1070 replies to this topic

[TribesMan]

OK i succesfully disassembled the drive bay and one of the fans. Inside the fan there is a chip LB1668, wich is a Sanyo unipolar brushless motor driver.

I hope I'll be able to crack it and put up working wiring diagram for those fans...

[mspr]

Guys any succes with original apple fans? I'm trying to figure it out but no luck so far. I looked up the original Apple PowerMac G5 service manual (page 101), and there is pinout for CPUs front (removable) fans. It looks like those two just an usual fans with PWM control, but i tried to connect those two in the drive bay, but it does not work.

Any ideas?

Or maybe does somebody know how to disassemble drive bay? So I could take a closer look at those fans inside... I cant remove the locking mecanism...

Hi,
I'm using original Apple fans of the drive bay...
You have to connect the first and the second wires togheter... they correspond to the red wire in a common fan
The other wire is the third and it's the black wire in a common fan
The fourth wire I suppose controls the fan (like the yellow one in common fans) but it doesn't work for me... I don't know why...
Your second question... how to disassemble the drive bay?
You have to unlock the alluminium divider (between drive bay - HD and DVDRW - and the mainboard)
To unlock this divider you have to unlock firstly the door's looking mechanisn...
I will look for some pictures that could help you...
Meanwhile I will try to explain you even if it's not very simple without images...
Under the edge of the alluminium divider you will find a gray plastic fillet with 3 side panel looking parts inside
These little plugs have a little clip that keep them in the right position.
If you remove the clip you can remove also these 3 metallic parts.
Once you removed these parts you have to remove also the little plug on the right end of the plastic fillet...
This plug has another little clip on the top.
This plug connects the fillet to the rear external allumium mechanism to open the case.
Once you removed even this plug you will find some screws that fasten the plastic fillet
If you remove these screws you can remove the fillet.
Now you have to remove the black screws that you can see under the alluminium divider (these screws fasten the HD bracket and the fans in front of it).
Now you can unlock the divider and you have free access to the HD bracket and to the fans.
I don't know if you understand clearly what I mean...
Have a nice day
Bye

[TribesMan]

I cracked it! :> mwahahahah

Ok... here is the pinout...

1 +12V
2 rpm sensor
3 GND
4 +12V

Pin 1 on the blower (5-pin connector) is the one wich is used and pin 5 is not connected on the blower...

The drive bay fan is a little bit trickyer, because it has only 4 pins, but it is esentialy the same as the blower only there is no pin 5...
So if you look at the connctor with notches UP and wires going away from you, pin 1 is the leftmost.

And I DO NOT recomend connecting the drive bay fan to the motherboard it chunks 0.4A of current and I think that the motherboards these days are not designed for souch a amount of current. It is also VERY loud... so I tried it at lower voltage and it works quite happy from 4V on... and it is quite civilised up to 6V... The blower is a bit more quiet. And it also consumes less current up to 0.2A. It also works from 4V and up to 7V it is very quiet...

I hope you will find that information usefull...

Happy modding!

[TribesMan]

Few pictures:





You can see the fans spining and how you should connect it...

[Andune]

Nice project, im personaly going to fit my pc in a G5 case but i would like to use the original power supply if possible, and is just intrested in if someone have done it and have some tips about it.

P.S Do anyone have the specs on the 600W G5 PSU? Amps and everything.

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

Thanks for the info about the fans, helps no end. Anybody know what size screw would fit in the perforated front of the powermac case?

[TribesMan]

Hello... I've been busy prepareing my G5 case for local LAN party wich will start in Friday...

Here is a sneak peak of my current work...

I've painted two fans from black... to G5 gray... almost identical to original fans in the drive bay.
Those two will be placed at the back side of the case (behind CPUs)


First try to fit the new motherboard and PSU (at the bottom)


PSU front detail (I shortened all the cables and modified them to fit the case almost perfectly...


PSU back detail, I glued the mains power connector to the case (I know not the nicest solution :>)


Here you can see that there is place for one aditional HDD at the bottom, and also the PSU fans (60mm)
those fans are just an temporary solution until I get new (more quiet) fans tomorow.


