Lamptron FC Touch Fan Controller Review

Posted by Gilgamesh on July 18th, 2011

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Introduction

Fan controllers are a much called upon item when assembling a computer in this day and age. The ability to control fan’s speed, and the noise that accompanies it, to either a high performance level or near silent is something that appeals to most system builders. The aforementioned would be great in an ‘overclocking’ environment and the latter in a more home theatre situation. Whilst the fan controller is a simple concept, which works by simply lowering or raising the voltage supplied to a fan to achieve the desired speed, it is hard to get right. Many manufacturers opt for blaring lights and bling in a vain effort to appeal, whilst others go for under-stated elegance.

There are many pretenders to the throne of “King of Fan Controllers”, however there are a few that have proven they are the genuine article, one such is the company called Lamptron!

Company Background

Lamptron develops and markets the next generation of high performance computer peripherals using the latest technology that enables a new level of interaction between the end-user and their personal computer. Products developed are through a combination of proprietary technology, innovation and ergonomic industrial design. There are three principal business sectors:

PC Gaming products
PC Silence products
PC Modding products

Products are designed and developed by our experienced Research and Development Department. Our engineering and R&D staffs specialize in user analysis, material control and industry design. Lamptron not only has expertise in product easy-to-use and product design, but we also plays a vital role in the enhancement of production efficiency and marketing analysis. We are constantly developing new products and technology to meet market demands and to generate new markets for our innovation products.

Our Global success is attributed to three basic visionary attributes:

Continue to offer innovation products which means the products are in the highest quality and innovation.
Providing our global partners with a level of service that is consistent with our premium product range.
Helping our global partners grow, through reliable service, quality products, flexibility and co-operationThis simple philosophy has allowed us to build long standing relationships with global distributors.”

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Specifications

Faceplate Color: Black Anodized/Silver Aluminum
Dimensionï¼š148.5mm X 42.5mm X 64.5mm (5.25inch bay)
Screen Dimensionï¼š118mm X 31.5mm
Power Outputï¼šUp to 30W per channel
Control Channelsï¼š6

Features:

CNC milled front panel
Clean and streamlined interface
Streamlined touch functionality to control your fans
Choose between RPM or Voltages and Celsius or Fahrenheit for readout
Set the channel in either Automatic or Manual control to control the fans

As ever an impressive array of features with its 30 watts per channel specifications, it must be noted that this is the defacto-standard for all of Lamptron’s controllers. The 30 watts per channel should allow the consumer to connect a water cooling pump to one channel, a very nice option if you are looking in to a water cooled system.

Packaging

There is something to be said by an all black box. Used correctly it adds a touch of class and does not portray any amount of bling to the packaging. In the first four images below we see the front of the box and the final two show the back of the box. The front of the box gives us a prominent view of the FC Touch Fan Controller as well as a few of its main selling points. The back of the box lists the features, specifications, items list, colour, and a few small screen images.

The outer packaging of the Lamptron FC Touch slides off rather like the sleeve of an old-vinyl record and once removed, we expose the inner box. Here Lamptron have not bothered with anything special, just simply a black box with the logo printed on the lid. When we open the box we are greeted with a nice pleasant sight. The FC Touch fan controller itself and its accessories. All package contents are encased in a nice protective inner foam in order to prevent damage during transportation.

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That’s it for the packaging overview and we now move on to an overview of the product and its content.

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The FC Touch

The Lamptron FC Touch comes in two flavours, that is the usual black or brushed aluminum and one can notice that our review model is the black edition. However, first we shall go through theÂ box contents before looking at the product.

