Argon Fan HAT for Raspberry Pi 4 | 40mm Fan with Power Button | PWM and Software Controllable | Easy Setup

I'm running two Pis in an enclosed server rack. A Pi4 running PiHole+Unbound+PiVPN+Unifi controller and a Pi3 running PiHole+Unbound. Both Pis would hover in the upper 40c to low 50c range with just a rack fan. I installed to of these HAT fans on the Pis and edited the config to run at 25% fan speed. Now both are in the upper 20c to mid 30c range, depending on load. And that's without any heatsinks. You can't beat these for the price and the slim form factor.

These fans are awesome. They are also configurable via software on the Raspberry Pi that allows you to set what temp the fan will turn on and also what speed it will run. If you choose not use the software at all, the fan will just stay on a run at the 50% speed. Just doing this chopped off about 10 degrees on my devices, so I think I'll just leave that setting as is. I have three units running all at the same time and while I can hear the fans when up close, they aren't super annoying. It wouldn't bother me anyway since I have these devices running in a dedicated network rack, so it's not something I ever have to be close to.

Got my first Pi a bit ago, read that these Pi4 models could run a bit hot. So I picked up the LAFVIN acrylic case that came with a Pi-Fan and put it all together. Before I plugged in the fan in but after I got the system updated and running, I monitored the CPU and GPU temps with a command line script, and noted the temp hit about 58 deg C or so. I then plugged in the fan to give it 5V and the temps quickly cooled to under 30 deg C.After a few hours of configuring and installing things, I assessed that the Pi-Fan was likely running when it didn't need to be and not only making more noise than necessary, but also drawing more power than it needed too. Neither of those things were huge deals, so I waited a bit before finding this on Amazon. Finally decided to buy, and overall, I'm happier with this variable-speed fan than I was with my always-on little Pi-Fan.Installation was pretty easy, and I experimented a bit with temp break points. I added more and more break points, and then finally decided to load Stressberry in order to give it some load to prove that the multiple breakpoints were indeed working, and they were. Some of the reviews mentioned that they could not get more than the 3 speed break points to work. I was able to use the included config executable to create 5 pairs of temps/fan speeds, and then I went into the argononed.conf file (located in ./etc) and edited the file directly to add even more points, and it was clear that these were all working. I now have my fan configured with 14 temp/speed pairs! After looking at the python script, there doesn't seem to be any hard-coded limit. The way the script uses the config data is that it finds the greatest temperature in the config list that is less than or equal to the current CPU temp, and uses the associated fan duty cycle for that temperature. It does NOT interpolate duty cycles between temp values in the list. But since there is no limitation on the number of config pairs, you can make the change in fan speed as smooth as you want!This is the reason I used so many points - I can get this fan to keep the CPU temp just about anywhere I want it to and without noticeably changing speed. As you can see from the attached Stressberry plot, the CPU temp tops out around 45 deg C, and at that temp, I have the fan running at just 5%. For those people that mentioned this fan is loud, try setting some points where you run the fan at even 1%. When the Pi is idling, as it mostly is now while I type this, the fan turns on for a bit, and turns off for a bit, and I see the CPU temps displayed between 38 and 40 deg C. I do not actually hear the fan running at all, although the led and the spinning fan indicate it is running; it is much quieter than my laptop that is sitting on the other side of me.I did play around with this a bit a learned a couple things that might help out some newbies in the future, and this is relevant to the Fan Hat product, not the Argone One case. The hat itself uses some of the pins in the GPIO connector to communicate with the Pi. By using this hat, you may have conflicts with other hats that also use the same pins. GPIO4 is used for sure, pins for I2C are also used although I'm not sure which, and that is likely all. The power button on the hat is NOT connected to the power supply for the Pi; it is strictly used to tell the Pi to shutdown, and you still need another way of actually shutting down power. The power button on the hat is not a substitute for a true power switch.The biggest drawback to me isn't the change in the GPIO connector gender, and in fact, with my Pi case, bringing that header up higher is very much welcome. I will ultimately add some spacers and replace my case bolts to make the stack a bit higher, allowing the layers to stay flat. Currently, the layers on top of the hat are a bit bowed, but a proper spacer or two should be able to fix that. The biggest drawback I have is that the fan board obscures the camera and Display port connectors on the Pi. Since the cooling is so effective as-is, I may try removing the large 40mm fan in this hat, put a JST connector on the 30mm Pi-Fan and try the smaller fan with original case cover. Or, I may modify the original case cover hole and keep the 40mm fan as is, but using the smaller fan likely allows access to the camera connector on the Pi and the 40mm fan performance seems to indicate it is overkill.In summary, the fan cools a RPI4 VERY well, and you can tune the fan to be very quiet if you put a minute or two into the configuration. The hat is a bit large, however, and used as-is, prevents connecting to the camera connector and the Displayport connector, and probably also prevents connecting to the 4-pin POE pins. If you don't care about these things, I would say this is a perfect fan fo rthe RPi4 and definitely a great value. Wish the was some more documentation about the hat itself in terms of its interface with the RPi and perhaps a schematic showing that interface.I'm including the argononed.conf file that I created and am happy with. Note that changing the config file also requires the argone fan service to be restarted in order to take effect:systemctl restart argononed.serviceMy argononed.conf with lots of resolution:## Argon One Fan Speed Configuration## Min Temp=Fan Speed35=038=139=141=245=550=1052=1554=2056=3058=4060=6062=7064=8065=100

Excellent cooler. Using Pi-Star, board temp was always in the green even during heavy radio transmit/receive sessions.

The Argon Fan Hat is a low profile, programmable speed fan, for RaspPi. It is nicely built, and takes power off the GPIO connector; no ugly wire for power. All GPIO connections are passed through so that adding another hat would be easy. The speed control is programmable, according to temperature and allows full on, or various % of speed to be set at 3 different user selected temperature points. The fan is very quiet, and kicks in and out almost imperceptably. I bought 3 and could not be more pleased. The construction is superb and it installs easily. They provide a link for the control software, which can be installed without problems. A very nice addition for working Pis.

I use my RPi4 as a plex media server mounted behind my TV. The small fans with other cases were pretty loud and failed quickly. With the larger fan and controlling software, this fan is very quiet and only runs when needed so it should last much longer. Super fast and easy to install. Normally keeps my pi running below 50c unless I am really working it, then it might get to 55c. Never have to worry about it throttling down.

Pretty cool this little fan, my son it is building a computer, I ordered this fan to cooling the processor and keep it safe to not get overheat, as soon my son got home put it on, it’s amazing how that little fan was blowing so much air, I like the price and fit perfectly, thank you!

I purchased the Argon Fan Hat because I really, really like the Argon One RasPi case. I purchased this Fan Hat for another project. My disappointment is that the Fan Hat doesn't have all the same functions as the fan in the the case. The Fan Hat doesn't have the Power On function, where as it does still have the Power Down, Reboot and Hard Power Down depending on the power button sequence. So it's back to either powering down with the power strip or and additional power button on the RasPi power supply. I think it needs stand offs provided for mounting. It only uses the GPIO pins to mount/secure the Fan Hat to the RasPi. Granted, the RasPi isn't getting thrown around, but its a little nerve racking having the fragile GPIO pins as the only thing holding the Fan Hat. Speaking of the GPIO pins, they're a total loss unless and additional male to male adapter is used or adapt most everything to a male pin out. The first image is of the mounting and clearance. A heatsink CAN NOT be used on the processor unless the Fan Hat is only partially fitted to the GPIO pins, then it's quite unstable and will definitely require stand offs. The second image is upon power up, the Fan Hat itsels powers up to 50% as shown by the two LEDs for several seconds then idles out till it's time to cool things down.