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Old 04-23-2012, 05:16 AM   #1
encantotom
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Default front AV airflow fans and thermostats for them

hi,

my front AV cabinet and the side valence covers over the driver and passenger have 12vdc brushless fans that blow are over the crossovers for the sound system and there is an additional exact same fan on the windshield side of the front overhead tv cabinet to pull air through it.

they are controlled by two bimetal thermostats by therm-o-disc. they are supposed to turn on at 110 degrees F and turn off at 90 degrees F.

they had never been on till this weekend. it hit 105 today and inside the coach was definitely over 110 i am sure.

one of the bimetal thermostats closed and the fan in the tv cabinet turned on. it is a little noisy so i clearly heard it. louder than i would want to hear.

the other two fans (on on each side) did not turn on.

so, i got my trusty meter out and checked out how it was wired. there is a bimetal thermostat on each side of the cabinet. i showed a picture of the passenger side one and there is an identical one on the drivers side.

they are wired so that when either one of them turns on, it powers the 3 fans.

on mine, both of the side fans were not working. there was 12v to both of them.

the one inside the tv cabinet (of course it is not easy to get at as i will have to take the bottom of the cabinet out somehow) is very noisy.

so, i know how to make it work as it is supposed to. btw, the master 12dc switch at the entry door does NOT turn the power off to the fans.

here is my issue. it will likely be over 90 degrees for the rest of the summer (here till october) so the fans will never shut off while it is sitting in my driveway. it clearly was not set up to be where it is so hot for 6 months a year.

the other thing is that one of the bimetal thermostats was turning on and the other is not. not a big deal.

so...i could put a switch to it all. a switch to defeat the thermostat and then remember to turn it on....yea right.

now....the old plasma monitor i took out was a big heat generator. the new led set i will put in will be wayyy less. the old plasma was 400watts and the new led will be 100watts.

i know there is the amp and the dvd player and such. the amp i am putting in will be similarly powered to the marantz i am taking out. the marantz was a fine amp in its day but has no hdmi and i want to have full hdmi control. the amps are roughly 400 watts. the dvd players take almost nothing so they are not an issue. they draw 10-15watts.

then there is the sat box. it doesnt draw a lot of power either.

so when it was built, there was about 850-900 watts of power draw. when i am done redoing it there will be about 500 watts.

so i guess i am questioning myself as to if i even need the fans. there are no fans for the crossovers in the kitchen cabinet, over the dinette(desk) area or for the rear tv speakers. so why is there some over the driver and passenger seats?

so, i can fix them all to work right and have the fans on for 6 months a year or i can put a cutoff switch to the thermostats so they only come on if it is 110 degrees AND the switch is on if i remember to turn it on or i can just disable the whole thing and not worry about it since the power in the electronics will be about half of what it was when it was built.

just wondering what your opinions are.

thanks

tom
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Old 04-23-2012, 01:54 PM   #2
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Tom,

As a recovering engineer who has never done any real engineering work...I don't have any suggestions. But I do have a couple of thoughts:
1) Why did they install the fans in the first place? If you think about those heavy plasma screens generating lots of heat..there was a need to get the heat out to prevent fires. I think that is why they were installed in first place. With an LED screen generating almost no heat...not an issue now.
2) Most sensitive electronics care about heat changes rather than the absolute temperature. So...maintaining a stable (hot) temperature is better than cycling between hot and cold. And...if the entertainment equipment is off...it doesn't really matter what the temperature does.

On my coach, the plasmas were original along with the amp, so I upgraded all of the electronics at the same time. I bought the television that fit the opening in the trim piece the best.

I know that there are some real engineers on here...and they are welcome to disagree....but I am thinking about just removing all my fans. (never have heard them come on).

Cheers,
bill
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Old 04-23-2012, 02:28 PM   #3
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hi bill,

thanks for the comments. i am leaning towards what you are thinking as well. the reason you never have heard yours come on it that likely it hasnt been 110 inside your coach. or you have not been in there when it has been.

yea, i have been looking at tv's that i like AND that fit the openings.

the front one was already set up for a VESA 400x400 so that will be easy. the rear one i have to get a mount.

thanks

tom
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Old 04-23-2012, 03:00 PM   #4
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Newell replace both my TVs (I supplied the TVs and they supplied the labor). On the front, it was like yours with a simple homegrown mounting system.

The way that they did the back was rather ingenious! The old television was simply mounted on a piece of plywood (painted black). It was secured to the wall with screws around the edges. The Newell folks simply added on another piece of plywood (to get the tv to the correct depth), painted and put it all back together. Plywood attached to tv and then plywood screwed into wall. Instead of using the infrared remote system (Niles)....they also cut a hole in the mounting bezel in front of remote sensor and polished the plastic to make it look nice.

I would have done something much more elaborate...but since you never have to get behind the tv...this method works! Let me know if you want pictures...I can show you how mine is done now.

Cheers,
bill
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Old 04-23-2012, 06:29 PM   #5
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sure i would love to see pictures. if it is mounted flush to the plywood, how do you get at the plugs on the back?

tom
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Old 04-23-2012, 07:23 PM   #6
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The part that screws to TV only needs to be as big as VESA mount. That leaves plenty of room for cables and such. (See diagram). The first picture is the right side of TV that shows mounting block.
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Old 04-23-2012, 07:55 PM   #7
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i think will do something like that for mine. so let me see if i get this right. there is a big piece of plywood that the smaller one is screwed to. then there is a hole all the way through both of them for the bolts that go into the vesa mounting holes (i assume they are countersunk on the back so the back plywood goes flush on the wall). then the back piece of plywood is larger than the width of the tv, so you simply screw it to the wall with a zillion screws and then in my case, put the front wall cover over it. (different than yours).

i like it. simpler than a mount and easy to do.

thanks for the idea and taking the effort to share it.

later

tom
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Old 04-23-2012, 08:37 PM   #8
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Exactly! I think the way that they did it was to first use VESA screws to put the small block on tv. Then screw from the back of the big mounting board into the smaller block. (just so you don't have to line up vesa screws through two layers). But as good as you are...there is probably a better way of doing the same thing.

The result was super easy, and super secure. Mine has about five screws on each side...and is more secure than the front one with the fancy struts.

Don't forget that you have to leave a port for the IR remote sensor. The old TV used the Niles system, but the new one just has a hole in the bezel.
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Old 04-23-2012, 08:52 PM   #9
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i dont have a bezel on the back tv so the regular remote will work with the tv. i do have an ir repeater that will be used for the dvd player and receiver in the back though.

i have to space mine out about 3 inches in total so i will use one piece of plywood big enough for the back piece and then 3 pieces of plywood for the vesa sized mount.

thanks again.

tom
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