NatriumTech
UltraDM Digital Rheobus Review
Date : Monday, 01 July 2002
Author : Wolfman
Provided by : NatriumTech
Introduction
A few years back, when I just started out this crazy obsession we now call modding, I stumbled across a nifty and useful little product called the Fanbus. It was the brainchild of a man we all now know as Cliff Anderson. The Fanbus is simply a device where all the power of the fans in your case can be centralized to minimize cable clutter, thus helping to improve overall airflow. From there, the spectrum of products from Cliff A begins to widen and it includes the Baybus, Dual-Voltage Baybus, Rheostats Baybus and a few others. All these devices helps control the one trade-off that all modders face when adding fans to their case, and that is the noise from all of them! Over time, we've seen all kinds of variations of the gadgets from DIY'ers all over the world and also from a number of case-modding online stores such as the Baybus, MicroBus and Rheobus from PCMods.Com and also the Maelstrom from CaseETC.Com. All these products, all of which we had reviewed before, quickly gain popularity as new users and even seasoned modders would not have to hassle with soldering irons and stuff to build one and more importantly, it does what it's designed to do and that is to help reduce the noise and gives control to the user over the fans/devices connected to it. But this part of the modding world is about to get another boost and it comes in the form of the UltraDM from a local company here in Singapore, NatriumTech.
 Front view |
 Rear view |
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
Before we go into details of the product, let's take a look at what makes the UltraDM different from all the devices mentioned earlier. The primary function of the UltraDM remains exactly the same as the Rheobus and Maelstrom and that is to control the speed of the fans connected to it but instead of using rheostats/potentiometers/voltage regulators to control the voltage to the fans, it uses a technique called Pulse Width Modulation, or PWM for short. In simple terms, the PWM technique supplys power to the fans in "pulses" or intermittently, by turning the supply voltage "On" and "Off" repeatedly. These "pulses' or "duty cycles" can be varied in their duration to help change the speed of the fans. The longer the duration, the faster the speed, and vice versa. One of the main advantages of the PWM is it's load efficiency. In a resistive circuit design, like a rheobus with potentiometers, much of the power is wasted as heat in the resistor coil, but in a PWM circuit, at whatever level it is in, the PWM will use almost the full power generated, almost all of which is transferred to the load. However, the circuit design for the PWM is much more elaborate and complex and only few has the ability and resources to construct one.
OK, I'm not gonna blabber on about PWM and its features and what-not. If you want to know more about Pulse Width Modulations, I have found some resources for you in a few different sites. Some of these sites goes into detail about PWM and some shows you how to construct your own PWM circuits, with links to the places where you can find the components. Whichever you choose, there are lots of pictures and illustrations to help and guide you along the way.
The UltraDM Digital Rheobus
NatriumTech has released the UltraDM for quite some time now and we folks here in Singapore has got the chance to use the UltraDM for a while and this is the first ever look at the product. NatriumTech also carries a few other products, almost all of which were designed and produced by themselves. They have been providing these products for the local modders and they have proven to be very popular with the modding crowd. NatriumTech named this product the "4 Channel Digital PWM Fan Controller with PC Control" but I'll call it the UltraDM Digital Rheobus since it has the same basic function as the conventional unit. :O) Now let's take a look at the specifications of the UltraDM.
Specifications
Here's a little excerpt from NatriumTech's Website about the UltraDM unit.
"The UltraDM symbolises the ultimate in digital fan control. Sleekly mounted onto a 5.25" faceplate, it has a 16x2 advanced LCD display and 4 control buttons. Gone are messy knob controls, switches or LED indicators, for all of them are integrated into this next generation fan controller. This device is no short on capabilities. The primary function of fan control is done via pulse width modulation, hence allowing the UltraDM to control high powered fans with efficiency. Fans status is displayed on the LCD screen real-time. The UltraDM is also able to be controled via software, therefore eliminating the need of PC users that put their casing under the desk to ever reach down to adjust the fan speeds."
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 |
Testing
Before actually installing the UltraDM unit into my case, I powered up the unit to make sure everything is working fine. I also tested the unit with some of the fans I have. These are by no means the most powerful fans available, but rather my, and probably VH's favourite fans, the Panaflos. According to NatriumTech, the UltraDM has been rigorously tested with the Delta FocusFlow beasts (Multiple fans, up to 6 Watts per channel!!!) and it handles the power requirements without any problems at all. One 120mm Panaflo, 2 x 92mm Panaflo and the 60mm fan from my Coolermaster Heatpipe HSF was used to test the unit.
