USB power control

[Sporky]

Afternoon all.

My consoles sit in a media cabinet; despite adding a lot of holes to the door they still get rather warmer than I'd like unless the door is open. My plan was therefore to make holes in the "roof" of it with a pair of 120mm USB-powered fans; one connected to the PS5 and one to the Xbox Series X (yes, worst I-have-both-new-consoles post, sorry). The PS5 works fine; the USB is only powered up when the console is running. The XBSX on the other hand has permanently powered USB ports, front and rear, and nothing in the menus changes that.

The fans aren't very loud, but I still see no point in running them permanently. Is there any reliable and not ruinously expensive way to have both fans come on when either console is running, without manually flipping a switch?

My fallback option is to run the fans from the telly, so at least they're only running while the telly is on.

Thanks in advance.

[ARHarh]

you could use one of these, but it would involve using an app as well as switching on the console, unless there is someway the console could call an http request, I know nothing about consoles but I guess there is probably a way.

https://sonoff.tech/product/diy-smart-switch/micro...

[Sporky]

That's intriguing - thank you - and very sensibly priced.

We've got some Amazon Dot things so could just shout at Alexa... I wonder if it'd be possible to have an Alexa skill that determines if a console is on and tells the fans to start.

[Theraveda]

Err, a thermostat?

[ARHarh]

There is an xbox skill for alexa to turn on and off and stuff so should be easy to create a routine.

[Sporky]

Theraveda said:

Err, a thermostat?

If you know of one that'll control a USB power supply, I'm all ears.

[Dave.]

Any good?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ARCTIC-F12-Temperature-Co...

OOS on Amazon though, unfortunately.


Eta, 80mm ones are in stock…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ARCTIC-Temperature-Contro...


And the 92s

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ARCTIC-Temperature-Contro...

Edited by Dave. on Sunday 12th December 18:46

[Theraveda]

Sporky said:

Theraveda said:

Err, a thermostat?

If you know of one that'll control a USB power supply, I'm all ears.

https://www.google.com/search?q=plug-in+thermostat...

Plug the USB power supply into one of these.

[Sporky]

Theraveda said:

https://www.google.com/search?q=plug-in+thermostat...

Plug the USB power supply into one of these.

Ace - thanks. I had no idea such things existed.

[Dave.]

Aren’t they for raising temperature, rather than lowering it?

[s p a c e m a n]

Have you tried just removing the back of the cabinet? I've got 2 xboxs running inside a closed wooden cabinet with the top half of the back removed from it and they run fine.

[Theraveda]

Sporky said:

Theraveda said:

https://www.google.com/search?q=plug-in+thermostat...

Plug the USB power supply into one of these.

Ace - thanks. I had no idea such things existed.

You're welcome!

[Sporky]

Dave. said:

Aren’t they for raising temperature, rather than lowering it?

A lot seem to be, but now I know they exist I've found quite a few with hot/cold settings, so either way.

s p a c e m a n said:

Have you tried just removing the back of the cabinet? I've got 2 xboxs running inside a closed wooden cabinet with the top half of the back removed from it and they run fine.

No, it's attached to a solid brick wall, and the other side of the wall is the airing cupboard with the hot water tank and UFH manifolds - it's toasty in there - so coring through wouldn't work (even if there was a bit of wall not covered in pipes). This is it:



The doors were solid originally, I CNC'd the holes in the front which was enough for the Xbox One, but not enough for the Series X.

I've got a couple of big quiet Noctua fans, some filters, and a spare USB power supply, so it's just the control that was missing. I've made some routing templates to do recesses into the worktop for the filters, and recess the fans slightly into the underside. The soundbar will come forwards a bit and the outlets will be hidden behind.

[Sporky]

Early report back.

I bought two of these Noctua fans:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DXLCVVL/

One of these thermostat plugs:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B085Q2NDP9/

One of these dual-output USB supplies:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07X1RW3RL/

Two of these USB extension cables:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001U3ZOZW/

At the moment it's just jury-rigged together with one fan blowing out through the holes in the door and the thermostat set to turn on at 30°C, but the Series X no longer goes full fan. The Noctuas are very quiet - you can hear them, but only just, and not over a game.

I'm now wondering whether I should just mount the fans to the door, but I think the grown-up approach is to stick to the original plan and mount them in the underside of the worktop, blowing hot air up and out through dust filters behind the soundbar.

Thanks to all for the advice. If anyone's interested I'll post an update on the overall build as it goes.