TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED DC FAN

Avelino, Anne Loraine L., Galang, Vincent N., Nañoz, Allona Jane M., Punzalan, Justine Roy A.
College of Engineering
School of Technology
First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities

Abstract— This project aims to implement an ADC circuit and a
summing amplifier to control the speed of the fan using LM35-
Precision Centigrade Temperature Sensor.
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the advancement of electronics has been proven
through different applications particularly at home. These are
variety like remote controlled appliance switch circuit, night
security light and others. Having said that, the group came up with
a project which is temperature controlled DC fan.
The interface used to linearly convert temperature to voltage
is by using LM35- Precision Centigrade Temperature Sensor. It
is a precision integrated circuit temperature device with an output
voltage linearly proportional to the Centigrade temperature.
Figure 2.2 describes the major features of this sensor which can
be found on its datasheet.

Temperature controlled DC fan is a smart home application

where in as the temperature increases or decreases, the speed of
the fan will gradually increase or decrease also. This clearly
shows that there is a direct relationship between these two.

On the other hand, the LM35 series are precision integrated-

circuit temperature devices with an output voltage linearly
proportional to the Centigrade temperature. The LM35 device has
an advantage over linear temperature sensors calibrated in Kelvin,
as the user is not required to subtract a large constant voltage from
Figure. 2.2 Major Features of LM35
the output to obtain convenient Centigrade scaling.
Since output voltage is too small which ranges only in
Together with LM35, flash ADC and summing amplifier were millivolts, the group amplified LM35’s output voltage using the
used for this project to control the speed of the fan. With the help circuit shown on Figure 2.3. A non- inverting amplifier is used to
of digital multimeter, the voltage equivalent of the temperature isolate LM35 module from other circuit. The purpose of this
can be read. By modifying this circuit, it can be used to control isolation is to avoid instability whenever the environment shows
the room temperature and also in other applications where power abnormal temperature conditions. This can prevent impairment of
consumption has to be controlled. other IC’s involved in the design. Since its output is negative
voltage, it is understood that to get its positive swing- ground
II. CIRCUIT DESIGN
must be the source.
Temperature Controlled DC Fan is described by the block
diagram shown on Figure 2.1. It has four major stages that
demonstrates how temperature can be used to control the speed
of the fan.

Figure 2.3 LM35’s Non- Inverting Amplifier

Figure 2.4 shows the board layout of LM35 with inverting

amplifier. It is designed such that it can be isolated from other
modules as previously discussed above.
Figure 2.1 Temperature Controlled DC Fan- Block Diagram

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 experiences in performing complex circuits like this one,
monitoring the output of each stage makes debugging easier and
functionality of each stage can be determined.

Instead of fabricating the whole circuit in one PCB, each stage

is fabricated separately and is below. Figure 3.1 shows the first
stage of the circuit, which is comprised of the LM35 or the
temperature sensor.

Figure 2.4 LM35’s Non- Inverting Amplifier Board Layout

Figure 3.1 Figure 3.2

The fabricated output of the second stage, which is the

The next stage is Flash ADC shown on Figure 2.5. LM35’s Analog-to-Digital converter (ADC), is shown in Figure 3.3
gain is amplified such that it is large enough to be compared for below. Meanwhile, shown in Figure 3.2 is the third stage of the
Flash ADC’s comparators. It will be too difficult to find voltage temperature-controlled circuit which is summing amplifier and
source for voltage reference in millivolts range and if there is, it can be also called a Digital-to-Analog converter.
will be hard to control especially equipment used were not
accurate. Gain ideally is 10 so that voltage range is from 2.7V (27
degree Celsius)- room temperature to 8.0V (80-degree Celsius) -
rough estimate of maximum temperature. However, for specific
environments, 80-degree Celsius is way too impossible to
achieve. The sole purpose of the group for that big range is the
actual implementation of Flash ADC. Loading effect had been
experienced by the group from previous experiments. Thus, the
group wanted to provide larger range in case loading effect occurs
in the actual implementation of the design.

Figure 3.3

During fabrication, the group observed that it is not easy to

achieve a perfect fabrication especially when it involves
integrated circuits (ICs). Since their pins are close to each other,
small copper areas are not removed and this can be considered
unavoidable. Pins which shouldn’t have connection to each other
are scratched until copper areas are removed.

After confirming that there are no unnecessary connections,

placing of components together with switches are done. Although
they are not yet assembled for the testing of outputs in each stage.
This is shown in Figure 3.4.

Figure 2.5 Flash ADC

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The temperature-controlled DC Fan is composed of four Figure 3.4

