I have a question about the Octo Alarm tab and fan ports. The 4 temp sensors and the flow sensor allow the user to input a trip value, but the fan ports just have a checkbox that says "Activate fan rpm alarm evaluation". What does this mean, and what condition will cause the alarm to trip? The Owner's Manual does not specify what condition will trip an alarm for a fan port.

I have an AIO pump plugged into Octo fan port #4. The port is set to 90% which is ~2500RPM. I want the alarm to trip if the pump fails. Its a closed loop AIO cooler so there is no flow sensor to monitor. I bought an AQ #53216 cable for alarm output and plan to connect it to the Signal output of the Octo and the Power button pins on my mobo (Asus Crosshair VIII Dark Hero). If the pump fails, the alarm will trigger the shutdown. "Fail" could mean the pump RPM decreases to a lower value (say 1500RPM) or to 0RPM. I could set up a comparison of the pump speed to a reference speed in the Playground, but the Octo Alarms do not support virtual sensors, All I can do is click the check box for the fan port that the pump is plugged into. Since I can't set an alarm trip value for the fan port, what condition will trip the alarm?

For a test, I checked the "Activate fan rpm alarm evaluation" box for a fan then lowered the speed of that fan all the way to 0RPM. This did not trip the alarm. So what condition will trip the alarm when the "Activate fan rpm alarm evaluation" box is checked in the Alarm tab for a fan port?

Edit - I think another way to do this is to use the Octo Signal output as a Tach signal, connect it to the mobo CPU_FAN port and have the BIOS do the shutdown. In this case I need either AQ #53214 or #93111 - I think I would need AQ #53214 because Octo is included in the description. Is AQ #53214 the proper cable to connect an Octo Signal output (configured as Tach) to a mobo fan port? Finally, if I do this, in AquaSuite Octo Alarm settings, when I set Signal Output to "Output speed signal and interrupt in case of alarm", which speed signal does the Octo send? Is it the speed signal of a particular port or just a generic speed signal that is not associated with any fan port?

Thanks

Zitat von »Remayz«

it's 0 RPM.
From what i've seen, if the port has a fan at 0 RPM and speed demand at 0%, no alarm will be triggered because it's a normal condition.
If you have a fan at 0 RPM with some speed demand other than 0, it will trigger an alarm.

Thank you for responding. So my test did not trigger an alarm because the test fan was at 0 RPM because I set it to 0 RPM. So if I set the fan to maybe 20%, then stop it with my hand, an alarm should trigger. I just tried this and the alarm did trigger. Its pretty slow. I counted 5 seconds between when I manually stopped the fan and the alarm tripping. I guess this is not terrible, but its not great. I keep my pump at a constant 90% which is ~2500 RPM. I don't think having the pump speed track temperatures is really worth it. Its a Fractal Celsius+ AIO which uses a 6th-gen Asetek pump. I can't hear it at all at this speed so why slow it down? I wanted to set an alarm trip point of 2000 RPM. The pump should never run at that speed unless something is wrong. I can set this up easily in the Playground, but the Octo Alarm does not support virtual sensors. As it is, the alarm will only trip if the pump fully stops, and even then will take ~5 seconds to trigger.

I found another post (LINK) that mentioned that a Notification can also be used to send a Shutdown command to Windows. This method has the advantage of not needing an AQ #53216 alarm cable. I guess a disadvantage would be that it depends a bit more on software working. I could set up a Notification that will trigger if the pump RPM goes below a reference value (just like in the link) then as a backup, activate the Alarm in the Octo for the pump port and install the AQ #53216 alarm cable that I already bought. If the pumps drops below the reference threshold the notification will tell Windows to shut down. If that does not work, the Octo alarm will trigger about 5 seconds after the pump RPM reaches 0.

