Raspberry 5 cooling fan control

    Hello,

    running Libreelec 11.0.4 on a Raspberry 5 with official case. This case has a cooling fan. This fan is running all the time. Even at 35 degrees system temperature. Its way too loud to use it as a media center anymore. How can I control this fan??? Thx

    If the fan only has two wires, then it's just an on/off fan. If it has at least three, then fan speed control is possible.

    I assume Raspberry Pi OS has instructions for the official RPi5 case. So search on RPi OS forum first. If you find something, come back and post a link. Usually we can adapt it for LE.

    The fan has a 4-pin connector (5V, GND, PWM, RPM/pulse sense input) - like standard PC fans.

    DT params to adjust the fan temp/speed curve have just been added to the RPi kernel, I'll update the kernel in LE soon so it'll be available in nightlies - hopefully in the next few days.

    so long,

    Hias

    Strange, I use Libreelec 12 nightly build and I have no problems with the fan, it spends most of the time off and when it is running it is silent, except when the OS starts.

    Quote from maxi

    Strange, I use Libreelec 12 nightly build and I have no problems with the fan, it spends most of the time off and when it is running it is silent, except when the OS starts.

    Same with me, I'm using the Argon NEO 5 and the fan doesn't even spin unless the temp hits 50'C and will only run at 50% speed at 60'C (doesn't really get hotter than that often in this case)

    Quote from HiassofT

    The fan has a 4-pin connector (5V, GND, PWM, RPM/pulse sense input) - like standard PC fans.

    DT params to adjust the fan temp/speed curve have just been added to the RPi kernel, I'll update the kernel in LE soon so it'll be available in nightlies - hopefully in the next few days.

    so long,

    Hias

    Thank you so much in advance. Then I reconfigure my RPI5 and install the latest nightly build. Then I can already try the LE12.

    Problem solved. Very sorry. Installed LE12 nightly. This did not help. I read again, that it should be a 4-pin connector. Mine had only 3 pins. So this was a broken connector. Maybe its so fragile, that I damaged it. I repaired the connector and now it works.
    Thank you all for responding!

    I just got the Raspberry PI 5 and installed Libreelec 12 final release. I am using the official Raspberry PI case, with the separate active cooling fan.

    When I turn it on, the fan starts up and then stops. The CPU temperature reaches above 100 degrees F, yet the fan does not come on. Only when I'm shutting down the system does the fan come back on briefly, before it turns off. Any suggestions?

    Using another SD card, I installed Raspberry PI OS and then installed Kodi. The fan was running just as it should with no issues.

    So, it seems safe to conclude it's not the active cooler or other hardware issue and seems to be a problem with Libreelec 12.

    I guess I'll run Kodi under Raspberry PI OS until Libreelec gets things straightend out.

    RaspiOS probably has software tinkering to force the case fan on, and realistically it's more likely to be needed with a desktop OS that generates a lot more CPU activity than LE does. Baseline fan speeds and activation temps are controlled by Linux (defined in device-tree) and we're using the RPi kernel authored by RPi devs to work with their hardware and we assume they know what's needed. From personal experience 100ºF (38ºC) is nothing for an RPi5 board (mine runs with no case, no heatsinks, no fan, at 55ºC with zero issues) so I wouldn't expect a fan to be spinning up until a much higher temperature has been reached.

    In case it's not obvious from the comment. There's no bug to straighten out, so you'll be in for a long wait.

    Thanks for the info Chewitt!

    I went back and installed the LE 12 - 2024-05-05 nightly build and now the fan seems to be working fine! Idling tempurature is averaging around 56C in the original Raspberry PI 5 case, with active cooler and case lid on.

    Quote from maxi

    Strange, I use Libreelec 12 nightly build and I have no problems with the fan, it spends most of the time off and when it is running it is silent, except when the OS starts.

    same here. The fan has an odd sound like a scratching.

    Just installed LE on my RPi5 and the fan blowing on 100% capacity at all times, even tho the temps are 36c? Wth is going on? I have reinstalled and it does this out of the box?

    It worked fine when i was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on it like 30 mins ago