stages as discussed in the part II of this paper. Based on the past

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 First tested is the initial stage of the circuit, the temperature
module containing the LM35 temperature sensor. The medium
used as to change the temperature detected by the sensor is a
soldering iron. As shown in Figure 3.5, when the temperature
module is as it is, the output voltage read is 2.73V.
Figure 3.5
Increasing the temperature, the hot soldering iron is then put
across the LM35 and the output voltage changed to 4.05V as
shown in Figure 3.6.
Figure 3.6
Waiting for a few minutes for the soldering iron to reach a
maximum temperature, it is then recorded that an output voltage
of 7.96V can be produced as shown in Figure 3.7.
Figure 3.7
With these results, it can be concluded that the temperature
operates as desired by the group. The second stage is then
simulated which is the Analog-to-Digital converter using the
Flash ADC Structure. Similar to the past experiments which
involves the use of ADC, it is difficult to achieve its desired
functionality, for all the output of the ADC is activated instead of
having only few pins activated.
It is then determined that the connection of the priority
encoder (74148) on actual implementation is different from the
connections of it in Multisim. So even if the connections and the
routing is correct, the functionality in actual will not be achieved.
The group then think of possible solutions to solve this problem.
Since fabricating will not be possible to achieve the desired
function, the group tried implementing it using breadboard, since
the entire circuit was first simulated in breadboard.
Shown in Figure 3.8 is an example output of the temperature
module combined with the ADC stage. Initially, the temperature
detected by the sensor is 2.96V shown in the multimeter and the
second LED indicator is turned off.
Figure 3.8
When the soldering iron is in its very high temperature, it is
placed across the temperature sensor and an output voltage is read
in the multimeter as 7.99V. The output of the temperature module
will be then supplied to the ADC stage and three indicators are
used to determine the digital output of the second stage. It is
shown in Figure 3.9 that the three LED indicators are all turned
on, which signifies 111 in binary and a decimal equivalent of 7.
Figure 3.9
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 Letting the soldering iron stay across the sensor for some time,
the voltage increased to 8.11V and the LED indicators lighted
brighter compared to the previous input voltage. This is shown in
Figure 3.10 which concludes that even if the maximum digital
output is reached (111), it can still produce brighter lightings of
the indicator, and in the temperature-controlled DC Fan circuit,
the DC fan can still spin faster.

Figure 3.12

Increasing the temperature by means of soldering iron,

the output voltage of the temperature module and the voltage
supplied in the DC Fan also increased. From the initial value of
0.14V, it increased to 0.39V as shown in Figure 3.13.

Figure 3.10

Removing the soldering iron across the sensor and letting the
temperature cool down for some seconds, an output voltage is
recorded as 4.90V and only the MSB LED indicator is left turned
on as shown in Figure 3.11.

Figure 3.13

As time passes by, the temperature that the soldering

iron emits, increases, until the maximum voltage is achieved.
Shown in Figure 3.14 is the maximum voltage equivalent of the
temperature read by the sensor, together with the voltage that is
supplied in the DC Fan.

Figure 3.11

Examples that are stated above is enough evidence that the

ADC stage is now working. Then, the simulation of the third stage
is next performed.

After letting the voltage equivalent of the temperature reading

go back to its initial value, the output of the ADC is then supplied
to the input pins of the Summing Amplifier stage as shown in
Figure 3.12. Having the temperature at its initial value, the
voltage supplied in the DC Fan is in its minimum and can be also
viewed in the same figure as 0.14V.

Figure 3.14

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 Since the functionality of all stages comprising the
temperature-controlled DC Fan circuit is achieved and proved,
the inputs and outputs of each stage then are fixed and placed in
its casing. Shown in Figure 3.15 is the final output of the group.
Figure 3.15
Upon several attempts of simulation, it can be observed that
the maximum voltage read at the output decreases over time. This
is due to the discharging of the battery because of too much and
very frequent use. So it is recommended to use an adjustable
power supply to achieve and maintain the desired results.
Regardless of the decreasing of the maximum voltage, it can
still be observed that as the temperature detected by the sensor is
increasing, the voltage supplied to the DC fan is also increasing
making the rotation of the blade faster. Contrary to this, as the
temperature cools down, smaller voltage is supplied in the fan
making the rotation slow.
IV. CONCLUSION
The group therefore conclude that the Temperature-controlled
DC Fan was implemented using 3-bit Flash ADC. The Flash ADC
is the interface that converts the analog input from the
temperature sensor, LM 35. Through this interface, the voltage
needed by the DC Fan is controllable, and has discrete interval. It
was found out that the voltage output of the LM 35 is proportional
to its input temperature, which is actually 1 mv per degree
Celsius. Hence the voltage is linearly dependent to the
temperature input.
In addition, the inverting amplifier increases the voltage
output of the sensor by 10 times because of its gain, 10 dictated
by the resistor Rf and Ri. However, since the amplifier used is
inverting amplifier, the amplified voltage output is negative, it is
concluded that the use of non-inverting amplifier is more
appropriate.
Furthermore, the ideal increment of voltage in the flash ADC
must be 1.125V because of its reference voltage 9V. But in the
actual circuit, the increment in voltage varies each time. There are
changes applied in in biasing the ADC. The actual maximum and
minimum voltage swings are +9V and -1.5V. This is because the
positive swing is more important in this section, but the minimum
swing must not be grounded.
Meanwhile, the active low priority encoder becomes a
problem in implementing its functionality. The actions taken from
the previous laboratory was also implemented here. But that the
fabricated PCB has wrong connections that’s why, the group
needs to transfer the priority encoder section to breadboard.
In the last part of the circuit, in the summing amplifier section,
some circumstances have been observed. Due to decreased in the
supplies, the maximum output of the summing amplifier
decreases also. Then the ideal operations of summing amplifier
were not clearly implemented in the last part. But still, there are
still increase in the voltage output as the digital indicator increase
its count.
Lastly, there is an unavoidable loading effect when the DC fan
is connected to the output of the summing amplifier. There is a
voltage drop of 1-2V. In the demonstration, the supplies have
minimal amount that’s why the DC Fan needs to trigger manually
at first. But in the video clips taken earlier, the circuit is
functioning well.
Anne Loraine L. Avelino
Vincent N. Galang
Allona Jane M. Nañoz
Justine Roy A. Punzalan
REFERENCES
[1] Temperature Controlled DC Fan. [Online]. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T-msXBcGHo
[2] Temperature Controlled DC Fan. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.electroschematics.com/4788/temperature-controlled-dc-fan/
[3] Temperature Controlled DC Fan. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.circuitstoday.com/temperature-controlled-dc-fan
[4] Temperature Controlled DC Fan. [Online]. Available at:
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 http://www.myclassbook.org/temperature-controlled-dc-fan-using-
thermistor-mini-project/
[5] LM35. [Online]. Available at:
http://www.ti.com/product/LM35