RedShadow

Yes, I'm starting to look around now for a way to control this. I'm a Linux n00b, so bear with me, I'm gonna confirm below what I understand so far: - The pins are not exposed to the system for easy manipulation - Also, the pins addresses and stuff are not the same for each hardware model - It would pollute the environment if they were set up automatically because not used most of the time The way to do this is by using the Device Tree. This exposes stuff. But not necessarily everything. So if we want to expose more stuff (like our PWM pins or USB pins) we have to add these to the DT. Except that it's not good practice, since the DT gets updated during Kernel update so the changes would be lost. Instead we have to create an Overlay which would contains only our changes, which will get applied on top of the DT. Now on my Nanopi Neo3, I have checked the available Overlays as some are provided. In /boot/dtb/rockship/overlay there are some of them. The README there describes what each of these does. In my case (nanopi Neo3), I'm looking to control GPIO2_A6 aka PWM2 from what I can see here. But, the readme doesn't seem to indicate any available overlay which would expose this. This link you have given us, chwe, is for us to create our own overlay so we can expose it ourselves. I understand that once this will be done, we can expect to hit that pin through sysfs. Like with something like /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0. Indeed right now I don't have pwmchip0, this folder is empty. Am I right so far? Yeah, didn't even think about the causes. From htop I can see the CPU freq and at idle it's about 408mhz. Upon charge, it climbs up to 1.3Ghz. But it was with these 408mhz that we reached around 50°C idle before setting up our fans. I'm not sure tweaking the max clock speed would change much as with 408mhz it's already very hot Can't test without the eth disabled as I don't have the debug console and do everything through SSH using eth. I'm now curious as well as to why this is hot idling!

You can use the JST ZH 1.5mm as well to power on the fan. It's 5V. Guess it's exactly the same as using the USB2 headers pins. Though I'm wondering if we could somehow control either this USB2 or the JST to maybe control the fan speed! That'd be neat, like speeding up/powering on the fan according to the CPU temp or CPU usage. To put the NanoPi under load I'm using `sysbench` to calculate prime numbers with the 4 CPUs sysbench --test=cpu --threads=4 --cpu-max-prime=100000000 run And then at the same time I'm hammering my WireGuard on the Nanopi with a 30Gb download or something. And measure the CPU temp with htop after 15 mins or so.

Alright, I have received the fan and stuff to cool my nanopi3. In the end it looks like this: https://ibb.co/478br6z https://ibb.co/bN4HMhB Behold my not very round hole. Anyway. I had to put screws from the inside as mine they are too long and they were touching the passive cooler otherwise. Also not enough space inside to secure them with bolts. Now the IDLE temp is about 35°C. And a full load is about 53°C. Not bad. I haven't finished yet though, as I want to put some soft rubber washers to damper vibrations. And then I will secure the screws with bolts and close the case. I used this little fan there https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32603431500.html and it is quiet enough. I can hear it through the cabinet though, I hear a high pitched noise. But a few meters away and it's gone. Tried these fans as well https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000131368383.html and however they are stronger and move more air, they are very loud. Even in the next room I could hear the motor. And, they are actually too strong as the air can't get outta the case fast enough and goes back out through the fan itself. Not good. Not good for my setup anyway.

I'm guessing something like that : https://ibb.co/hWFm4jd Removing the bottom case center while leaving some space around on the sides to make holes for the screws and resting the fan. And adding some rubber washers to reduce vibrations. I think I will soon get my little fan order, the package arrived somewhere in my country it seems.

Following this up with a Nanopi Neo3: I made a little POC with a 12V CPU fan blowing at the standard white case. IDLE I went from 60°C to 40°C And maxed out, I went from 73+°C to 63°C Definitely a fan should help! So I ordered a 30x30x10 fan on aliexpress and some JST ZH 1.5 wires to plug it on the Neo3. Guess I will remove a chunk of the bottom case and set the fan against the heat sink. Will be back in a couple months when I'll have received the goods and set all of this up. Meanwhile my ghetto 12V CPU fan against the case helps

Hello, I am have using a Neo3 for a week now. My idle CPU temperature (reported by htop) is 60°C with a room temperature of around 25°C. I have the default white case, supposedely with a heat sink inside Product bought there https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001260840189.html I also think this is kinda high, but I understand the lack of fans and small enclosure doesn't help. That metal case is interesting, a model for the neo3 would be great!