 The test subjects! heheh! |
 The Panaflo 120mm |
 The Panaflo 92mm |
Below you will see all the connections being made before powering up the unit. The Serial (RS232) cable is plugged into the buttons PCB assembly, all the fans were connected to their respective connectors and lastly, the power connector from the PSU. The test is done with the unit not yet installed into the case so the wirings from the fans isn't a big problem. But once you have the unit installed into your case, you might want to spend some time figuring out your wiring route so as to minimize cable clutter and obstruction of airflow. And if you have the time, you can build your own microbus or fanbus to have a much better location to connect your fans to.
 Serial (RS232) connection |
 Fan power connection |
 Main power connection |
Here's a couple of pictures showing you the unit before and after it has been powered up. As default, the UltraDM will power up to Preset No. 1. Subsequently, it will power up to the last chosen settings before you shut down your PC. Another nice feature of the unit is that it has a start-up screen as shown in the picture below. You can of course, edit this to include your own start up screen. I will show you how in the next section. Once the time is over for the start up screen, the LCD will display the fan status bars.
 Test bed off. |
 Test bed on! |
 Start-up screen |
 Fan Status bars |
Here's some more shots of the UltraDM under test. Now, as you've already known, the UltraDM uses PWM to control the fan speeds. It does it by "pulsing" the supply voltage, in this case 12V, by turning it "On" and "Off". NatriumTech was kind enough to provide me with some reading shots off an Oscilloscope to show you the "pulsing" or "duty cycle" wave resulting from the PWM circuitry.
 50% duty cycle |
 99% duty cycle |
As you can see from the pictures, the constant 12V supply voltage is "pulsed" at an inaudible frequency. The picture on the left shows the duty cycle at 50%. The time or duration that the voltage is turned "On" is almost similar when it's turned "Off". The picture on the right shows you the UltraDM at 99% duty cycle. You can clearly see that the longer duration that the voltage is turned "On" and the very short duration (denoted by the sharp spikes) that it's turned "Off". At 100% duty cycle, you will just see a straight line.
Installation
Installation of the unit is a litlle bit more involved that any controller unit I've used. It's more than simply drilling holes and putting everything together. Since there's an LCD display panel, the hole for it has to be done properly and exposes just the right portion of the LCD to be displayed thru it. And since most facelpates has these "rigdes" from the molding, you'll have to remove them so that the face of the LCD panel would sit flat against the inside of the faceplate.
 Blank faceplate with ridges |
 Faceplate done |
Mounting screws |
But with the separate design of the units (detachable PCB assembly), any minor mis-alignments can quickly be rectified by making very minor adjustments between the two PCD assemblies. I didn't find any traces near the mounting holes on the PCB so it shouldn't present any short-circuit problems when using the mounting screws and nuts. You do however have to pay attention to the length of the mounting screws so that it would not come into contact with the PCBs above it. This is how the unit looks like once installed into the faceplate. I must say that it does look sleek, especially if you're using an aluminium case.
 Completed installation |
 Power her up! |
Operation
Operation of the unit isn't rocket science, although a manual/labels would have been very much welcomed. All it needs is a few simple pushes of a button and you're ready to go. Here's a couple of pics of the controls and the indication on the LCD display.
The control buttons
Indication on the LCD display
Let say you want to set Preset 1 to the following configurations;
Step 1 - Press the "Presets" button until it shows P1.
Step 2 - Press the "Channels" button until it shows C1.
Step 3 - Press the "Up" button continously until the bar is at it's full graphics.
Step 4 - Press the "Channels" button again to move to C2.
Step 5 - Press the "Up" button again continously until the bar is at it's full graphics.
Step 6 - Press the "Channels" button again to move to C3.
Step 7 - Press the "Up" or "Down" button (depending on where the bar graph is at) continously until the bar shows half graphics.
Step 8 - Repeat Step 6 and 7 to set Channel 4 (C4).
And this is the display that you should get after doing the steps above. To set other "Preset Channels", just press the "Presets" button until it shows the desired channel and repeat the steps. Simple isn't it? :O)
The Hyperion Software
But what if you find these steps tedious? Or if you have your case under your table and hate the fact that you'll have to go all the way down there to get to the control unit? Or do you have an Antec/Chieftec case and the UltraDM unit is hidden behind that door? Well, the folks at NatriumTech has thought of that same situations and they've come up with a simple yet effective solution and that is to use a software so that you can control your fan speeds right from your desktop in real time! The software is included in the floppy disk and it's called the Hyperion Control v1.0. The software itself is only 304KB. No installation is required. All you need to do is create a folder somewhere on your harddrive, copy the file to that folder and then create a shortcut to the executable file. I had my shortcut set up on the QuickLaunch Toolbar for quick and easy launching. When you click on the shortcut, a splash screen will appear and the software will start to scan your serial ports for the UltraDM unit. By default, it selects COM2 but if your unit is not connected to COM2, it will then prompt you to select the COM port where the UltraDM is connected to thru a pop-up dialog box. Choose the right COM port and click "OK".
