Anyone done a Brocade 6610 fan mod?

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bkvamme

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Sep 23, 2018
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I assume I would need one of the Noctuas for each fan so a total of 3 in my case? In my 6610 I have 3 fans. 1 for the PSU and I assume two generic fans.
Yeah, you'd need to replace all the fans, and you would still need to have the RPM generator as mentioned above to make sure the switch actually boots (as it won't boot if the RPM is too low)

Personally I'd be more inclined to use this with the existing fans.

https://www.amazon.com/Wire-PWM-Cas...1112914&s=electronics&sr=1-18&tag=servecom-20

Just split the PWM signal to each of the fans and use the temperature sensor as a "fail-safe" in case of fan-failure. This way the other fans would receive a higher duty cycle and increase fan speed accordingly.

You could of course also get more silent fans (but this would be a lot more expensive compared to 5-6 USD), and use the same approach unless you want run them on full blast at all times.
 

magi

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Aug 22, 2019
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Tried my 6610 today. It is too loud for a home lab setting so I have to do the mod as well. My PSU fan is a DELTA FFB0412UHN with four wires.
 

redeamon

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Jun 10, 2018
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Have you guys cooled the main processor directly? If you do, it spins down the rear and PS fan.

The duty cycle for this is not listed as far as I know, but it is coded in there somewhere.

So if you want to get a little mod happy without cooking things- the best way is to cut a hole in the metal sheet and install a quiet fan directly above the ASIC with air going towards the ASIC and into the case. The entire unit will then run quietly and be cooled better than stock. The only drawback of course is that you can't have anything above the case. Water cooling is an option, but that's a lot of work and if the 40gbe chips get too hot it'll spin up the fans again.

Pressing air into the case is the best solution as long as you don't mind the lowest duty cycle fan noise (it really isn't that bad). If this is still too noisy then how else do you plan on keeping this unit reasonably cool? the ASIC is putting at least 20w of heat inside the case plus another 10-15w from the 40gbe chips. I know these are enterprise high temp units, but they aren't that high.

If you guys are planning on replacing the fans with Noctua's or something similar- don't do it, it'll cook the ASIC. If fan noise is that much of an issue then maybe 40gbe isn't worth it? the 6450 has 10gbe and will happily take a Noctura as it's a 25w unit instead of 75w+ unit.

edit: CPU = ASIC
 
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fohdeesha

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the best way is to cut a hole in the metal sheet and install a quiet fan directly above the cpu (air going towards the cpu). The entire unit will then run pretty quiet and be cooled much better than stock.
That's exactly what @kapone did, and as far as I'm concerned the only "fan mod" possible with this switch. Kapone might post pictures if he signs on

To people thinking about replacing the fans with lower RPM models: let the switch run for a few hours, and feel the air coming out of the PSUs. It's not warm, it's HOT. This is with the stock fast Delta fans. I can guarantee you will cook this switch in a month if you replace those with fans that have less CFM, and that's on top of having to build and code something to trick the PWM inputs to let you do that in the first place.

I've said probably a thousand times to not bother with trying to mod the stock fans on this switch, but nobody will listen. Part of me wants someone to succesfully replace them with noctuas or something so they can turn the main ASIC into a BBQ in a few days and maybe people will finally stop asking. The thing cruises near ~70c already at idle, I'm not sure what you think is gonna happen when you cut the airflow in half. It's not a case of the ICX6450 or 7250 etc where it is ridiculously over-fanned stock and blows cold air - the ICX6610 is already riding near the limit of its thermal profile, any negative change in airflow, even 20%, is putting you into kenny loggins territory
 
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magi

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Aug 22, 2019
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That's exactly what @kapone did, and as far as I'm concerned the only "fan mod" possible with this switch. Kapone might post pictures if he signs on

To people thinking about replacing the fans with lower RPM models: let the switch run for a few hours, and feel the air coming out of the PSUs. It's not warm, it's HOT. This is with the stock fast Delta fans. I can guarantee you will cook this switch in a month if you replace those with fans that have less CFM, and that's on top of having to build and code something to trick the PWM inputs to let you do that in the first place.

