A few weeks ago I had the urge to get a backwards compatible PS3. I’ve had a few in the past, but they seem to eventually die of YLOD. I decided to pick a YLOD console up off of ebay for $30 and fix it. I did the standard reflow as a repair, as well as replaced the thermal paste on the IHS for the GPU and Cell processor in some crazy dream that it will keep going if I do that.
In addition to that, I also decided to make an adjustable fan mod. I did this fairly simply, and you can see the photos below on how to do it yourself if you’d like.
Initially I was just going to mount a POT to the front and use it for fan adjustment, I eventually decided it might be beneficial to also put a switch in so I can switch between the fan being controlled by the PS3 and the fan just being controlled by the POT. Keep in mind, this POT isn’t really the perfect rating (250k I believe), but it works fairly well and I had it on hand. As well as a random DPDT switch. The mounts aren’t perfect, but I’ll clean them up in a bit, this is just a quick hour long project.
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- Connect the grey wire from the fan to the dpdt switch. The wire going to the motherboard will be sent to another point on the switch, and the POT will go to the final remaining pole.
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- Just a little DPDT switch to control it
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- Quick shot of the mount on the front. Seems to work fairly well.
Here’s a dumb video: