Automatic Fan Control Stops Working

[RadJKW]

Hardware/Software

• Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB)
• OS & CPU
  • command: uname -a
  • output: Linux 5.10.74-v7l+ #1471 armv7l GNU/Linux
• DeskPi Pro V2

Issue Details

How did i find the issue?

I leave my deskpi running throughout the week in my office. If i pay attention, i will notice that the deskpi is running at around 60c on idle ( just loaded into the desktop environment). It took me a minute, but i realized that 60 degrees was a little high with the type of cooler in the deskpi case.

Can i fix the issue?

I have not completely "FIXED" the issue. However, if i run the command deskpi-config and choose 7 - Cancel manual control and enable automatic fan control. Immediately after the fan kicks on and the temperature reaches about 48c.

Other

• I created a manual fan speed level by using Option 6 once upon a time but have since used Option 7 almost daily to kick the fan on
• This issue does no occur after each reboot:
  • I cannot exactly identify when the fan quits working.
  • I only notice it at random times be it in the morning or throughout the day

[sven1601]

based on the good job done by @bartlet7827 , I further modified the python pwmControlFan-mcb04.py file to be able to log the fan mode changes in /home/pi/fan.log file. so you would be able to know the history of CPU temperature and mode changes for whatever purpose, get a bit more feeling of how your machine and fan works.

Note: if the fan mode hasn't been changed, it will not write any log, to keep log file small in size.

the log file will looks like this:

--------------------------------------------------------
2022-07-31 23:30:46, Deskpi Fan service started!
--------------------------------------------------------
2022-07-31 23:30:46, CPU Temp is 47°C, adjust fan to 25%
2022-07-31 23:30:51, CPU Temp is 50°C, adjust fan to 50%
2022-07-31 23:30:56, CPU Temp is 48°C, adjust fan to 25%

pwmControlFan-mcb04-log.py

Great work, unfortunately your code doesn't run directly for me. I get some python errors in all lines where 'cpu_temp' (int) is compared to the 'cpuTemp_config' array (string).

I've added some type casting for 'cpuTemp_config' to int, now it works flawlessly for me.

Unfortunately I had to attach the file as txt, because GitHub won’t let me use py files for some reason.

pwmControlFan-mcb04-log.txt

[bartlet7827]

Hi @sven1601, thank you for pickup the bug. The issue is in line 23 where if the /etc/deskpi.conf file doesn't exist (which I'm assuming is your case), it creates a list of temperatures and fanspeeds. These values should be integers not strings. Your fix works fine. Alternatively, you can remove the quotes around the numbers in line 23.

[yoyojacky]

if you have lost /etc/deskpi.conf, you can just create it by using deskpi-config and navigate to 6 option, and setting the threshold as you will.