I've said probably a thousand times to not bother with trying to mod the stock fans on this switch, but nobody will listen. Part of me wants someone to succesfully replace them with noctuas or something so they can turn the main ASIC into a BBQ in a few days and maybe people will finally stop asking. The thing cruises near ~70c already at idle, I'm not sure what you think is gonna happen when you cut the airflow in half. It's not a case of the ICX6450 or 7250 etc where it is ridiculously over-fanned stock and blows cold air - the ICX6610 is already riding near the limit of its thermal profile, any negative change in airflow, even 20%, is putting you into kenny loggins territory
I realized that after taking one PSU apart and let the unit run for a minute :( Thanks all for the information that cooling the ASIC actually spins the fans down, will try probably next week or so with a dremel :)
 

e97

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Jun 3, 2015
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These switches run HOT!

They need to be properly cooled, if doing any kind of mod, make sure to monitor temps.

My water cooling mod is coming along nicely, trying to figure out a way to keep things compact.

I'll post pics and instructions once I'm satisfied its stable.
 
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magi

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Aug 22, 2019
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So I added two 120mm fans for the heatsinks, one directly above the ASIC (black), and one on the left (the CPU, chrome). It now runs significantly quieter, though not perfect. I think the ultimate solution would be a water-cooled solution, but I am very happy now :)

Thanks a lot, @fohdeesha , @kapone , and everyone for their super nice suggestions. I will post some pics here when I have time!
 
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magi

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Forgot to mention: I think @kapone 's 6610 is a 24P non-PoE version and mine is with PoE, so there is a huge riser for the extra ports that significantly obstructs the airflow. Current plan is to hack it even harder (thinking about cutting on the front panel).
 

fohdeesha

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Forgot to mention: I think @kapone 's 6610 is a 24P non-PoE version and mine is with PoE, so there is a huge riser for the extra ports that significantly obstructs the airflow. Current plan is to hack it even harder (thinking about cutting on the front panel).

If you mean this board:



that's the PoE daughterboard for the 48 port version, so you can indeed remove it but you'll no longer have PoE anywhere
 
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bbqdt

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Sep 15, 2019
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@kapone or @magi If you still have the switch, can you post pictures of exactly which leads from the power supply you connected your fans to?


I've been doing research trying to find a quiet alternative to my 6610 and there really isn't anything. 40gbe ports, 10gbe ports, a bunch of non-oversubscribed poe ports, optics compatibility, less than 100w power, and a reasonable price. It's really the best all-in-one switch out there.

It seems like if I can get it to stay at the minimum fan speed that I think exists (I hear it on bootup), then the noise level will be acceptable.
 
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kapone

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All you need is +12v and GND for the fans that you're adding. There are many different places "inside" the switch, or "inside" the PSUs where you can tap in.

I tapped the main (big horizontal mating connector) connector in one of the PSUs, soldered two wires (+12v/GND), drilled a small hole in the PSU right by the LED in the rear, and ran the wires outside. My rationale for tapping the PSU was that..well...I have a few of them, if I screw it up, I have spares. :)

Once you have +12v/GND available, it's a simple matter of hooking the fans up.

p.s. the mod I did was on a non-poe 6610-48, the 24p is what I use now (with no poe load).
 
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bbqdt

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So I did some testing, and just putting some old, very low cfm, 120mm fans above the asic and power supply with the covers off made all the temp readings in the chassis go below 35c, even with all the stock fans off. Much lower than with just the stock fans.

So my plan is to fake the fan signals with this, replace the 3 40mm fans in both the power supply and fan tray with 2x of these , and cut holes above the power supply and main asic and put one of these above each. (yes, those are referral links, gotta support my hobby)

It seems like that will be more than enough cooling and almost silent compared to the stock fans. I will try to post some pictures when i'm done (if it works).
 
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bbqdt

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Sep 15, 2019
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Proof of concept for fan rpm faking in fan tray -

F90EAF5E-21F0-47E5-A0AD-A7A29065A18F.jpeg

The fan tac (rpm) wires are the blue wires and pwm is yellow in the fan tray, the opposite of normal. red is 12v, black is ground, others are for led.