1x Fan Controller
6x 3-pin Fan Power Cables (524mm)
1x 4-pin Molex power Extension (195mm)
6x Thermal Sensor Cables (725mm)
1x Jumper (enable alarm)
4x Screws
1x Screen Cloth
1x Installation Guide
1x Product Catalog

Below are a few images of the aforementioned contents:

It really is a good idea on Lamptron’s part to include a series of thermal probe sensors which monitor actions such as air in and out. Also included is a handy cleaning cloth for the screen, which does away with the days of ‘spit and polish’ cleaning. One criticism we can lay at the feet of Lamptron is the lack of a 12 volt Molex to 3 pin power adapter. Such an adapter would enable water cooling enthusiasts to connect their pumps to the controller as well. Since each channel is 30 watts, and most pumps are either 10 or 18 watts, then attaching a water pump to this fan controller would not be an issue

At last we come to the fan controller itself, we notice that the aluminum face place is brushed and then anodized. This serves to give the controller a nice quality feel. We can also see that the controller itself consists of two PCB boards, the first enables the touch screen and the second houses the controller chip, capacitors (more on these later) and the fan headers themselves. Below are a series of gratuitous shots showing the product in all its glory.

Next we examine the back of the fan controller in order to examine what makes this product so special, if indeed it does.

Altogether there are six three pin fan headers. Additionally there are six large Rubycon capacitors, which have a temperature tolerance of 105 degrees and an ARM chip. More details on the latter mentioned can be found at (http://www.icbase.com/hotic/html/docs/1221142709.pdf) Warning the file takes a long time to load. The STM32 chip acts as the ‘CPU’ of the fan controller, and is based on the Cortex-M3 core. Strangely enough it is not so much the ARM Chip that is interesting it is those large Rubicon capacitors. At 30 watts per channel we have a total 180 watts if used to its full potential, and as a result the product is going to get hot! Finally we come to the molex power connector which powers the device, the two pin connectors for the sensor probes and lastly the jumper to enable the alarm function.

All in all a really good showing by Lamptron with great amount of care given to detail. Let us now move onto the fun section and that is the testing.

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Operating the Product

Using the product was simplicity in itself, press the power on button which happens to be a part of the touch panel. Adjusting the fan speed is carried out by pressing on the required fan number and sliding the bar for the fan speed up and down. It must be noted that sliding the fan speed, adjusts that volts supplied as this is how all fan controllers operate. We attached a total of EIGHT fans to one channel with no adverse effects other than (for example) on channel six the fan icon no longer rotates even though the fans are working perfectly. There is an indicator to adjust the fan speed automatically or to manually operate by the aforementioned slider. To the right are the temperature readouts-should the thermal probes be attached. The bottom left is the function to adjust the brightness of the display.

Below we have attached a video overview of the fan controller in order to visually demonstrate how it operates.

That’s it for operational use and it is as simple as the video shows. Next up we have the conclusion of the Lamptron FC Touch Review

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Conclusion

The Lamptron’ Fc Touch’ met our expectations, and during testing the product excelled in all areas. The overall feel of the fan controller was one of sheer quality and attention to detail. There were only two small points we would like to register in this section. The first is more of a helpful suggestion which is to include a 4-Pin molex to 3-Pin 12 volt convertor cable. This cable would enable the consumers to install their water cooling pumps onto the product. The last is a small bug we noticed during operation. When two or more fans are attached to one channel, the fan icon does not rotate, even though the fans are working perfectly whilst being attached to the controller. Otherwise Lamptron have produced a product that is hard to beat. Not only does the ‘FC Touch’ finally do away with the need for ‘knobs’ on fan controllers, but the available 30 watts per channel is far and above the 8 watts per channel most competing controllers offer. The actual operation of the product is so simple that even a McDonalds employee could operate it without too much head-scratching.

Â Pros:

Excellent brushed aluminum front
Unique Touch-pad Design
Six channels
30 watts per channel!
Bright Vibrant Display
Quality Rubicon capacitors
Great ARM chip which originally comes from the United Kingdom
Nice bundle of extras like the thermal sensors

Cons:

Not a con really just a suggestion to add a 12 volt 4-Pin Molex to three-pin convertor cable to allow water cooling pump installation.
When two or more fans are installed on the same channel the Fan icon does not rotate.

It has been a pleasure to review the Fc touch by Lamptron and we are awarding it a 9/10 and therefore a gold award. The product is different from the mass amount of other controllers on the market, and unlike many other products, you can daisy-chain many fans to it.