Meanwell SP-320-5 fan on all the time

Greg.Ca

Apprentice elf
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
92
I bought a few of these 5VDC power supplies to power up my 5VDC strips. I noticed RIGHT away that the fan turned on and stayed on even though the only load was my P12R ONLY with NO lights on at all.

Should the fan be on with just a few milliamps of current?

Right now with only 1 strip attached, the fan is on ALL the time and when I do turn some of the pixels on, then the fan cranks up the RPM signficantly.

With my 12VDC meanwells, the fan only came on after there was a lot of load for a continuous duration of time. For the most part, on the 12VDC meanwells, the fan remained silent. But with this 5VDC meanwell, the fan came on from the begginning and stayed on continuously even though the load was just milliamps.

Anybody using this power supply 'Meanwell SP SP-320' ? Does the fan come on immediately even with little or no load? Also, I should mention, I bought three of these and all three are doing the same thing. --Greg--
 

fasteddy

I have C.L.A.P
Global moderator
Joined
Apr 26, 2010
Messages
6,648
Location
Albion Park NSW
Greg.Ca said:
I bought a few of these 5VDC power supplies to power up my 5VDC strips. I noticed RIGHT away that the fan turned on and stayed on even though the only load was my P12R ONLY with NO lights on at all.

Should the fan be on with just a few milliamps of current?

Right now with only 1 strip attached, the fan is on ALL the time and when I do turn some of the pixels on, then the fan cranks up the RPM signficantly.

With my 12VDC meanwells, the fan only came on after there was a lot of load for a continuous duration of time. For the most part, on the 12VDC meanwells, the fan remained silent. But with this 5VDC meanwell, the fan came on from the begginning and stayed on continuously even though the load was just milliamps.

Anybody using this power supply 'Meanwell SP SP-320' ? Does the fan come on immediately even with little or no load? Also, I should mention, I bought three of these and all three are doing the same thing. --Greg--

Where did you get these from as there are Meanwell clones about. I cant say that for 5vdc if the fan is supposed to stay on or not but my 12vdc Meanwells will only come on when the temp rises on the baord and is not linked to load
 

Greg.Ca

Apprentice elf
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
92
I bought the 12V meanwells from www.Ledwholesalers.com

And I bought the 5VDC meanwells from www.Trcelectronics.com

Hopefully, they should both be genuine and not cheap lookalikes.

I should also mention that the 12VDC meanwells DID have a 110-220 VAC switch on them and the 5VDC meanwells did NOT have a 110-220 switch.

Eddy, what AC voltage does Australia use 110 or 220? --Greg--
 

fasteddy

I have C.L.A.P
Global moderator
Joined
Apr 26, 2010
Messages
6,648
Location
Albion Park NSW
We are 220/240v here.
I would take a look at the meanwell site and do a comparison of the same model you have as this may show if its a true meanwell or a copy.
 

Bill Ellick

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 31, 2011
Messages
282
Location
NY
Just for an FYI, I have bought meanwell supplies from TrcElectronics before and they were true meanwell's and not clones.
It has been awhile though and that does not mean that they could not have decided to change them.
 

penguineer

Full time elf
Joined
Feb 18, 2011
Messages
202
Location
Mount Tamborine, Qld
Just had a look at the site - I'd say they're really Meanwells - listed as manufacturer, Meanwell pricing(ie dearer than clones) and Meanwell branding all over the place.

Most clones you see advertised just list as "power supply" and let you make your own assumptions about the labelling......(which isn't Meanwell, but could be mistaken for it at first glance).

Cheers!
 

DougieB

Full time elf
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Messages
278
Location
Gladstone, Qld
I have a mixture of meanwell and chinese in al voltages I use: 5, 12, 24, 27v
I have found that the 5v all have the fans run while the rest generally only come on. I do have 1 chinese 12v that runs constantly
 

fasteddy

I have C.L.A.P
Global moderator
Joined
Apr 26, 2010
Messages
6,648
Location
Albion Park NSW
danozfw said:
It depends on which "Series" power supply you have. The S and SE series have temperature controlled fans the SP series do not.
http://www.meanwell.com/search/s-320/S-320-spec.pdf
http://www.meanwell.com/search/se-350/default.htm
http://www.meanwell.com/search/sp-320/default.htm

The SP version is the cheaper value Meanwell and were not actually available at the Australian Meanwell site last time i looked. I have the SE series so that makes sense why the ones I have use a temp controlled fan as opposed to load based.
 

anon

Apprentice elf
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
95
Location
Adelaide
David supplied me the SP variant here, I have 2x SP240 PSUs.


The fan comes on and off as it pleases. The spec sheet says that it will turn on when >40C and turn off <35C, which is roughly current from what I've seen. On warm nights it would turn on straight away with no load, cooler nights it would take a while for it the fan to turn on with a load.


My experience though is with the 240W unit, I would hazard a guess that they missed the fan control details out of the 320W data sheet, the block diagram still shows it as having 'fan control' block.
 

David_AVD

Grandpa Elf
Community project designer
Generous elf
Joined
Jun 12, 2010
Messages
4,681
Location
Victoria Point (Brisbane)
ɟɐsʇǝppʎ said:
The SP version is the cheaper value Meanwell and were not actually available at the Australian Meanwell site last time i looked. I have the SE series so that makes sense why the ones I have use a temp controlled fan as opposed to load based.

I'm 99% sure the SP units are what I supplied to you last year Eddy. They are more expensive then the plan S versions from memory. I've not used any with the SE prefix.
 

fasteddy

I have C.L.A.P
Global moderator
Joined
Apr 26, 2010
Messages
6,648
Location
Albion Park NSW
David_AVD said:
ɟɐsʇǝppʎ said:
The SP version is the cheaper value Meanwell and were not actually available at the Australian Meanwell site last time i looked. I have the SE series so that makes sense why the ones I have use a temp controlled fan as opposed to load based.

I'm 99% sure the SP units are what I supplied to you last year Eddy. They are more expensive then the plan S versions from memory. I've not used any with the SE prefix.

DOH!, My mistake its the SP units I have, i got them mixed around
 
Top