First picture with hard drives and DVDRW mounted...


Detail of expansion card area. (TV tuner at the top, WiFi card, USB bracket and graphics card), you can also see the routing of SATA cables (those are supposed to be black...)


Backside fans mounted


Geting closer...


Liftoff


That blue fan is just vulgar... I've disconnected LED diodes so it is not glowing blue anymore

Next step will be new siletn fans for the PSU, PSU bay cover (wich is already made but i haven mounted it yet, because i need to change PSU fans), and after that I only need to connect drive bay fans and paint the SATA cables :>

What do you think?

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

What do you think?

Looks great mate. I'm stuck on whether to put a full atx back on but leave the original fans on, stick with just four expansion slots, and another option which i have forgot. I'm hopefully watercooling mine

Good work, keep it up and keep us posted!

[TribesMan]

Update... with more pictures

PSU bay cover:


Frontpanel with working LED, switch and USB... Firewire is not working and i'm not sure why...


A little bit messy around SATA connectors... (I need to paint those black...)


I also got new fans for PSU bay area... very quiet even at 12V...


And a new power connector stand... the glue thing was not OK:


PSU bay cover in place:


View from the top:


Screws hold it in place:


Nice screws


And a final shot:


Aint it nice? :>

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

Aint it nice? :>

Yes, it is great. What size are those screws you have used on the psu cover?

[TribesMan]

Those are M3 screws, head is about 5mm in diameter and 4mm high.

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

Those are M3 screws, head is about 5mm in diameter and 4mm high.

Do they fit the front of the powermac case? Through the holes?

Did you use the original standoffs? If so, what did you glue them on with?

[TribesMan]

Yes those fit through holes on the bottom of the case easily. I used custom 60mm high standoffs, 4 of them are screwed through holes in the bottom and other two are glued.
PSU circuit fits those holes at the bottom just perfectly so I used 5mm standoffs to fit the circuit and 55mm standoffs to hold the PCB in place and on top of that is PSU bay cover.

[CZ*DarkLight]

Nice work. I would like to use case of original G5 power supply I ordered, so, it will be the best ) anyway, what about you project - I am wondering how do you plan to solve "problem" with connectors on backside. Custom-made backpanel with connecors, cut back metal off and put there ATX one, or......?!

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

tribesman, can you post details on how you got the front panel working? Also, has anybody used the actual apple psu?

[CZ*DarkLight]

Smoothy: I wanna to use just case of original G5 power supply. You can not use G5 PSU for ATX motherboard without some wiremodding, and that is difficult. I will rather mod to PSU case normal ATX PSU.

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

Smoothy: I wanna to use just case of original G5 power supply. You can not use G5 PSU for ATX motherboard without some wiremodding, and that is difficult. I will rather mod to PSU case normal ATX PSU.

Hmmm, ill probally give it a go, the only problem is with using a atx psu it doesnt have the special connector for all the stuff in the upper part of the case.

[CZ*DarkLight]

Hehe, G5 PSU, G5 fan, PCI holder metal plate and cables arrived. Any ideas where to get original PSU covering plate?

BTW you can make some wiremodding on molexs and under the MB sneak them to upper part of case. Or make a hidden shaft for them.

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

Hehe, G5 PSU, G5 fan, PCI holder metal plate and cables arrived. Any ideas where to get original PSU covering plate?

BTW you can make some wiremodding on molexs and under the MB sneak them to upper part of case. Or make a hidden shaft for them.

So you have the actual g5 psu just no cover for it?

[ѕӎѳѳ₮ңӌ]

Looking at the connector on my atx psu and the apple psu, the atx has 20 pins, and the atx plug only has 20 holes. The apple has 20 pins but 24 holes, meaning 4 are empty, and all it should need is an atx plug and a bit of rewireing and lengthening. I'm looking through the pin outs now to confirm this. I'm using the attached service manual for the g5 pinouts. Thought it could be useful.

**Edit** It wont attach for some bloody reason.