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Picofan

Mase3206·picofan·hardware/picofan/picofan.kicad_pcb

Picofan PCB layout, top view — open source RP2040/RP2350 board by Mase3206

About the Picofan PCB

Picofan is an open source RP2040/RP2350 PCB design by Mase3206, published on GitHub. It is a 2-layer board measuring 56.9 × 68.1 mm, with 11 components from 6 distinct parts.

Its main chip is the RaspberryPi_Pico, from the RP2040/RP2350 family. By type, the board carries 4 connectors, 3 resistors and 1 IC.

It belongs with the sensors and test & measurement designs in this gallery.

From the project

A Raspberry Pi Pico-based fan controller

Currenly, only PWM fans are supported due to their ease of digital control. Support for voltage-controlled fans may be implemented in the future.

picofan is fan voltage-agnostic by controlling fan power with individual transistors.

Fan speed can be set to adjust automatically via a default or user-defined curve with feedback from one or more temperature sensors. Only analogue sensors are supported at this time, and they must be connected to a static serial shift register, such as the Texas Instruments CD4021B. The RP2040 has four ADCs, three of which are available to the user on the Pico…

Main components on the Picofan

RaspberryPi_Pico

Picofan bill of materials (BOM)

11 components, 6 distinct parts.

QtyPartRefs
1
RaspberryPi_Pico
U1
2
PWM_Fan
J1, J2
1
Companion
J3
1
PiRTC Passthrough
J4
3
Thermistor_NTC
TH1, TH2, TH3
3
R_US
R1, R2, R3

Picofan design files

The KiCad project lives in the Mase3206/picofan repository on GitHub; these links point at the commit this page was built from.

Picofan: common questions

What microcontroller does the Picofan use?

The Picofan is built around the RaspberryPi_Pico, from the RP2040/RP2350 family.

How big is the Picofan PCB?

The Picofan measures 56.9 × 68.1 mm, has 2 copper layers and is 1.6 mm thick.

How many components are on the Picofan?

11 components, from 6 distinct parts. The full bill of materials is listed on this page.

Where can I download the Picofan design files?

From the Mase3206/picofan repository on GitHub, which has the KiCad layout and the schematic; the links under Design files point to each one.

Can I use the Picofan design in my own project?

The repository has no license, so all rights stay with Mase3206. Use it as a reference, and ask the author before reusing the design.

Can I test firmware for the Picofan without the hardware?

Yes. HardLabs builds a simulation of the board from its netlist and BOM, so you can run and debug RP2040/RP2350 firmware against it before you order a PCB.

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