Setting the signal gen to around 500 hz (~17k rpm) seems to be a good spot. Switch boots fine with no fans and just the signal gen hooked up.

To hook it up - cut these wires from fan tray connector and hook up to pins on signal gen - both black that go to fans to gnd in, both red to Vcc in, both blue to output out pin. Connect multimeter in hz mode to blue wires to find correct settings for signal gen. (multimeter red to blue wire, black to black or just the chassis). Move jumper to J4, set RV2 to about half way, and mess with RV1 till you get to around 500hz.

I suggest getting some of these.

You need to use the fan tray because it has some kind of resistor thingy on 3 pins to the connector, and the led must be hooked up. You can see where I snipped off the left connector and tried to get away with not using the tray.

All red, black, and blue wires must be connected, and the led connected, for the switch to think the fans are ok. The pwm (yellow) wires do not seem to need to be connected to anything for the switch to be happy.

going to work on power supply fan next.
 
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bbqdt

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Sep 15, 2019
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This also works for the faking the power supply fan.

DO NOT mess with the PS while plugged in!! You can die.

The power supply fan is connected via a long wire from the fan to a connector near the hot swap connector to motherboard.

Take the 3 screws out of the metal power supply cover and carefully remove it. It slides down then off. There is a paper/plastic cover below it.

DO NOT mess with the paper/plastic cover. Damage to this cover can make your power supply un-safe.

Disconnect the fan connector, pull out the rubber thingys holding the fan on, and carefully pull the fan wire through the cover and out with the fan.

Cut the fan wire in the middle and strip the wires on both sides.

Put the fan back in with the wires sticking up and out. Reconnect the fan connector and snake the cut wire out through the metal grill in the back.

Screw the metal cover back on. Do not plug the power supply in without the metal cover on, ever.

You now have easy access to the power supply fan wires.

Blue = tac (rpm)
Red = 12v
Black = ground
Yellow = pwm

I suggest connecting some colored connectors to each side of the cut wires.

Connect fan wires back together to confirm fan still works and switch boots.

Now you can connect the blue wire coming from power supply to the same blue wires from fan tray going to the signal gen.

Warning - The power supply fan will now spin WAY down because the mobo thinks it is spinning very fast and it is reducing the pwm rate to compensate. I suggest you disconnect the yellow wire so the power supply does not overheat. This will cause the fan to go to it's max setting. We are just testing, so that's ok.


You can now boot the switch without real rpm signals from either the fan tray or power supply.


I'm going to do the 40mm fan swap out and cut a hole for/mount the 140mm fans next.
 
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bbqdt

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Sep 15, 2019
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Success! (Mostly)

B172CF1F-5598-43E4-99C9-F2340CDE1725.jpeg83183D1B-DE9C-442E-8772-7A09FADB7731.jpeg

I still need to cut holes in the cover, but it works very well. Almost silent.

I didn’t need the 40mm fans at all. With both 140mm fans, everything is getting quite a bit more air than it did before. And stays much cooler. This switch really is noisy simply because it is 1u.

Don’t buy the 40mm fans I linked. The noise is only 22db, but it is very high pitched.

I did break my rules about the power supply covers... I left off the metal cover and enlarged the hole in the middle of the plastic cover thing. I left 1cm around the edges on the top of the plastic cover under the fan. And the hole is smaller than the part covered by the fan. So everything is still protected. Also, since you won’t be hot swapping the power supply, and it is screwed in to the chassis, the grounding stuff on the metal cover really isn’t needed. Just don’t touch stuff in there!

The only other things I did were remove the 40mm fans, route the wires nicely, hook up one 140mm fan to the red/black wires from the fan tray, and one to the red/black wires from the power supply fan connector. Since my linked fans don’t have colored wires, here is a picture of the fan connector with colored wires.
 
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magi

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Aug 22, 2019
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Success! (Mostly)

View attachment 13948View attachment 13949

I still need to cut holes in the cover, but it works very well. Almost silent.

I didn’t need the 40mm fans at all. With both 140mm fans, everything is getting quite a bit more air than it did before. And stays much cooler. This switch really is noisy simply because it is 1u.

