Construct Your Own Thermal Probe Guide

Construct Your Own Thermal Probe Guide
Date : Wednesday, 11 October 2000
Author : Stygian

Introduction
You've finally got your machine put together. Having hand-picked all the components, you've made sure that you've only got what YOU want in your computer. After turning the beast on for the first time, you notice that the hum of the various parts powering up actually comforts you... is it time to seek professional help? Heck no! It's time to start modifying and tweaking! And what better way to start than to take temperature readings of all your critical parts.

DISCLAIMER: Neither I, nor VH, shall be responsible for ANY damage you do/incur while attempting to follow this procedure. Knowing companies today, you'll probably void some sort of warrarty doing this.

A program such as Motherboard Monitor will allow the for the monitoring of CPU Temperatures, voltages, fan speeds, and other things which are monitored by the Hardware Monitoring Chip on your mobo. Some motherboards also have a 2-lead header from which you can connect a thermal probe to monitor the temperature of a certain place. But not all of these motherboards come with a thermal probe.

Take for example, my situation. My BE6 came with a thermal cable, but when it crapped out and I had to RMA it, I bought an Asus P3B-F. It had a 2-lead header for a thermal probe, but didn't include one. So I used the BE6's thermal probe with it. When I came around to using the new BE6 I received from the RMA process, it lacked a thermal cable. After seeing a thermister in Radio Shack one day, I decided to buy one to see what I could do with it.

Before I get down to more details, let me list the materials you'll need for this DIY:

- Thermister - available at an electronics store
- Heatshrink Tubing - also available at electronics store
- 2-lead connector - Pictured Below
- 2 Lengths of ~22 gauge Wire
- Solder + Soldering Gun
- Hair Dryer

The hardest item to find would probably be the 2-lead connector. I cut one off an old AT PSU; I believe it was used to power the LED display on some older cases that would tell the (apparent) CPU's Speed. You could possibly find these at an electronics store, but I was too lazy to look for them. I had to buy a new hair dryer because my mother's broke! Luckily Walmart was having a sale, hehe.

The first thing you should do is cut 2 lengths of 22-gauge wire. Make sure the wires are long enough to reach from the mobo connector to the place where you're going to measure the temp! Strip both ends of both of the wires back about 2CM or so. The first thing I did was solder the wires to the leads of the thermister. I usually wrap the wire ends around the leads, in a spiral-type pattern, and then solder. However, my soldering-skills leave quite a bit to be desired...

As a result of my soldering skills, or lack thereof, I had to use a larger diameter of heatshrink tubing that could fit over the area.

After I applied the heat and shrunk the tubing, the resulting probe didn't look too nice. So I decided to use another bit of tubing to slip over the existing work, to see if I could 'tighten' up the end a little bit more...

The final result was... a bit more chubbier than I expected... LOL The next step was to take the 2-lead connector, and connect it to the wires that were soldered to the thermister. I used heatshrink for this job as well. Just strip the wires connected to the connector, and wrap them with the wires from the thermister. Slide the tubing over, and use the dryer to finish the job. If you've done it all right, you should end up with a completed thermal probe!

The next step was to test out this device, to see if it actually works, or if I just wasted my time and money on it... Hmm... I'm quite the pessimist, aren't I? ;) First, I attached the probe to the HDD (A Quantum Fireball+ KA 7200RPM Unit) using electrical tape, and checked out the temp using Motherboard Monitor...

But we all know that while HDDs can get hot, there's more 'extreme' situations that we can put this probe in, can't we?

Heh, I used the dryer to shrink the tubing; lets see how hot it really was... I held the Dryer over the probe for 10 secs to obtain those results. And to think my Mother uses that on her hair everynight! ;) After testing, stick that sucker wherever you want to measure the temp! A warning though, DO NOT stick it between your HSF and your CPU. This thermister isn't a flat one, and you'll most likely crush/kill it by doing that.

Anyway, have fun, and happy mod'ing! Send me mail about what you thought of this mini-howto. Thanks!