped it lightly in the vise while all of the JB-weld cures. A final little-dab'll-do-ya on the two trimpot wires holds those securely to the PCB, between the tactile switches.

 

 

More to come tomorrow!

 

 

[shrade 197]

WOW!

[retro 4,048]

It takes a bit of creative fabbing (aka cobbling) to shoehorn a W1209 into those tiny enclosures, eh @shrade! 🙂

I have made three of these gizmos, this is the 4th one. The W1209 and its enclosure are barely larger than my old Zippo cigarette lighter. It wasn't until I had finished putting the 2nd one together that I had these fabbing and assembly methods down pat. R&D costs time and money... I wasted a few parts trying.... but I am rewarded every time now, they're much easier to build than the first two gizmos were. 🙂

 

@Goober I am going to send ya a china LM2596 buck converter along with the solder. It's an adjustable voltage power supply that can be dialed down to 10 volts DC to power the W1209s and accepts any DC input voltage >/= 1.5 volts higher than the output. You can connect this to a 12 to 30 volts DC power supply or a 12 volt battery to power up your W1209 boards for tinkerin'. I'll solder some leads onto it before its mailed.

 

 

[Fishfiles 20,145]

I had no clue how much went into building a Gizmo !!!! 

 

[retro 4,048]

I finished up the wiring harnesses today. Then added the final wire to the relays box. I ended up having to use #8 AWG welding cable for that since my other choice turned out to be too old to solder on. I hope you can make that fat wire work Fishfiles, its all I got left that isn't tarnished yet from exposure to oxygen and aging. It is the positive supply wire that goes to relay #30 terminal which supplies power for two 14 AWG wires that connect to your two fans while the relay is engaged. There is 7 feet of it.... so it should reach your battery box if you want it to.

 

So anyway, after those harnesses and power wire were done I connected the gizmo up to my battery bank to test everything for the first time. It works! So I drowned those wires entering the relays box with JB-weld to seal them and set the box aside to cure overnight.

 

 

Next up, gotta dremel the enclosure cover for the display window and the buttons. This is the most difficult part of each FCU build for me. I'm gonna wait until the weather is warmer so I can do that work outdoors in the sunshine where I can see what I'm doing. I expect that two more afternoons of tinkerin' should finish it up.

 

 

 

[Fishfiles 20,145]

Hooking another #8 wire  to the battery should not  be any problem , the 450  has two Duracell atv  batteries and both have double threaded holes on each terminal , makes winch , sounds and lights a easy hook up --- 4 positive and 4 negative threaded holes  

[retro 4,048]

Great! I will include a couple copper ring terminals and some adhesive lined shrink tubing then, they are heavy enough to be crimped or soldered onto the wire, or both.

[Goober 1,555]

Sweet work!
got my shipment from Mouser yesterday! 
I got 1 of the 10 Nichicon electrolytics but no Panasonic relays, which are backordered.

But that’s a question i had for ya @retro—is that Panasonic relay 769-alq309 the same Bosch automotive relay you referred to generally? 

 

I got a report format going here with some table, figure and appendices references. Got your text. So now i can break out the text into separate topics — working out an organizational style. 
 

Got my wife’s garden nearly done; incorporated some compost—need to add several bags of clean sand to keep the clay broken up. Gonna create a wildflower bee and butterfly haven behind her rose garden 

[retro 4,048]

The Bosch style automotive 30/40 amp relay looks similar this one, they are standard and commonly found on cars and trucks. You can see the 40 amp versions that I use inside the PS/Relays box in the post above:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/5-LOT-TEMCo-INDUSTRIAL-CN0169-12-V-30-Amp-Bosch-Style-S-Relay-SPDT-Automotive/281756794640

 

The small Panasonic ALQ309 is a PCB mount SPST relay which mounts on the home made 10 volt power supply PCB inside the box. It replaces the china relay that must be removed from the W1209 board and has a 9 volt coil. Its only function is to energize the 40 amp bosch style relay with battery voltage, which does all of the heavy (current carrying) lifting. I use two relays because its much cheaper to run a small one that energizes a larger 12 volt one, than it is to run a single large relay that comes with a 9 volt or a 10 volt coil. I save about $20 each on relay costs by doing it that way. High-amperage capacity/low voltage coil relays are very expensive and a lot more difficult for the average person to source.