Once it has detected the UltraDM unit, a new dialog box will appear. This is where you will find the controls for the Channels, Preset and Speed Settings. Simply select the Presets you want to set and then drag the slide bar to the right or left. The bar on the UltraDM LCD display will also move accordingly in real time! The UltraDM unit will save the last settings that you have done into it's memory chip, whether the settings had been done thru the unit itself or thru the Hyperion Control software.
On this dialog box, you will also see an "Options" button. Clicking this will bring you to the advanced options of the UltraDM unit. Once you clicked it, the software will communicate with the unit and retrieve any information last inserted into it. You will see a progress indicator. Once the usoftware has successfully communicate with the unit, a new dialog box will appear. This is where you can input your own startup screen text and determine the length for which it will appear when you turn on your PC. You also have the ability to test to make sure that your custom startup screen text will display properly on the LCD display by simply clicking the "Test" button. You can also choose your "Port Settings" or clear the custom startup screen in this dialog box.
Custom startup screen!
Once you're done with the settings, just exit the program and it will save the settings you have made onto the UltraDM. Heck! You can even minimize it and have it run in the Taskbar!! Just double-click on the icon to activate it again. All in all, the Hyperion Control software is a great addition to an already awesome product.
Conclusion
Modding your case with blowholes and fans has it's tradeoffs and one of them is noise. Controlling the speed of your fans will have an effect on the noise and this is where control units like the UltraDM Digital Rheobus from NatriumTech comes into the picture. With it's stylish, digital and sleek looks, it's a refreshing change from the normal knobs, switches and LEDs that we're used too. If you like the looks of the rheobus or any other control units, then you'll simply love this one! The efficiency of the unit is much better than resistive circuits thru PWM circuit design. And together with the Mosfets, the unit is able to handle high current/wattage fans like the Panaflo 120mm 0.6A and also the Delta FocusFlow line of fans. It has 6 Preset Channels that you can set to your own needs and the unit also has a memory chip that stores all your settings. But the best part of the unit IMHO is the software control. Users who puts their case under their table or those with cases that have doors on them like the Chieftecs, will definitely appreciate the ability to control their fans thru their PCs. The Hyperion Software, which is an excellent software by the way, together with the Serial (RS232) connections made all that possible.
Operation of the unit is simple enough but still, a manual would be nice. There are also no labels to indicate the different functions of the control buttons. And as I've mentioned, the multiple PCB design makes the unit fragile and care has to be taken when handling the unit or during installation. One common problem with the unit, as with other control units, is the fan power connectors. They are located on the PCB itself and once it's installed onto the 5.25" bays, it'll be a hassle to connect/disconnect/re-connect your fans to them. A separate unit as fanbus would be nice, but would add up to the total cost. The whole unit requires installation to an empty 5.25" drive bay and with all kinds of gadgets available these days, those bays are an important commodity for some!
 Unit installed in case. |
 Unit under no light condition. |
Pros
Cons
Price? At the moment, NatriumTech puts a price tag of $99 Singapore Dollars (about $57 US Dollars) w/o shipping for the unit. It is a little more expensive than the current control units available in the market but when you compare the features and functions of the unit, nothing comes close to it. They do not have the price listed on their website though but if you're interested in getting one, you might want to contact them directly at sales@natriumtech.com for more information. You'll also be glad to know that a new version is available and it has a Blue Backlit LCD display instead of the green ones. Plus, new high powered Mosfets in place of the current one as well! :O) Blue = w00t! Although it'll cost S$10 Singapore Dollars more.
 BLOO!!! |
 LED on LCD |
 New Mosftes |
Overall, the UltraDM impresses me, right from it's look right down to the control software. Like neons, the analog control unit's days are numbered and newer control units like the UltraDM is locked and loaded, ready to take it's place in the modding scene! Don't be left out! :^) A huge thanks goes out to Kenneth from NatriumTech for providing me with this sample unit for review. If you have any questions or comments, email me and I'll try my best to answer your questions! Thanks for reading and enjoy the site!