Because I use the R340 in a quiet office and did not get useful support regarding this topic, I decided to replace the fans which quieter ones.

My recommendation: Replace all 8 fans with model Noctua NF-A4x20 PWM.

Dell’s 6-Pin fan connector is a proprietary solution. You can either use modified breadboard wires to create an adaption, or you cut off the connector of the Noctua fans, and solder breadboard female connectors. Remove the plastics of the connectors and replace it with shrinking tubes, as you see on the photos below, otherwise it won’t fit into the mainboard’s connector.

I used a combination of breadboard wire connectors and direct soldering, because especially for the CPU fans you would experience space problems.

Dell 6-pin fan wire colors (for 2 fans each):

• Black: GND
  • 2 pins are black and as you see on the original fans, these 2 pins have also to be connected to each other. Otherwise, the fan won’t spin up.
• Red: +12V
• Blue: PWM signal from mainboard
• Yellow: PWM sensor signal from fan (one for each fan)

Noctua / default PWM pins:

• Black and Blue: Like above
• Yellow: +12V
• Green: PWM sensor signal from fan

So you have to connect black/black, red/yellow, blue/blue, yellow/green.

Use e.g. double-sided tape to fix the fans in the server chassis.

Finally, you can try again to use Dell’s recommended thermal profiles.

In my case however, the fans spin too high, so at the moment I use a manual setting of 32 % RPM which is about 1900 RPM with the Noctua model. The temperature outlet sensor stays at about 33 °C, and the fans are as silent as other 120mm fans spinning with ~500 RPM.

You may have to experiment with the default fan RPMs for your needs.

 [:]

Parts

• Raspberry Pi 3
• Deek-Robot Stepper Motor Shield v1 (includes an L293D motor driver)
• Nema 17 stepper motor, Type 42HS34-1334-04LA (4-pin, bipolar)

Connection between motor and shield

• Red: A-
• Green: A+
• Yellow: B-
• Blue: B+

Red+Green and Yellow+Blue are one phase each, in this case (4-pin bipolar motor) it does not matter if you swap Red with Green or Yellow with Blue.

Connection between shield and RPi

• 5V+ (VCC): Pin 2
• GND: Pin 6
• IN1: Pin 12
• IN2: Pin 16
• IN3: Pin 18
• IN4: Pin 22
• VIN: Pin 4 (not needed; or separate power source)
• GND (near VIN): Pin 10 (not needed; or separate power source)

For INx, you can of course choose other GPIO ports on your RPi, but you have to fit the script.

Python Script

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time

# Variables

delay = 0.0055
steps = 500

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setwarnings(False)

# Enable pins for IN1-4 to control step sequence

coil_A_1_pin = 18
coil_A_2_pin = 23
coil_B_1_pin = 24
coil_B_2_pin = 25

# Set pin states

GPIO.setup(coil_A_1_pin, GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(coil_A_2_pin, GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(coil_B_1_pin, GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(coil_B_2_pin, GPIO.OUT)


# Function for step sequence

def setStep(w1, w2, w3, w4):
  GPIO.output(coil_A_1_pin, w1)
  GPIO.output(coil_A_2_pin, w2)
  GPIO.output(coil_B_1_pin, w3)
  GPIO.output(coil_B_2_pin, w4)

# loop through step sequence based on number of steps

for i in range(0, steps):
    setStep(1,0,1,0)
    time.sleep(delay)
    setStep(0,1,1,0)
    time.sleep(delay)
    setStep(0,1,0,1)
    time.sleep(delay)
    setStep(1,0,0,1)
    time.sleep(delay)

# Reverse previous step sequence to reverse motor direction

for i in range(0, steps):
    setStep(1,0,0,1)
    time.sleep(delay)
    setStep(0,1,0,1)
    time.sleep(delay)
    setStep(0,1,1,0)
    time.sleep(delay)
    setStep(1,0,1,0)
    time.sleep(delay)

Pictures

Important

In general, I highly recommend to only power the shield (especially the motor) when it is needed, not all the time. The motor takes about 0,5A even when idle, and the L293D chip gets quite hot.

So use a switch etc. for the power line, or maybe use another driver chip.

References:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=55580

http://www.elektronx.de/tutorials/schrittmotorsteuerung-mit-dem-raspberry-pi/

 [:]

Assuming you have a ready-to-run Raspberry Pi station with OpenElec installed, you first need the RGB lights which will be connected to your Pi.

I can e.g. recommend 50 pieces of WS2801, they can be found on ebay and other stores and they are quite cheap.

Power supply

You might need a separate 5V power supply. In my case I use the power ports of the Pi and had no problems at all, but some users describe flickering etc. At least make sure the power supply you use has 2A or more.

Optional, useful for testing purposes:

Connection to Raspberry Pi

You have to connect 4 wires from the LED string to the Pi (or 3, if you want to use a separate power supply).

I used an old IDE connector, but you can also use other tools, they are described in the source links below this article.

Pin 1 is the one where there is a small rectangle placed at the Pi board. You can use the following image from another site as a reference for the numbering, but the wire colors are NOT right in there:

• Pin 2 or 4: 5V (Red wire)
• Pin 9: Ground (Black wire)
• Pin 19: Data / MOSI (Blue wire)
• Pin 23: CLK (Green wire)

Basic configuration with OpenElec

First, install the Boblight Addon via XBMC settings.

