Looking for another way to keep your Raspberry Pi cool? Hook up this software-controllable 5V mini cooling fan and prevent your hard-working Pi from overheating! Of course, it's also great for use with any small computer or FPGA or motor driver or anything that needs cooling.
This is a special 3-pin 5V fan, meaning your Raspberry Pi can control the fan via software (see below on how to do that).
This is the recommended fan for the great new range of HighPi Pro Raspberry Pi 4 cases.
Using the fan
Fan GPIO pin connections:
- Red wire to Pin 4 (+5V)
- Black Wire to Pin 6 (GND)
- Blue wire to Pin 8 (GPIO 14 TXD)
Once you have connected your fan, by default it will be on whenever your Raspberry Pi is running. You can configure it to turn on only when your Raspberry Pi reaches a temperature that you choose.
Using a recent version of Raspberry Pi OS, first update to retrieve any recent changes to the operating system:
- Open the Terminal, either from the Start menu (click the Raspberry Pi icon in the top left corner) or by pressing Control + Alt + T
- Type sudo apt update and then, when the update has finished, type sudo apt full-upgrade
Then open the Raspberry Pi Configuration tool:
- Click on the Raspberry Pi icon in the top left corner and select Preferences then Raspberry Pi Configuration
- Select the Performance tab
- Next to Fan, click Enabled
- If you have connected your fan as shown above, the default of 14 for Fan GPIO does not need to be changed
- Select the Fan Temperature at which you want your fan to turn on. The default is 80°C, which will stop the Raspberry Pi throttling on difficult tasks without having the fan on all the time
Specifications
- 30 x 30 x 7.7mm casing size
- 24mm mounting hole spacing
- 3 wires for power/ground/control
- 70mm wire length
- 4x 15mm screws and nuts are included
