winteriscoming
Champion
Any idea if the metal clip can hold the larger heatsink? I'm seeing that the larger one has a slot down the middle and doesn't look to sit too high compared to the fan version.
Chihiro GPU fan monitor and other maintenance concerns
- Thread starter winteriscoming
- Start date
winteriscoming
Champion
So for a hardware monitor utilizing an Arduino, it won't increase cost significantly to go ahead and monitor GPU fan's RPM and temp of a sensor mounted to the GPU heatsink. They'd both require the same shutoff circuit.
So the parts required are:
1. Arduino of your favorite flavor - not sure on fan RPM data voltage levels, so maybe 5v input tolerance would be ideal.
2. Temp sensor: DS18B20
3. 40x40 3-wire fan (or 50x50 would probably work and mount into at least 2 of the existing holes for the stock heatsink, though would not be recessed down into the slot).
4. Assuming the power can be cut by severing one wire on the power coming into the mobo, a MOSFET might be fine, or perhaps an opto-coupler or a relay.
5. If your Chihiro uses an ATX style power connector, you could use an ATX extension cable and hack into the wires there, to make a reversible modification... or otherwise build a wiring adapter to cut into.
6. Maybe an audible buzzer? It might be nice to hear an alarm if it decides it needs to cut power.
So the parts required are:
1. Arduino of your favorite flavor - not sure on fan RPM data voltage levels, so maybe 5v input tolerance would be ideal.
2. Temp sensor: DS18B20
3. 40x40 3-wire fan (or 50x50 would probably work and mount into at least 2 of the existing holes for the stock heatsink, though would not be recessed down into the slot).
4. Assuming the power can be cut by severing one wire on the power coming into the mobo, a MOSFET might be fine, or perhaps an opto-coupler or a relay.
5. If your Chihiro uses an ATX style power connector, you could use an ATX extension cable and hack into the wires there, to make a reversible modification... or otherwise build a wiring adapter to cut into.
6. Maybe an audible buzzer? It might be nice to hear an alarm if it decides it needs to cut power.
you could do two long buzzes for fan speed issue or 3 short buzzes for overheat issue.
winteriscoming
Champion
winteriscoming
Champion
I installed the heatsink with some thermal compound and left the fan floating standing in between the GPU and CPU pointing at the GPU.
I briefly booted without issue, but will probably establish a baseline temp with my other Chihiro and figure out the Arduino driven monitor before running this Chihiro with this heatsink.
I briefly booted without issue, but will probably establish a baseline temp with my other Chihiro and figure out the Arduino driven monitor before running this Chihiro with this heatsink.
terminator2k2
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did you get any further with this? i get paronoid reading about dead chihiros lol....
winteriscoming
Champion
Haha, no not yet. I've been wrapped up in a few other projects that I want to complete first.
I wouldn't worry about it too much.
if your fan is in good working condition and you keep your cab dust free it will last a good long time.
if and when the fan does die your machine will likely freeze and you can shut it down and check the fan.
the reason these things cook in arcades is because they're constantly caked with dust so the fan fails early, and then when they die the machine stays powered on for days/weeks before anyone thinks to troubleshooting, cooking the GPU the whole time.
Consider an Outrun 2 machine were side 1 works but side 2 is freezing... Operator logic: "keep running it, side one is making me money" meanwhile side 2 is cooking itself into oblivion. Not likely to happen in a home environment.
That's not really what is happening. The system doesn't freeze. It runs happily with a defective fan for a while. When it stops working, it's 2 late. The bottom of the pcb board under the gpu has de collored to brown and either the bga gpu is toast or one of it's solderings is no longer making contact.
You can only examine the condition of that fan if you completely take apart the chihiro. The upper box needs to be removed from the bottom one before you can even see it.
It's kind of strange that the normal xbox goes into thermal shutdown when it heats 2 much and that the chihiro doesn't care about that. All the hardware is there to measure the gpu temperature.
It's a construction fault in the system, just like the xbox mobo is having it's famous goldcap that starts leacking after a couple of years.
You are correct that it probably won't happen during home use. I would however check that fan and the case fan before I start using the system. A replacement fan costs maybe 10 bucks. A replacement mobo a bit more.
