[RFC] Fan control for mactel-support repo

[dngfng]

I've been thinking about a third mode (... and one to rule them all...) where i use TC0D, TG0D and average, and any of them can drive the fan. This might not eliminate the over shoot, but would certainly give a very safe temperature control.

What do you think?

Good question - sounds like an option that would be safer.

I haven't compared your Fan control code so I am not sure if its like this or not - however the basic principal sounds good that was put forward by Allan McRae:

To save battery on a laptop, I think that the fan should not come on when the computer is doing anything less intensive than watching a movie, so I set that fan to kick in at 65C. This coincides with what Mac OSX does. From OSX, it appears that the fans should hit full speed at 80C and the speed builds up exponentially to that point. The formula I use for changing the fan speed when the temperature is increasing is:
temp <= 65:
speed = max(current_speed, 2000)
65 < temp < 80:
step = (6200 - 2000) / ( (80 - 65) * (80 - 64) / 2 )
speed = max(current_speed, ceil(2000 + (temp - 65) * (temp - 64) / 2 * step))
temp >= 80:
speed = 6200
When the temperature is decreasing, I prefer to keep the fan going slightly longer to force the temperature down to low levels as quickly as possible. I push it back down to 55C using this formula:
temp >= 80:
speed = 6200
55 < temp < 80:
step = (6200 - 2000) / ( (80 - 55) * (80 - 54) / 2 )
speed = min(current_speed, floor(6200 - (80 - temp) * (81 - temp) / 2 * step)
temp <= 55:
speed = 2000

Source: http://allanmcrae.com/2010/05/simple...ro-fan-daemon/

Not sure if this any good either - however it does keep the fan going a tad longer until the machine cooled down a bit more.

The lower left corner where my palm rests does still feel pretty warm even - even so I think its not different to OS X operation.

Lots of Reviews have pointed out that the MacBooks do get fairly warm.

[SwedishWings]

Good question - sounds like an option that would be safer.

I haven't compared your Fan control code so I am not sure if its like this or not - however the basic principal sounds good that was put forward by Allan McRae:

Source: http://allanmcrae.com/2010/05/simple...ro-fan-daemon/

Not sure if this any good either - however it does keep the fan going a tad longer until the machine cooled down a bit more.

I checked his code and it is quite different from mine. For one thing, it don't sense the GPU at all. Another difference is that it uses the coretemp module rather than applesmc-dkms (though i think it's needed by coretemp).

I will clean up the code, update the docs, and then do some more work on it.

The lower left corner where my palm rests does still feel pretty warm even - even so I think its not different to OS X operation.

Have you tried to change /etc/macfanctl.conf? If it's too hot, adjust there until you are happy. Please report back the values you find suitable, and i'll try to see how it works on mine.

[dngfng]

Sure will do - could take a while until I have some time to give it a bit of a play.

[SwedishWings]

EDIT: Please see this post for new instructions.

I released a new version on the PPA, with the following changes:

macfanctld (0.2)
  * Fixed bug where only fan 1 got updated.
  * Changed to use sensors TC0P/TG0P instead of TC0D/TC0D that was to noisy.
  * Removed the modes. Now uses TC0P/TG0P and average concurrently.
  * Replaced README with a new man page, macfanctld.1 (enter 'man macfanctld' to read it)

macfanctld (0.1)
  * Updated to GPL 3 in source files.
  * Clean up the code, minor bug fixes.
  * Added code to handle only 1 fan.
  * Removed command line switches -a -d and -s. Moved this settings
    to the config file.
  * Fixed so that HUP signal re-reads config properly.

With the above changes, i hope it will work on most MacBooks using applesmc-dkms.

Please test this out and send me feedback.

If you don't want to add my PPA, see the attached deb package, otherwise do this:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mikael-sesamiq/ppa
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install macfanctld

/Mike

[dngfng]

Hi,
haven't installed your update yet - but dropping the kick in tempreture of the Fan to 60 C seemed to smoothen the fan speed transitions better - have to do some long term tests with these settings.

Will have a look at your new code and start testing it later this week.

[buntuLo]

great, so much looking forward to get this installed..
any chance you'll upload a version for Kaarmic (9.10) on your PPA?
also, you may correct the two typos in your previous post: add-apt-get >> apt-get
thanks a lot for your work!

[SwedishWings]

great, so much looking forward to get this installed..
any chance you'll upload a version for Kaarmic (9.10) on your PPA?
also, you may correct the two typos in your previous post: add-apt-get >> apt-get
thanks a lot for your work!

Thanks, corrected the typos above.

There is now a Karmic package on the PPA. I have no Karmic box to test it on, but i guess it'll work just fine. Please let me know if there are any problems.

Cheers,
Mike

[buntuLo]

There is now a Karmic package on the PPA. I have no Karmic box to test it on, but i guess it'll work just fine. Please let me know if there are any problems.

Mike, thanks again: installed and running on Karmic without any trouble. i'll report back any other issue i may notice using it.
ciao, Lo.

[SwedishWings]

Hi,
haven't installed your update yet - but dropping the kick in tempreture of the Fan to 60 C seemed to smoothen the fan speed transitions better - have to do some long term tests with these settings.

Will have a look at your new code and start testing it later this week.

The new code is really much smoother and controls the fan better. The problem of the speed peaks was because the Tx0D/Tx0D sensors were very noisy. I did a dump on all sensors and graphed it, so i know for sure it was that.

Don't bother to trim the old one

Thanks for your input!

[dngfng]

cool - will install the new code via apt-get when i get home.

Guess I have to perform a make uninstall first since I installed the first version(s) manually.