 

If I were you I would find  an alternate cheap PCB mount relay on mouser.com and cancel your backorder. For instance, here is an alternate Omron relay in stock that sells for $1.40 each. It has a 9 volt coil rather than a 10 volt coil, but if you read the datasheet you learn that 10 volts is within its safe, rated coil voltage range. This relay has the same specs as the Panasonic ALQ309 does:

 

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Omron-Electronics/G5LE-1A4-DC9?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtSzCF3XBhmWx3JwO0RjjQeyMDNSWTlx0o%3D

 

The back ordered Nichicon 4700uF 25v capacitor can be replaced with this one. Note that the brand does not have to be Nichicon... I buy Nichicon only because I trust that they are NOT selling me china knockoff garbage, like so many other cheaper brands are. Nichicon is a loyalty brand for me... I've been buying them for many years because I trust the company. Much cheaper brands are available though:

 

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Nichicon/UVZ1E472MHD?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtZ1n0r9vR22YQlrerufNMZ7Kpt5viZcHQ%3D

 

If you prefer to match the 9 volt Omron relay coil voltage with the power supply voltage... rather than run a 9 volt coil relay on a 10 volt power supply, you can substitute the LM2940T-10.0 with a LM2940T-9.0. The onboard 5 volt power supply on the W1209 board will work just as good supplied with 9 volts as it will supplied with 10 volts. Since the PCB mount relay works equally fine on 9 or 10 volts you can buy the cheapest available solutions to minimize your total costs. Here is the 9 volt version of that LDO voltage regulator:

 

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Texas-Instruments/LM2940T-90-NOPB?qs=sGAEpiMZZMsGz1a6aV8DcCERHZHPu4lvOQwpz%2FkhMU8%3D

 

The snubber capacitor that I use on the output pin of the voltage regulator is a solid Tantalum 22 uF 35 volt that I stock in bulk. For those who need to buy one here is a suitable replacement... with a bit of searching you may find one a lot cheaper than this one. @Goober I will send you 10 of them from my stash, no need to buy any.

 

I did not cover the power supply build at all yet... would you like me to build one of them to provide a DIY howto with photos?

 

[Goober 1,555]

Ok i got my solder station this evening and set it up. I’m using my old DynaKing fly tying vise to hold the PCB. 
 

I worked for an hour on the report today but mostly getting organized. as i read through @retro instructions and perform the tasks I’ll better understand. Gosh i look forward to firing up the Weller and getting started! Really i have to replace that teenie resistor!?!!

 

Basic Organization—not sure of the final order or maybe need to add another section

 

intro and history 

Description of system and components 

Fabrication of Major Components

Operational testing 

programming tables

Installation

Troubleshooting 

 

Appendices
FAQ?

parts list

tool list

Supply list

[retro 4,048]

11 hours ago, Goober said:

Really i have to replace that teenie resistor!?!!

 

Just gotta remove R2 from the PCB and discard it. Then solder a wire onto each of the two pads where R2 used to be, to connect to the trimpot. In your photo above capacitor C1 is missing... Are all of your W1209s missing C1?

[Goober 1,555]

Thanks @retro i saw it wasn’t there but didn’t know what to make of it—elsewhere on the board? I will get a picture of the whole board and try to find it.

 

and I’ll check the other boards hope this was a manufacturer’s error

 

also, this board is only programmable in Celsius values, right? To my understanding There’s no toggling between C and F scale

Edited May 13, 2020 by Goober

[retro 4,048]

Yup, it only measures and displays in Celcius. I wonder if your boards were revised (V.6.0 is silkscreened on the PCB) to delete the STM8S microcontroller and replace it with the Nuvoton MC, which would mean that its a fake...? Can you get us a couple photos of both sides of the PCB so we can compare the traces and components layout with my genuine boards?

 

EDIT: Does the microcontroller chip (in the upper left corner of the PCB) have anything printed on it that identifies it?

[Goober 1,555]

There are no C1 on any of the boards.

IC1 has no printing on it, but the IC2 is labeled AMS1117 5.0 XJS80

Can i build a power supply out of 1.5 volt batteries?—i need to read the instructions 

Package labeled made in china as many boards are

Edited May 13, 2020 by Goober

[retro 4,048]

Thanks for pics! Those W1209s are fake. They have the Nuvoton microcontroller chip on them (flipped upside down so pin #1 is at the lower right and traces are rerouted), rather than the STM8S. The board revision was obviously done to conceal the fact that those microcontrollers have been swapped, since fakes are well documented (with photos) on Github. They're useless junk not suitable for use in our project...

 

There may not be anymore genuine STM8S boards available since chinamen seem to prefer crime over honest trade. I'll send ya a couple of the gennys from my stock.

[retro 4,048]

I'll include a perf board that provides enough to build two power supplies as well. And I'll include some brass shim stock that I use to make heatsinks for the 10 volt regulator. If you need anything else hollar and I will include it. I expect the package won't leave until Friday morning... I got a project going that I cannot put off any longer. Once its done I'll get back on this.

[Goober 1,555]

Bummer! Thanks for checking them over.

 

well hay can i Rebuild my two-wire sensors with the 10KOhm thermistor and the trimpot in parallel? I remember you mentioned it might not synchro with the FCU.

 

i bought some perf boards—but they are joined can i just crack em in half?

 

thanks for the offer of the bits. I’m not in a hurry at all—“have to” go on a fishing trip next week.  And i want to get further on this technical report so I understand better. 
 

what can i send ya got almost everything else.