You can only examine the condition of that fan if you completely take apart the chihiro. The upper box needs to be removed from the bottom one before you can even see it.
It's kind of strange that the normal xbox goes into thermal shutdown when it heats 2 much and that the chihiro doesn't care about that. All the hardware is there to measure the gpu temperature.
It's a construction fault in the system, just like the xbox mobo is having it's famous goldcap that starts leacking after a couple of years.
You are correct that it probably won't happen during home use. I would however check that fan and the case fan before I start using the system. A replacement fan costs maybe 10 bucks. A replacement mobo a bit more.
well aren't you just the bearer of bad news 
I'm surprised the chip is still able to function for so long in thermal overload, or are you suggesting it cooks within seconds of the fan dying?
I guess I left the discussion with Ken under the impression that there's a good amount of time between when the fan dies and it's viable for a re-ball, but it's after hours/days of overheating that it kills the chip to and leaves signs of burning on the silicone.
I'm surprised the chip is still able to function for so long in thermal overload, or are you suggesting it cooks within seconds of the fan dying?
I guess I left the discussion with Ken under the impression that there's a good amount of time between when the fan dies and it's viable for a re-ball, but it's after hours/days of overheating that it kills the chip to and leaves signs of burning on the silicone.
I have no intention of testing how long it will run when the fan dies.
I assume most people just discover it died when it's 2 late.
I might test the 2 different heatsink options.
It wouldn't suprise me that the smaller one with fan keeps the gpu much cooler than the bigger heatsink without fan.
Ours sure wasn't running for days when it died. As such faults are often monitor related, the policy is to turn it off until the cause of problem has been found and the defective unit (either monitor or gameboard) has been removed from the power.
I had it reflown at a local factory specialised in pcb assembly.
The guy had done it on xbox 360 cpu's so I assume he knew what he was doing. It remained dead.
So either the procedure failed or the gpu was toast.
If my xbox 2 chihiro conversion works, I hope I can add some thermal shutdown in the bios as well.
I am still unsure if the mobo pic has buildin support for that.
Maybe it's up to the running program to take care of it as most dashboards have an auto setting for the fan speed.
The only open source dashboard I am aware of is xbmc and it's sources are huge to examine.
I assume most people just discover it died when it's 2 late.
I might test the 2 different heatsink options.
It wouldn't suprise me that the smaller one with fan keeps the gpu much cooler than the bigger heatsink without fan.
Ours sure wasn't running for days when it died. As such faults are often monitor related, the policy is to turn it off until the cause of problem has been found and the defective unit (either monitor or gameboard) has been removed from the power.
I had it reflown at a local factory specialised in pcb assembly.
The guy had done it on xbox 360 cpu's so I assume he knew what he was doing. It remained dead.
So either the procedure failed or the gpu was toast.
If my xbox 2 chihiro conversion works, I hope I can add some thermal shutdown in the bios as well.
I am still unsure if the mobo pic has buildin support for that.
Maybe it's up to the running program to take care of it as most dashboards have an auto setting for the fan speed.
The only open source dashboard I am aware of is xbmc and it's sources are huge to examine.
If you manage to make that work you'd be single highhandedly saving this hardware from oblivion. It's not all that common and I see far more broken than working, it's only a matter of time until it's nearly impossible to find a working unit.
I wonder if Avalaunch, Evox or any of the teams behind the other dashboards would be willing to let you look at their source. it's been long enough since the Xbox days surely there's no big threat if that became available.
I am currently working on my last obstacle. Apparently, the leacked xbox kernel source upon which I based my work doesn't have the vga modes buildin. I had to reverse the setvideomode assembly from the real chihiro bios to create vga. It's a large routine writing different parameters to a huge amount of registers from the nv2a gpu and connexant video encoder. It also isn't having support for the focus video encoder chip either.
I have no idea how I could contact the authors of avalaunch, Evox or Unleashx as I simply don't know who they are. The fact the xbox-scene forum disappeared isn't very helpfull either.
To be continued...
I have no idea how I could contact the authors of avalaunch, Evox or Unleashx as I simply don't know who they are. The fact the xbox-scene forum disappeared isn't very helpfull either.
To be continued...
Is the Team Avalaunch involved with the CPS2 multi the same group from the XS days?