Simple fan speed control for the Firebox X750e

Steve Evans

This has been working reliably for some time, so having just updated to 2.1 and re-applied this fix I though I might as well post a complete set of files.

Rename the attachment to lose the .png suffix and decompress. You'll find the following files. Copy them to the directory shown. Ensure that the sh files and WGXepc are executable.

Start the fan control thus, or simply reboot:

# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/fanctrl.sh

You should hear the fans slow considerably. The daemon will try to maintain the set temperature of 64 degC. After some experimentation I found this to work well.

Credit is due here to stephenw10 for the WGXepc utility. Note that he's produced a couple of versions, and you need this one as it reports temperature.

The php scripts will read the CPU temperature and display it on the dashboard as the attached image.

Steve

![Screen Shot 2013-09-22 at 16.36.26.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2013-09-22 at 16.36.26.png)
![Screen Shot 2013-09-22 at 16.36.26.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2013-09-22 at 16.36.26.png_thumb)
WatchGuardX750e.zip.png

chpalmer

Thanks Steve! Working great here. :)

frosty

Should running WGXepc -f display the current fan speed that is set by the script? I had been running the fans around 60 and figured this would be a better way to control the cooling. When I started the fan control the fans shot up in speed and seemed to stay there. Temps were running around 50ish with the fans on 60. They weren't much lower after starting the script and never seemed to adjust down.

Its quite possible I did something wrong.

chpalmer

Everything except instructions on how to make the files executable are on this page in case it got confusing…

It wont hurt to try it again. Id install the filemanager package and use that to verify files...

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,66129.msg366219.html#msg366219

https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_on_Watchguard_Firebox#Controlling_hardware_with_WGXepc

You should barely be able to hear the fans.

Steve Evans

@chpalmer:

Everything except instructions on how to make the files executable are on this page in case it got confusing…

It wont hurt to try it again. Id install the filemanager package and use that to verify files...

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,66129.msg366219.html#msg366219

https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_on_Watchguard_Firebox#Controlling_hardware_with_WGXepc

You should barely be able to hear the fans.

With the temperature at 50 the fans will be reduced to the minimum speed if everything was installed correctly. Did you make the scripts executable?

Steve

frosty

@Steve:

@chpalmer:

Everything except instructions on how to make the files executable are on this page in case it got confusing…

It wont hurt to try it again. Id install the filemanager package and use that to verify files...

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,66129.msg366219.html#msg366219

https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_on_Watchguard_Firebox#Controlling_hardware_with_WGXepc

You should barely be able to hear the fans.

With the temperature at 50 the fans will be reduced to the minimum speed if everything was installed correctly. Did you make the scripts executable?

Steve

Chmod +x on both .sh files and WGXepc. I tried chmod 0755 as well.

I guess I should first start by saying I'm trying this on a Firebox X550e. I assume the hardware is similar enough for this to work. The box has only been up and running for a couple of days now and I had WGXepc working and controlling the fans manually until I saw this thread today and figured I'd try it.

I installed the files again and this time when I ran /usr/local/etc/rc.d/fanctrl.sh it didnt change the manual fan speed of 55 I had previously set. The first time I tried this the fans shot up to ff and stayed there. They are now running at 55 without any change, at least according to WGXepc -f. I assumed, which might be the problem, that running that command after fanctrl.sh would show you the current fan speed. I have not noticed a drop in fan speed sound since running fanctrl.sh.

I have not tried a reboot as of yet.

chpalmer

If you pull up the widget does it show the temperature or something else?

edit= Ill say that I tried to make it work with the copy of WGXepc that I had which I thought was the same and found it was wrong.

Use the copy that comes in Steves zip file.

frosty

@chpalmer:

If you pull up the widget does it show the temperature or something else?

edit= Ill say that I tried to make it work with the copy of WGXepc that I had which I thought was the same and found it was wrong.

Use the copy that comes in Steves zip file.

It shows the temperature.

I tried the version I had installed as well and it said that WGXepc could accept multiple values or something along those lines. I figured that might be the problem so I used the one in the zip file before my first post just to make sure.

chpalmer

Are you still using commands in shellcmd or other to set fan speeds manually?

frosty

@chpalmer:

Are you still using commands in shellcmd or other to set fan speeds manually?

Nothing in shellcmd currently. I set it manually at the command line after first trying the fanctrl.sh command and the fan shot up to ff. But its only been set at the command line.

I did try setting it back to ff manually and running fanctrl.sh with no noticeable drop in speed. I didnt look to see if there was a "reset to factory" for the fan speed.

stephenw10

Try running WGXepc -t to read the temperature.
If you look at the thread I linked earlier you'll see that the SuperIO chip (which has the sensor) has a habit of erroneously reporting 125C after some time. If you haven't rebooted that box for while it could just be reporting wrong.

Steve

frosty

@stephenw10:

Try running WGXepc -t to read the temperature.
If you look at the thread I linked earlier you'll see that the SuperIO chip (which has the sensor) has a habit of erroneously reporting 125C after some time. If you haven't rebooted that box for while it could just be reporting wrong.

Steve

I checked that earlier and it was the same as the gui/widget and mbmon. Firewall has only been up 3 days but I'll give it a reboot and see what happens.

frosty

Reboot did the trick, thanks for the help. Probably should have tried that first.

Steve Evans

Just spotted the error. In my post I had the following instruction to start the fan control:

# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/fanctrl.sh

This is wrong. It should be:

# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/fanctrl.sh start

You can stop the daemon, and return the fans to full speed with the following:

# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/fanctrl.sh stop

Sorry about that.

Steve

frosty

I actually tried this

# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/fanctrl.sh stop

but didnt notice a change which makes sense because it sets the fans back to full speed where they already where.

Thanks for putting this together, I like it better than manually setting the fan speed.

stephenw10

Any idea what speed the fans average out at when the script is running?
I guess it would be very dependent on ambient temperature and cpu load but it would be interesting to hear any anecdotal evidence.

Steve

Steve Evans

Mine's sat at the minimum as per the constants at the top of the /usr/local/sbin/fanctrld.sh script

target=64
min_temp=40
gain=5
delay=2
min_fan=15

thus:

[2.1-RELEASE][root@pfsense]/root(8): /usr/local/bin/WGXepc -f
Found Firebox X-E
Fanspeed is f

It does rise during activity.

I'm nervous about setting min_fan any lower as I don't really want to stop the fans altogether.

Steve

Steve Evans

I should explain that min_fan setting. There are three fans in the box, two of which primarily cool the CPU, but both those and the third fan also exhaust warm air drawing cooler air over all the other components. I therefore thought it best to keep some airflow even when the CPU was below the target temperature on 64 degC. It doesn't take much airflow to provide noticeable cooling.

Steve

stephenw10

Ah interesting, F is really quite slow.
Does your script use decimal conversion, F=15?

Steve

Steve Evans

The lines that write the value do the conversion thus:

# Adjust the fan speed
/usr/local/bin/WGXepc -f `printf "%x\n" $fan` > /dev/null

The machine isn't under much load most of the time, but even when doing big downloads it still runs quite cool. Accessing the web interface, most notably the RRD Graphs causes a speed up of the fans.

Steve