Flow-o-matic good or no
Flow-o-matic is a device from Innovatek that is connected to an watercooling loop and detects the waterflow. It can't measure the excact waterflow but if there is a flow it will in the bios be showed as a fan running at 3700 rpm. Then should the "fan" stop the bios can shutdown the computer before the cpu fries.
Bring you translator since the page is in german and i can't find an english version. So my question is would this be a good thing or would it slow the flow down to much. There are newer versions but this is the only one i've so far been able to find in sweden hence wy i linked to it. The newer one is supposed to be able to detect the actual waterflow if i understood it correctly (used babelfish to translate, bad grammar).
The reason i got interested in that like most people i don't plan to spend that much time near my computer while i'm at work and will therefor know right way when my pump goes south as it will. I know that the bios in motherboard have functions that monitor cpu heat and are able to shutdown the computer should it be so but having some backup that will react instantly even before the cpu gets to warm seems good to me.
Or is this another worthless innovatek product. I know mack told me not to get their waterblock. I discovered the thing some weeks ago and have been uncertain whether or not to bring it up but but figured i might as well do it.
And last but not least a picture.
Bring you translator since the page is in german and i can't find an english version. So my question is would this be a good thing or would it slow the flow down to much. There are newer versions but this is the only one i've so far been able to find in sweden hence wy i linked to it. The newer one is supposed to be able to detect the actual waterflow if i understood it correctly (used babelfish to translate, bad grammar).
The reason i got interested in that like most people i don't plan to spend that much time near my computer while i'm at work and will therefor know right way when my pump goes south as it will. I know that the bios in motherboard have functions that monitor cpu heat and are able to shutdown the computer should it be so but having some backup that will react instantly even before the cpu gets to warm seems good to me.
Or is this another worthless innovatek product. I know mack told me not to get their waterblock. I discovered the thing some weeks ago and have been uncertain whether or not to bring it up but but figured i might as well do it.
And last but not least a picture.
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Comments
I would have to agree, unless you WANT a "visible" thing that MBM could log, you do not need this. Probably it is just a passive impeller with a rotation sense circuit, and you might want a slightly more powerful pump to compensate for the impellor drag.
Be easier to put a pressure guage on a T'd off tube led to someplace where you could mount and view pressure guage, then you would only have the extra tubing volume to worry about.
John.
It's not cheap but the industri loves failsafes even if they are never used. Though a computer can't really be compared to an industrial machine it's still not cheap and ensuring its wellbeing would be worth the expense to some point.
Are you going to watch the thing 24/7 as well? No. Put some trust in your abilitys to create a reliable system instead. Best thermal protection you can get. Hands down.
/me thinks he should stop daydreaming about weird projects.
In the case of filter, drop of pressure by 30% is indicator that the filter needs backwashing, and pressure drop at guage on a W\C of that much will tell you that the system probably has contaminants in water or mold in lines that has washed into blocks, or major leaks. Put pressure guage on return line, spot check for rad changes. Unlike a nuclear reactor cooling system pressure guage sensing array, the fine pressure change things for a W\C system are less critical.
A static branch line with a diaphram pressure guage on end has less impact on effectiveness than an inline rotary thing that the water has to push to get to rest of cooling system. But is a nice warning system for major things. All a branch line needs is more water, water is HARD to compress at the pressures we are talking for normal W\C, so once filled it acts like a thermometer column or a barometer but for water-- passive sensor. Othr virtue, CHEAPER in long if not short run.
One thing you could do, if you have boxes that you are not sure of but which you cannot watch, is enable MBM's email notify of major alarms. Email is nice in figuring out how often things have messed up if nothing else. I also use router's log email capability in my router, it goes to a domain in CA that I own and now have hosted there, and I remote pick it up when home, but could also web pick up when not home if I wish.
Not a terribly bad idea, impeller sensing is used for more critical things, but this is an on-off sense, it does not let you say how far above threshold you are, or how low below threshold you are, and that is the critical flaw in it. IF it gave RPM and came with software that could convert to volume of water, then it would be a useful and nice thing if that volume conversion software could log like MBM can. But MBM already does that for more directly measureable and critical things.
Using logs is a good way to see how things really work as far as how stable things are.
John D.
You get both a saftey switch and a visual indication.
Correct, if the threshold is calced right and the device is designed right and positioned right and does not decrease effectiveness more than the report value gained or safety gained. Flex tube W\C is relatively low pressure, though. So a wide range reporting device lets you see trends better. I think that the right threshold level is hard to determine, unless you take other factors also into account, so the intrinsic value of a device in a relatively low pressure water system is proportionate to the reporting ability inherent in its design and alos dependent on what other components are used-- the Innovatek thing was calced for an Innovatek system with known values. On a non-Innovatek system its value would be a lot less as other things\factors would more likely be out of range for calc scope values which are assumptions that might be false in other circumstance and value sets. The more detailed info you get the more universal the thing is. Basicly, they took a pulse counter, and circuited it so it is a switch for certain condition here, and that condition was hopefully calced for the Innovatek products correctly, but for other prodcuts in cooling it might not be a safe thing to use and might be a falsely triggering device if volume were based less on pressure and more on larger size piping and channeling than the Innovatek system uses as a whole.
Wider reporting range is more lastingly valuable, and a passive reporting device with a set of thresholds or reportable and loggable wide step range is better in long run together with logs. True for HVAC water cooling systems, device cooling, and other things, and one thing a computer can do with software hooked to sensors is log very fast and well. The finer the stepping of report levels in both time and value steps, the more the logs can be used for preventive diagnostics. IF MBM were pended at a critical moment, other things would have to shut off machine. But if BIOS malfs badly due to things that make hardware go out of range and it is allowed to sense and act on those tings, machine is off and wil not restart.
John.