Good fan case recommendation

RedBatman

I'm thinking of getting a fan case for my Retropie. Any good recommendations?

Aliendon

i am currently using and loving the Zebra Virtue Black ice case.

https://c4labs.net/collections/raspberry-pi/products/zebra-virtue-black-ice-for-raspberry-pi-3-2-and-b

RedBatman

@Aliendon I checked this out and people have said the fan noise is a little loud with a noticeable hum, how does it sound to you?

Aliendon

@RedBatman the fan isnt any louder then any other case fan i noticed, when im gaming i dont even notice the fan noise. but its a small fan and think most all of the tiny fans might have some noise. it doesnt bother me to much, have my Pi 3 over clocked and run it pretty hard some times and never get above 50 C*.

RedBatman

@Aliendon Now just one more question, does it interfere with wifi signal strength? Cause I heard that some of the Raspberry Pi cases like the aluminim one interfere with wifi signals.

mhelfrich

@RedBatman I'm using the same exact case and haven't noticed any issue with WiFi. I haven't tested it with bluetooth as I don't have bluetooth controllers at the moment to use with it.

Aryetis

Honestly about the noise I wouldn't worry too much.
To reduce the noise you just have to buy a 2$ NPN transistor, a couple of wire and use the power modulation GPIO to control your fan's speed.
There is plenty tutorial out there explaining how to do so (eg: hackernoon . com/how-to-control-a-fan-to-cool-the-cpu-of-your-raspberrypi-3313b6e7f92c ) . Thought on my hand I decided to rewrite the program in C, fixing multiple speed/noise settings rather than the ON/OFF solution provided by this python script. Therefore my fan very rarely goes beyond 930 and is off most of the time. It's silent proof, no problem while watching a 1080p movie.
If you're interested here's my C-program to regulate the speed : https://github.com/Aryetis/PiPwmIncrementalFanController
Short tutorial on how to use the program:
1/ wire the PNP transistor as told by one of the many tutorial out there
2/ get the files from the git
3/ Compile calibrationTool.c using : gcc -Wall -o fanControl fanControl.c -lwiringPi -lpthread calibrationTool.c
4/ then you use the calibrationTool executable to determine what speed settings are best suited for your fan (speeds range from 0 to 1024, no point going higher than than, and mine won't even start below 880),
5/ then you modify the fanModeList[] array in fanControl.c accordingly to your desired speeds and temperature settings.
6/ Compile fanControl.c : gcc -Wall -o fanControl fanControl.c -lwiringPi -lpthread fanControl.c
7/ Login as su, and edit its crontab so everytime the raspberry will boot it will automatically launch the fanControl program. To do so, type "crontab -e" in a bash and then at the bottom of the file, add : @reboot [PATH_TO_SOME_FANCONTROL_PROGRAM_FOLDER]/fanControl

PS : I decided to makes my own program instead of using the already existing ones out there because I only saw two types off program:
1/ the ON/OFF switch : wich IMO is pretty useless when it comes to regulate the noise level without burning your pi ....
2/ the "dynamic" / automatic speed : wich didn't work at all with my fan cause let's face it, my fan like probably 99% of the others out there is just a cheap chinese one. Therefore it's meant to work at one fixed speed and tweaking this speed can induce a lot of nasty noisy vibrations and resonances.
So with my program, I can choose whatever value works for my fan/is silent, and set some temperature/fanSpeed levels.

PPS: and I haven't heard of any significant drop in wifi signal using a case. So you should be fine as long as you don't go for some bullet proof metal fancy box

PPPS : I am using this case and thermal pads( https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Aukru-Transparent-Heatsink-Accessories/dp/B06Y54W69J/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1495878400&sr=8-5&keywords=raspberry+case+aukru ), in wich I drilled a hole for the fan using a dremel for the (overpriced) fan that I hotglued ( https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B01M16KDEG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ).

RedBatman

SO I bought the case but the fan won't turn on. I installed it on the right pins, so any ideas? Do I need to buy another power supply cause the power supply I got came from a cana kit, or do I need to enable a setting somewhere.

Aryetis

@RedBatman No you don't have to "enable" it (I'm guessing you bought a "all-in-one" case+fan kit). Those tiny fans are simple 5v with 2 wires for the ground and 5 volt pin. So you just connect them and you should be ready to go (obviously , I have to say "double check them again").
I'd say if the culprit was the power suply you'd see the "unstable voltage" logo in the upper right corner. Maybe a broken fan :/, try the fan without the raspberry.

RedBatman

@Aryetis Thankfully I got it working now.