pulsing fan on 4.0.6

[jmissig]

My UDM-Pro updated to 4.0.6.

It sounds like the pwm2 fan within my UDM-Pro is pulsing. It's spinning up then back down repeatedly. Not sure if it's a fan failing or some behavior change with fan control. Would someone mind helping walk me through steps to debug?

# sensors
adt7475-i2c-4-2e
Adapter: i2c-0-mux (chan_id 3)
in1:         888.00 mV (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +2.99 V)
+3.3V:         3.23 V  (min =  +2.96 V, max =  +3.63 V)
fan1:           0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan2:        1419 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan3:           0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan4:           0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
temp1:        +46.2°C  (low  = -63.0°C, high = +191.0°C)
                       (crit = +100.0°C, hyst = +96.0°C)
Board Temp:   +44.2°C  (low  = -63.0°C, high = +191.0°C)
                       (crit = +100.0°C, hyst = +96.0°C)
temp3:        +43.2°C  (low  = -63.0°C, high = +191.0°C)
                       (crit = +100.0°C, hyst = +96.0°C)

• I have an SSD installed in the HDD bay.
• If I service fancontrol stop the pulsing ceases.
• I've re-installed ubnt-auto-fan-speed, done a full reboot, then re-installed again.
• I've tried a lot of combinations of pwm2 values for MINSTART, MINSTOP, and MINPWM in /etc/fancontrol. Even if the values are very high (and thus very loud), the fan will clearly pulse every second.

Entirely possible I'm not understanding some bits of this.

[renedis]

My UDM-Pro updated to 4.0.6.

It sounds like the pwm2 fan within my UDM-Pro is pulsing. It's spinning up then back down repeatedly. Not sure if it's a fan failing or some behavior change with fan control. Would someone mind helping walk me through steps to debug?

# sensors
adt7475-i2c-4-2e
Adapter: i2c-0-mux (chan_id 3)
in1:         888.00 mV (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +2.99 V)
+3.3V:         3.23 V  (min =  +2.96 V, max =  +3.63 V)
fan1:           0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan2:        1419 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan3:           0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan4:           0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
temp1:        +46.2°C  (low  = -63.0°C, high = +191.0°C)
                       (crit = +100.0°C, hyst = +96.0°C)
Board Temp:   +44.2°C  (low  = -63.0°C, high = +191.0°C)
                       (crit = +100.0°C, hyst = +96.0°C)
temp3:        +43.2°C  (low  = -63.0°C, high = +191.0°C)
                       (crit = +100.0°C, hyst = +96.0°C)

• I have an SSD installed in the HDD bay.
• If I service fancontrol stop the pulsing ceases.
• I've re-installed ubnt-auto-fan-speed, done a full reboot, then re-installed again.
• I've tried a lot of combinations of pwm2 values for MINSTART, MINSTOP, and MINPWM in /etc/fancontrol. Even if the values are very high (and thus very loud), the fan will clearly pulse every second.

Entirely possible I'm not understanding some bits of this.

I will need to look in to this. I'm on 4.0.3 and can't update to 4.0.6 at this point.
My best guess at this point is that the integrated software of unifi is interfering/conflicting with fancontrol or your HDD fan is failing.

Another strange thing in your setup is that you have a SSD installed. That should trigger the second fan (hdd-fan) on fan1 sensors.

in sensors:
fan1 = SSD/HDD fan. If sata connection is detected, regardless of HDD or SSD, it will turn on default at 50%. So maybe that fan is the pulsing/failing one?
fan2 = CPU fan. Can you actually see rpm differences to detect if this is the pulsing one?

[jmissig]

fan1 = SSD/HDD fan. If sata connection is detected, regardless of HDD or SSD, it will turn on default at 50%. So maybe that fan is the pulsing/failing one?

Yeah initially I thought it might be fan1 as well.

But I'm pretty sure it's fan2 because that's the one that gets a lot louder/quieter depending on MINSTART, MINSTOP, and MINPWM.

Can you actually see rpm differences to detect if this is the pulsing one?

Yes if I mash sensors really quickly I am sometimes able to see the variance in fan speed. I assume that it's difficult because of whatever frequency it's using to calculate the speed.

The pulsing will happen at whatever frequency I set INTERVAL to. Eg if INTERVAL=10 I'll hear a brief spin-up every 10 seconds.

[jmissig]

Oh, the reason fan1 wasn't on was because my MINTEMP for that was 46. If I make it the default 40, or if I give it a MINSTOP/MINPWM it does turn on. Experimenting a bit with setting values, I'm pretty sure it's only fan2 that is pulsing.

[jmissig]

What's the method to uninstall this to get back to default fan behavior? If I stop or remove fancontrol it seems to just blast the fans at 100%, and doesn't respond to the manual fan control.

[exolocity]

Had same issue, deleted fancontrol file @ /etc/fancontrol and restarted service and pulsing stopped . (UDM PRO SE).

Pulsing with HDD in or not In. so just deleted it. Fans quieter without any config on v4.0.6

[jmissig]

Had same issue, deleted fancontrol file @ /etc/fancontrol and restarted service and pulsing stopped . (UDM PRO SE).

On my UDM-Pro, if I delete /etc/fancontrol and/or remove the apt package, my fan2 runs at ~7000 RPM. You're correct that it does not pulse anymore, but this is much too fast/loud for noise levels in my office. Attempting to manually change the fan speed with the front screen on the UDM-Pro does not change it (and displays it as running at 100%).

[jmissig]

Ok, on my UDM-Pro 4.0.6, if I delete /etc/fancontrol and then reboot the entire UDM-Pro, the fans will calm down and cease pulsing.

Interestingly, if this is indeed Ubiquiti's new defaults, my fan2 runs at 1260 RPM — even slower — at roughly the same temperatures as above.

[exolocity]

Ok, on my UDM-Pro 4.0.6, if I delete /etc/fancontrol and then reboot the entire UDM-Pro, the fans will calm down and cease pulsing.

Interestingly, if this is indeed Ubiquiti's new defaults, my fan2 runs at 1260 RPM — even slower — at roughly the same temperatures as above.

That's close to what my UDM PRO SE fans were reporting too with a HDD in. I recall speeds @ 1,200RPM to 1,300RPM (+/-100RPM) (it's what is also reported on the screen too).

I remember watching the screen UI (vs spamming SSH commands), and seeing the RPM adaptively increase/decrease quickly in increments of 1RPM (iirc).

I'm not able to check the defaults right now, wanted to reply right now in case I forgot.

Interesting that you had to restart whereas sudo stop fancontrol (Whatever the command is, im on mobile right now) worked for me. It may be because I removed the fan control service or something else, I forgot exactly what I did. I was uninstalling everything, even onboot.d.

We could theoretically assume that everyone will experience the pulsing on v4.0.6 if you experience it on your UDM PRO & my experiences with the UDM PRO SE.

Also I forgot to say: thank you heaps for creating this issue post, without you I wouldn't have figured out the culprit. 👍🥳

[Resonate1]

Any update on this?

[maas1ve]

I changed line 6 in the config file from "fan4" to "fan2" and I think it's worked for me now.

[rpcameron]

changed line 6 in the config file from "fan4" to "fan2"

This worked on a fresh UDMP on 4.0.20 for me as well. The pulsing has stopped, and the fan is now spinning at a manageable 2000RPM or so.

Edit: I am no longer using the boot scripts from unifios-utilities, and the installation of fancontrol and its config file survived the update to 4.0.21.