Thanks again,

Zitat von »Remayz«

if your pump stops you will have a couple of minutes of passive cooling in your hands with an AIO, even under load. 5 seconds is plenty fast to shutdown the computer

You may be right but I have observed differently. In the past I have had 2 Corsair AIO pumps stop running with no warning. I saw my CPU temps hit 100°C in less than 5 seconds. It surprised me because I assumed that heat transfer would continue between the IHS and the pump cold plate and then the coolant, resulting in a slow increase in CPU temps. What I observed was CPU temps reaching 100°C in less than 5 seconds. This was with the CPU idling. It made me appreciate how quickly things can get out of control when a pump fails.

My Ryzen build has a 5950X so I want to protect against a pump failure as best I can. I think that given the limitations of the Octo alarms, the best I can do is set up a Notification that will send a shut down command to Windows if the pump speed decreases below a threshold value, and also activate an Alarm for the pump port. If the pump speed decreases below the threshold, the Notification should trigger a shutdown. If that fails for whatever reason, the Alarm will trigger a shutdown when the pump RPM reaches zero. I already bought the AQ #53216 alarm cable so I might as well install it and set up the Alarm.

Thanks again for your insights.

Zitat von »Remayz«

Aye, with a 5950X, nevermind.. that's threadripper levels of heat. custom loop is your friend. you already have an Octo

Yeah a custom loop has been on my mind. I have always been a wimp and just put in an AIO. The plan this time was a 5900X. I "won" the 5950X in a New Egg Shuffle so I went for it. Its running on an Asus Crosshair VIII Dark Hero in a Fractal Meshify 2XL case. The GPU gods have not smiled on me yet so I have an old GTX 1660 in there for now. There is a whole lot of empty case around that motherboard. The Meshify 2 XL is a great case to build in, and its just begging for a custom loop. I have thought about doing it before but it's such a rabbit hole. It took me over 6 months to get this far. Just getting the Octo and Farbwerk 360 took over a month. I figure that I should wait until I get a new GPU in there. I will probably have to take what I can get, so I can't really fully design a loop yet. The new LeakShield product looks really, really cool. Leave it to Aquacomputer to come up with something like this. When loop time comes, I will be seriously considering implementing this.

Update- For posterity or anyone else trying to do this who may run across this thread.

I successfully tested, installed, and tested again the AQ #53216 Alarm Cable from my Octo Signal port to my mobo power switch header. The alarm is activated for Octo Fan Port #4 which is my AIO pump. I leave the pump speed set to 90% which makes it run at ~2500 RPM. If the pump stops (0 RPM), the Octo signal output shorts for 1 second, shutting down the PC. I did not want to test the alarm by intentionally shutting down my pump so I tested the alarm with a fan. As Remayz stated above, the alarm will trip if the RPM is 0 when it should not be 0, so setting the fan to 0 RPM will not trip the alarm. I set it to 1% which slowed it way down, then just physically stopped the fan from spinning with my finger (not in the blades, by pushing gently on the center). It takes 5 to 6 seconds for the alarm output to toggle. I tested the alarm cable with an ohm meter first, then connected it to the Mobo power switch header. Works great. Now if my pump speed becomes 0 RPM, the Octo alarm will shut down the PC. I also set up a Notification that will send a command to Windows to shutdown if the pump speed goes under 2000 RPM. If that does not work for some reason, the Octo alarm cable will shut down the PC when the pump speeds reaches 0 RPM. I wish it did not take 5+ seconds for the alarm to trip but its good enough.

Zitat von »WinstonWoof«

Zitat von »Speedy-VI«

Zitat von »Remayz«

I found another post (LINK) that mentioned that a Notification can also be used to send a Shutdown command to Windows. This method has the advantage of not needing an AQ #53216 alarm cable. I guess a disadvantage would be that it depends a bit more on software working. I could set up a Notification that will trigger if the pump RPM goes below a reference value (just like in the link) then as a backup, activate the Alarm in the Octo for the pump port and install the AQ #53216 alarm cable that I already bought. If the pumps drops below the reference threshold the notification will tell Windows to shut down. If that does not work, the Octo alarm will trigger about 5 seconds after the pump RPM reaches 0.

