Temperature Controlled DC Fan

Regulator
Generally, electronic devices produce more heat. So this heat should be reduced in order to
protect the device. There are many ways to reduce this heat. One way is to switch on the fan
spontaneously. This article describes a circuit that automatically, increases fan speed in effect of
temperature.
Temperature Controlled DC Fan Circuit Principle:
The main principle of the circuit is to switch on the fan connected to DC motor when the
temperature is greater than a threshold value, Microcontroller generates Pulse width modulated
signal ,these signal will vary for 0% at 27C and 100% at 79C.
The microcontroller continuously reads temperature from its surroundings. The temperature
sensor acts as a transducer and converts the sensed temperature to electrical value. This is analog
value which is applied to the ADC pin of the microcontroller. The ATmega8 microcontroller has
six multiplexed ADC channels with 10 bit resolution. The analog value is applied to one of the
input ADC pins. Thus conversion occurs internally using successive approximation method. For
ADC conversion, internal registers should be declared. The ADC pin outputs a digital value. This
is compared with the threshold value by the controller which then passes through a mapping
function , mapping function scales the reading of temperature to PWM value .This value is then
passed to Output capture pin for generating pulse fed to transistor and given to load.
Declaring of internal ADC Registers:

The ATmega8 microcontroller internally has three register namely ADMUX, ADCSRA, ADC
data registers. Analog to digital converter is of 10 bit resolution.
1) Initially, select the reference voltage to the ADC using ADCMUX register.
2) Select REFS0 and REFS1 values in ADMUX register to set the reference voltage.
3) Now select the ADC channel using MUX0-MUX3 bits in ADMUX register. Below given
table shows the binary value to be placed in the MUX0-MUX3 bits to select a channel.

4) If the sensor is connected to ADC0 channel with AVCC with external capacitor at AREF pin,
then the binary value to be assigned to the ADMUX register is ADMUX=0b01000000.
5) Now select the pre scalar value using ADPS0, ADPS1 and ADPS2 bits of ADCSRA register
and also enable ADC using ADEN bit in ADSCRA register.
The following bits decide the division factor between XTAL frequency and input clock of ADC:

6) Now enable start conversion bit that is ADCSC in ADCSRA register.

7) After the conversion of the value, an interrupt bit is enabled by the hardware
8) Wait until interrupt bit ADIF is set to 1.
9) The result is stored in two data register of ADC that is ADCL and ADCH. Now read the
digital value from these registers

Circuit Diagram of Temperature Controlled DC Fan using Microcontroller:

Temperature Controlled DC Fan using ATmega8 Microcontroller Circuit Diagram

Temperature Controlled DC Fan Circuit Design:
The circuit mainly consists of ATmega8 microcontroller, temperature sensor, DC motor, driver
IC. Temperature sensor is connected to the input of the ADC pin i.e. ADC0 pin of the
microcontroller. Temperature sensor has three input pins, VCC, ground. Middle one is output and

the other two pins are ground and VCC. VREF and AVCC for the ADC are applied externally to
the microcontroller. Pin 20 and 21 are AREF and AVCC pins connected to the supply voltage of
5v.
Port B of the microcontroller is connected to the Fan motor through a motor Transistor.
How Temperature Controlled DC Fan Circuit Works using Microcontroller?
1. Initially switch the power supply.
2. Microcontroller starts reading the temperature of the surroundings.
3. The analog value of temperature is given by the temperature sensor.
4. This analog value is applied to the analog to digital converter pin of the micro controller.
5. This analog value is converted to the digital value by the microcontroller using
successive approximation method internally.
6. Temperature value is passed through mapping function and given to Output capture for
generating PWM
7. Thus fan starts rotating.
Temperature Controlled DC Fan Circuit Applications:

This can be used in home applications.

The circuit can be used in CPU to reduce the heat.