Download a boblight.conf file, e.g. from here, then place it under YOUR_PI_IPUserdataaddon_dataservice.multimedia.boblightd.

Open Putty to establish an SSH connection to your Pi, then execute these commands:

cd ~
curl -L https://github.com/brooc/boblight-rpi/raw/master/src/boblight-dispmanx > boblight-dispmanx
chmod 755 boblight-dispmanx

Then edit /storage/.config/autostart.sh and append this command:

/storage/boblight-dispmanx -o interpolation=1 -o speed=90 -o threshold=35 -o autospeed=0 -o saturation=1 -o value=1 -p 100  -i 0.1 -f /dev/null &

Set permissions, if the file did not exist before, with

chmod +x /storage/.config/autostart.sh

Reboot your device and make a quick test, e.g. start playing a video or TV stream – the lights should get active.

Light placement behind the monitor

Have a look at the pictures to get an idea how the lights can be mounted behind the screen. There are several ways to do this. I used ply wood, but also cardboard would be possible.

For configuration afterwards, it is a good idea to start the LED string somewhere at the screen bottom, then go clockwise around the screen. The proportions should be always same for the opposite sides (e.g. 16 on top and the bottom, 9 LEDs left and right).

Configuration wizards

To get more exact settings, there are useful tools available.

I recommend this test video (with the XBMC Youtube Add-On): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr_vL2anfXA

Windows config tool: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21136636/VS/final/BoblightConfigTool.exe

Online generator: http://tvgloria.hu

For all generators: After you append the Light config code, make sure the light is named like on top of the config file (e.g. Pibob, ambilight etc.), otherwise it won’t work and a logfile in the same folder as boglight.conf can grow quite quickly.

Sources

http://blog.nadnerb.co.uk/?p=142

http://www.forum-raspberrypi.de/Thread-ambilight-fuer-xbmc-nachruesten

http://www.sedu-board.de/sedu-ambilight/howto-boblightconfigtool/RGB LED string

Assuming you have a ready-to-run Raspberry Pi station with OpenElec installed, you first need the RGB lights which will be connected to your Pi.

I can e.g. recommend 50 pieces of WS2801, they can be found on ebay and other stores and they are quite cheap.

Power supply

You might need a separate 5V power supply. In my case I use the power ports of the Pi and had no problems at all, but some users describe flickering etc. At least make sure the power supply you use has 2A or more.

Optional, useful for testing purposes:

Connection to Raspberry Pi

You have to connect 4 wires from the LED string to the Pi (or 3, if you want to use a separate power supply).

I used an old IDE connector, but you can also use other tools, they are described in the source links below this article.

Pin 1 is the one where there is a small rectangle placed at the Pi board. You can use the following image from another site as a reference for the numbering, but the wire colors are NOT right in there:

• Pin 2 or 4: 5V (Red wire)
• Pin 9: Ground (Black wire)
• Pin 19: Data / MOSI (Blue wire)
• Pin 23: CLK (Green wire)

Basic configuration with OpenElec

First, install the Boblight Addon via XBMC settings.

Download a boblight.conf file, e.g. from here, then place it under YOUR_PI_IPUserdataaddon_dataservice.multimedia.boblightd.

Open Putty to establish an SSH connection to your Pi, then execute these commands:

cd ~
curl -L https://github.com/brooc/boblight-rpi/raw/master/src/boblight-dispmanx > boblight-dispmanx
chmod 755 boblight-dispmanx

Then edit /storage/.config/autostart.sh and append this command:

/storage/boblight-dispmanx -o interpolation=1 -o speed=90 -o threshold=35 -o autospeed=0 -o saturation=1 -o value=1 -p 100  -i 0.1 -f /dev/null &

Set permissions, if the file did not exist before, with

chmod +x /storage/.config/autostart.sh

Reboot your device and make a quick test, e.g. start playing a video or TV stream – the lights should get active.

Light placement behind the monitor

Have a look at the pictures to get an idea how the lights can be mounted behind the screen. There are several ways to do this. I used ply wood, but also cardboard would be possible.

For configuration afterwards, it is a good idea to start the LED string somewhere at the screen bottom, then go clockwise around the screen. The proportions should be always same for the opposite sides (e.g. 16 on top and the bottom, 9 LEDs left and right).

Configuration wizards

To get more exact settings, there are useful tools available.

I recommend this test video (with the XBMC Youtube Add-On): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr_vL2anfXA

Windows config tool: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21136636/VS/final/BoblightConfigTool.exe

Online generator: http://tvgloria.hu

For all generators: After you append the Light config code, make sure the light is named like on top of the config file (e.g. Pibob, ambilight etc.), otherwise it won’t work and a logfile in the same folder as boglight.conf can grow quite quickly.

Sources

http://blog.nadnerb.co.uk/?p=142

http://www.forum-raspberrypi.de/Thread-ambilight-fuer-xbmc-nachruesten

http://www.sedu-board.de/sedu-ambilight/howto-boblightconfigtool/

Unfortunately, most of the Zotac Zboxes use Mini-PWM connectors. For those ones, splitter and converter cables are hard to find.

So one way to solve this is to connect 4 wires to the existing wires from the connector to the fan, e.g. by cutting and soldering.

Then stick the 4 wires into the PWM connector of your external fan. The order is the same as in the Mini-PWM connector, but vice-versa (turn your PWM connector 180°). Have a look at the photo for details.