Don’t buy the 40mm fans I linked. The noise is only 22db, but it is very high pitched.

I did break my rules about the power supply covers... I left off the metal cover and enlarged the hole in the middle of the plastic cover thing. I left 1cm around the edges on the top of the plastic cover under the fan. And the hole is smaller than the part covered by the fan. So everything is still protected. Also, since you won’t be hot swapping the power supply, and it is screwed in to the chassis, the grounding stuff on the metal cover really isn’t needed. Just don’t touch stuff in there!

The only other things I did were remove the 40mm fans, route the wires nicely, hook up one 140mm fan to the red/black wires from the fan tray, and one to the red/black wires from the power supply fan connector. Since my linked fans don’t have colored wires, here is a picture of the fan connector with colored wires.
Nice job @bbqdt ! Did you completely remove the PSU fans? Have you measured the PSU temperature with that mod?

Currently my setup is: All fans still there, but I cut two square holes on the top cover with a dremel, and put two similar 120mm fans on it.
 

bbqdt

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Sep 15, 2019
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removed all the 40mm fans, including the psu one.

All the temps in 'show chassis' are below 30C, so it seems ok. Nothing feels hot at all anywhere.

@fohdeesha do you know if one of the temp sensors on 'show chassis' is inside the psu?
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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removed all the 40mm fans, including the psu one.

All the temps in 'show chassis' are below 30C, so it seems ok. Nothing feels hot at all anywhere.

@fohdeesha do you know if one of the temp sensors on 'show chassis' is inside the psu?
I'm not @fohdeesha but... :)

Not that I know of. (btw, this is an all stock 6610-24P with non POE power supplies and no POE load)

Code:
The stack unit 1 chassis info:

Power supply 1 (AC - Regular) present, status ok
     Model Number:    23-0000144-01
    Serial Number:    091    
    Firmware Ver:      B
Power supply 1 Fan Air Flow Direction:  Front to Back
Power supply 2 not present

Fan 1 ok, speed (auto): [[1]]<->2
Fan 2 not present

Fan controlled temperature: 50.5 deg-C

Fan speed switching temperature thresholds:
        Speed 1: NM<----->78       deg-C
        Speed 2:       73<-----> 87 deg-C (shutdown)

Fan 1 Air Flow Direction:  Front to Back
MAC 1 Temperature Readings:
    Current temperature : 41.5 deg-C
CPU Temperature Readings:
    Current temperature : 43.5 deg-C
sensor A Temperature Readings:                                  
    Current temperature : 26.5 deg-C
sensor B Temperature Readings:
    Current temperature : 41.5 deg-C
sensor C Temperature Readings:
    Current temperature : 19.5 deg-C
sensor D Temperature Readings:
    Current temperature : 18.0 deg-C
stacking card Temperature Readings:
    Current temperature : 50.5 deg-C
    Warning level.......: 84.0 deg-C
    Shutdown level......: 87.0 deg-C
 

bbqdt

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Sep 15, 2019
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done -
IMG_0691.jpgIMG_0693.jpgIMG_0694.jpg

Really is almost silent. A low pitched whir is all I hear.

I can feel a significant amount of cool air flowing out all vents around the switch on the front, back, and sides (including the power supply), so I'm not worried about overheating. All temps are below 30C, some around 15C.

Here is a close up pic of the signal gen if that helps anyone -
IMG_0690.jpg

For mounting, I just stuck it down in a big blob of hot glue, making sure the bottom does not actually touch the chassis.

For cutting holes in the cover - With a pencil, trace the circular inside of the fan and mark the screw holes. Then cut holes with a Dremel or something and drill screw holes. The fans come with screws. I suggest sanding the rough edges down to remove any pieces of metal that might fall off. Also, make absolutely sure that there are no metal flakes on the cover when you are done. I suggest wiping it down all over several times with a paper towel.

Finally - I found that you don't actually need to hook anything up to the red (12v) or black (ground) wires in the fan tray to get the switch to boot. I changed the wiring around so that the signal gen and both fans are running off the power supply fan connector. It was cleaner after all my messing around with the fan tray. The only wires hooked up in the fan tray now are the blue wires to the signal gen, and the LED wires.
 
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