Any tips or suggestions for installing a fan into an Apple ///?

[Huxley]

Howdy everyone,

I've recently become the caretaker of two Apple /// systems. One is already in good working order other than a wonky 'O' key which I need to get sorted, and the other is in rougher shape (couple broken-off keys, dead PSU, etc.).

I spent some time playing with the working one last night and it was great, but I definitely noticed it warming up after an hour or so. I'd like to install a cooling fan to circumvent the notorious overheating issues that plagued these machines (both of mine are early revisions, which are more susceptible to overheating), but I can't quite figure out where to start - searching online for any variation "Apple III" and "cooling fan" just leads to 10,000,000 articles about why the lack of a fan doomed this platform, and nothing about how to actually install one.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

Huxley

 

[joshc]

How much room is there above the board in one of those? Any room for heatsinks on the chips? That would help a bit...

Also identifying which chips are getting warm would also help.

Sorry, I am of limited help here, having never owned let alone ever seen a /// in person before, but I am interested in seeing how this could be done, as a fan would be a valuable addition to a ///.

P.S. I'm one of the guys that wrote about how the /// was doomed (the LEM article).

 

[Huxley]

How much room is there above the board in one of those? Any room for heatsinks on the chips? That would help a bit...

Also identifying which chips are getting warm would also help.

Sorry, I am of limited help here, having never owned let alone ever seen a /// in person before, but I am interested in seeing how this could be done, as a fan would be a valuable addition to a ///.

P.S. I'm one of the guys that wrote about how the /// was doomed (the LEM article).

Great point - along with figuring out some kind of 'active cooling' (aka fan), I'll definitely look into installing some heatsinks on the various chips in there too.

Also, that's cool to know that you wrote the LEM article - is this the one you wrote? If yes, I'm grateful - I'm writing my own Apple /// article for an upcoming issue of Pixel Addict Magazine, and this LEM post was one of the helpful reference points for putting together the story.

Huxley

 

[joshc]

Also, that's cool to know that you wrote the LEM article - is this the one you wrote?

Yes. Glad you found it useful.

 

[waynestewart]

How about installing one of those blower fans onto a prototyping card. If you positioned it right then it should push quite a bit of air through a slot opening. The card could power it so it’d be easily removeable.

 

[jajan547]

I actually designed a card for the apple iii that lets you hook up a 5 volt fan let me know if you guys are interested and I’ll drop the gerbers here later tonight.

 

[Huxley]

I actually designed a card for the apple iii that lets you hook up a 5 volt fan let me know if you guys are interested and I’ll drop the gerbers here later tonight.

I'm definitely interested! I don't have any experience whatsoever with PCB manufacture or anything like that, but if the design exists and is available, that puts me (and probably others) a big step closer towards having cooler-running Apple /// systems!

Huxley

 

[jajan547]

I'm definitely interested! I don't have any experience whatsoever with PCB manufacture or anything like that, but if the design exists and is available, that puts me (and probably others) a big step closer towards having cooler-running Apple /// systems!

Huxley

Absolutely I’ll upload them tonight I think if you use JLCPCB it’s like $2 for five. Basically you can put anything you want on it so long as it’s 5 volts and is in the square area because you can drill through it.

 

[ScutBoy]

Absolutely I’ll upload them tonight I think if you use JLCPCB it’s like $2 for five. Basically you can put anything you want on it so long as it’s 5 volts and is in the square area because you can drill through it.

@Huxley - I'd buy one or two off you if you need to fill the minimum order.

And yes - I still need to ship that case to you!

The other area that might be problematic is the power supply space. It's basically isolated, and I don't know how one would get air in/out of there. I'd be loathe to drill or otherwise modify the case to allow some airflow. I may be thinking wrong since it's been a while since I've been inside my ///, but I don't think there's any real openings.

 

[jajan547]

I’ll send these here shortly. When I say drillable area I mean on the card I’ll upload a photo with the gerbers too.

 

[Huxley]

@Huxley - I'd buy one or two off you if you need to fill the minimum order.

And yes - I still need to ship that case to you!

The other area that might be problematic is the power supply space. It's basically isolated, and I don't know how one would get air in/out of there. I'd be loathe to drill or otherwise modify the case to allow some airflow. I may be thinking wrong since it's been a while since I've been inside my ///, but I don't think there's any real openings.

Haha no rush on the Mac Portable stuff - as you can see, I've got my hands full with other projects!

Good point about the PSU though, not sure about that. My general understanding is that the primary cause of early Apple /// failures was due to the motherboard warping as heat built up, rather than PSU failures due to overheating. Given that there are typically 3-4 open expansion card slots on the rear of the machine, I'm optimistic that a card-mounted blower fan will move enough air around to at least keep the motherboard from getting so toasty that it starts to make like Chubby Checker and do the twist. If this does move forward, I'm happy to share any extra boards I end up with!

I’ll send these here shortly. When I say drillable area I mean on the card I’ll upload a photo with the gerbers too.

Awesome, thanks! Any guidance around actually building one of these will be very valuable to me - I'm a beginner-level solderer and haven't really built a lot of electronics, other than rebuilding an old GameBoy last Fall.

Huxley

 

[jajan547]

So this is a photo of my prototype as you can see there is a box in which you can drill through and use any size screws.​

And this is the current revision which is bigger and allows for dual fans and has options to mount on either side of the PCB. If you wanted to you can have up to three fans but remember 5 Volts only. Also these cards are backwards compatible with the Apple II. I hope you guys get some great use out of these, keep the temps down, and let the chips live a long happy life. I've attached the Gerber's for the card you see here below.

 

[Huxley]

So this is a photo of my prototype as you can see there is a box in which you can drill through and use any size screws.​

And this is the current revision which is bigger and allows for dual fans and has options to mount on either side of the PCB. If you wanted to you can have up to three fans but remember 5 Volts only. Also these cards are backwards compatible with the Apple II. I hope you guys get some great use out of these, keep the temps down, and let the chips live a long happy life. I've attached the Gerber's for the card you see here below.

This is beyond awesome - thanks for sharing the info and files! Now I just have to look into getting the boards made up...

Huxley

 

[jajan547]

This is beyond awesome - thanks for sharing the info and files! Now I just have to look into getting the boards made up...

Huxley

JLCPCB is the way to go just upload the file and boom.