Thanks again,

Aye you are reliant on the software however on the other side the notification system does allow you (if you wish) to build some pretty complex criteria to either alert of shutdown

Yeah you are right about that. I will admit that when I initially set up the notification, I stupidly had it send the notification to shut down before I had properly configured it. I ended up in a situation where the computer would shutdown as soon as Aquasuite started and the notification tripped. I could not get in to edit the trip condition before it shut down on me. I could boot into Safe Mode ok but as soon as I started Aquasuite, the notification would get sent so the computer would shut down. Very stupid and very frustrating. I ended up loading a Restore Point to get out of it. This taught me to be careful before setting up notifications that send a shut down command!

Back to your point - When I get my "real" GPU I think I will add GPU temp into this equation. If I had a flow meter, I would add that too. The ability to do this kind of stuff is what I love about Aquasuite. The Playground is an incredibly powerful thing.

Zitat von »WinstonWoof«

Zitat von »Speedy-VI«

Yeah you are right about that. I will admit that when I initially set up the notification, I stupidly had it send the notification to shut down before I had properly configured it. I ended up in a situation where the computer would shutdown as soon as Aquasuite started and the notification tripped. I could not get in to edit the trip condition before it shut down on me. I could boot into Safe Mode ok but as soon as I started Aquasuite, the notification would get sent so the computer would shut down. Very stupid and very frustrating. I ended up loading a Restore Point to get out of it. This taught me to be careful before setting up notifications that send a shut down command!

Back to your point - When I get my "real" GPU I think I will add GPU temp into this equation. If I had a flow meter, I would add that too. The ability to do this kind of stuff is what I love about Aquasuite. The Playground is an incredibly powerful thing.

If It makes you feel better I made that mistake as well lol.

My fix though was to boot into safe mode and manually edit the relevant config XML file in C:\ProgramData\aquasuite-data before rebooting

Also (and I'm sure you've done this now) you need to ensure any default values are below wthe trip value

Actually it does make me feel better because I felt pretty dumb when I realized what I had done. I did not think of manually editing the config XML file and will note this in case I get myself into trouble again - thank you! Regarding Octo Alarms, I have noticed some strange things with the Octo alarm enabled and the PC power switch cable installed.

One - The only alarm I have enabled is Octo fan port #4 which is the pump. Several times I have opened the Octo Alarm panel in Aquasuite and found several other fan alarms enabled that I did not check. I don't know if this is a bug or if there is some other setting or condition that causes a fan port alarm to activate.

Two - Several times, with the computer shut down, I press the power button and it starts to power up and then immediately shuts down. I press the power button again and it boots up normally. Its not the Aquasuite notification because the shut down happens immediately after pressing the power button - before even the BIOS loads. I am wondering if the Octo alarm output shorts momentarily when the Octo is booting up. It doesn't do this every time and it could be something else totally unrelated to the Octo alarm, but it never did this before I installed the alarm cable. Could the Octo Alarm output change state momentarily while the Octo is booting up?

I plan to do the power up button press maybe 10 times and see how many times it shuts down, then remove the alarm cable and repeat the test. If it only happens when the alarm cable is installed, that would seem to indicate its the Octo alarm output causing it. It doesn't seem likely to me because AquaComputer sells this cable for this exact purpose. If the alarm output was activating on boot, people would have posted about it.

Zitat von »WinstonWoof«

as I don't have the Octo Alarm cable..........................

Well thanks anyway.

Just to update - I have powered up the system a bunch of times and have not had any more instances of it shutting down immediately after pressing the button. I had been working on various wiring - additional temp sensors and some internal USB2.0 stuff so maybe it had something to do with that? If it starts acting up again I will try testing with the Aquacomputer power kill cable installed verses removed.

Thanks again for your insights.