The UltraDM Digital Rheobus - The Package

Taking out the UltraDM from it's packaging immediately draws your attention to it's sleek design, with the control buttons and LCD mounted on a number of different PCBs. Having used a home-made rheobus and a PCMods.Com Rheobus before, the buttons and LCD is a refreshing change from the retro look of the knobs and LEDs of the conventional rheobus. Everythings going digital nowadays and your fan control unit should too! :^) The LCD has a character line of 16 X 2 and it displays the "duty cycle" or fan "speed" status, if you will, in bars, much like a graph. The buttons works the same way as the ones on your CD-ROM or DVD drives and requires just a gentle touch to activate.

Another front view

Another rear view

Looking closer at the PCB mounting on the LCD side, you will notice that the UltraDM is not constructed of a single PCB board, but rather a two-tier design, on which the first layer is connected thru jumper pins and soldered onto the next board. This made the unit a little fragile and care should be taken when handling/installing the unit. At this time though, having this portion into one PCB is not attainable due to the LCD having it's own PCB. The folks at NatriumTech are already looking into the possibility of a single PCB design. The LCD also has a Green Backlight as well. 4 holes are situated at the corners of the LCD PCB for the purpose of mounting screws when installing the unit onto your black 5.25" case faceplate.

Close-up on LCD

The connecting pins

Turning the PCB towards the rear, you will find the array of eletronics components like Mosfets, timer chips, capacitors and also the various power connectors. The Mosfet used in this design is the IRF530, although I have been informed that NatriumTech will now replace that with a much more efficient and higher rating unit, the IRFZ440N. All current version of the UltraDM uses this new Mosfet. 4 of them are used for each of the 4 fan channels. Above the Mosfets are the standard 3-pin connectors for you to connect your fans. While others use spring clip connectors, NatriumTech chooses to use the 3-pin connectors as most fans comes with them. The problem here and with any other control units like this is that the connectors are situated on the PCB itself and most fans do not have wires long enough to reach them. Adding a separate unit for them would add to the cost of the unit, although I must say it's very simple to construct one yourself with some wires, connectors and a Matrix board or a Prototype Builder. Moving on to the side of the assembly, you find the standard Molex Power connector from your PSU, a Contrast Level Adjustment knob for the LCD and also a couple of chips. One of them is the timer chipset, which basically controls the "pulses" and the other looks like a memory chip, which stores all your fan speed settings and all the Presets. This allows the unit to revert to the last setting that you chose before shutting down the unit. Pretty nifty and useful I must say.

Rear of LCD-side PCB

Close up on Mosfets and fan connectors

Power Connector and Contrast Adjustment knob

The control buttons and the conenction for the PC control is also situated on another separate PCB assembly. It is connected to the main unit thru the same jumper pins. The only difference here is that you can actually remove the two units from each other as shown in the picture below. In fact, even the two tier PCB of the button/PC Control assembly can be detached from each other. You will also noticed 4-5 holes for mounting of the screws onto the 5.25" faceplate.

Control buttons PCB

Connecting jumper pins

Detached from main unit

Detached again! :O)

Looking at the rear of the assembly reveals more components. Here you will find the connection for the Serial (RS232) connection to your PC's Serial port. An electronics chip is also situated on the small PCB and this basically controls the communication between the unit and your PC via the Serial port. NatriumTech also provides a 70cm long (28") serial cable to connect the unit to your serial port. It's long enough to be used even in full tower cases and should not present any problem. The software is provided in a supplied 1.44MB floppy disk. It's called HyperionControl and only weighs in at 304KB. it has been developed by NatriumTech for use with their UltraDM units. A drill template is also included for you to mark out the exact positions to cut on the faceplates for the mounting screws, buttons and the LCD. There are some things missing here. Firstly, a manual. It's not that hard to understand and operate the unit but a manual is welcomed nevertheless. I'm glad to hear that a Manual for the UltraDM is in fact in the works. Some form of labels to indicate the functions of the buttons should also be included to indicate it on the faceplates once the unit is installed.

Rear of button assembly

Serial (RS232) Cable and software floppy

Drill template

Mounting screws

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