u/reynsys

Hi all 🙂

Hope you are all well and having fun 🙃

I'm posting here as I believe you guys will be able to help 🙂

I would like to apologise for the long post and for the seemingly stupid questions I will ask as I am just an electronics engineer and have little to no knowledge of Refrigeration Systems, HVAC and so on, but I'm brave and stupid enough to get my hands on and experiment with "things" that I don't understand 😁

I am in need of advice for a little Cooling project that I started a couple of days ago.

At home, I have a server rack where I run a few linux devices for my home projects (pic attached), but it gets quite hot in it and I had an idea to build a small cooling unit to cool the servers and other equipment I have inside.

For this purpose I decided to use an Ice maker (I ditched the Peltier a long time ago as ineffective) that I had laying around.

My idea is to put a fan on the cooling coil to blow cold air inside the rack.

So I stripped the ice machine (pictures attached) and examined the unit. The device seems to be fairly simple - compressor, valve, copper pipes, radiators, couple of sensors , circuit board with on/off switch, water pump and a motor.

I've examined the circuit board and it seems that it's got a small microcontroller whose main function is to monitor the few sensors, to turn on and off the motor and the little pump and if no errors (lid open/close) - to turn on the compressor.

My plan is to get rid of all of the sensors and the main board and use a simple On/Off switch for the compressor, but ....... there's this valve (picture attached) that I have no idea what it does, why it's there, and wether I can get rid of it or it needs to be there and I will need to build an automation to control it along with the compressor.

I have drawn a diagram of the cooling system (picture attached), where I noticed all pipes have different diameter and are oddly connected.

May I ask a knowledgeable someone to provide me with some quick explanation of what this valve is for, and eventually - can I just ignore it or I will need to control it.

Any advice is welcome and will be highly appreciated to make that thingy work.

I've attached a couple of pictures for reference 🙂 Please ignore the inaccurate Block Diagram I made and the dusty and dirty unit 😁

Thank You All 🙏

Hi all 🙂

Hope you are all well and having fun 🙃

I would like to apologise for the long post and for the seemingly stupid questions I will ask as I am just an electronics engineer and have little to no knowledge of Refrigeration Systems, but I'm brave and stupid enough to get my hands on and experiment with "things" that I don't understand 😁

I am in need of advice for a little Cooling project that I started a couple of days ago.

At home, I have a server rack where I run a few linux devices for my home projects (pic attached), but it gets quite hot in it and I had an idea to build a small cooling unit to cool the servers and other equipment I have inside.

For this purpose I decided to use an Ice maker (I ditched the Peltier a long time ago as ineffective) that I had laying around.

My idea is to put a fan on the cooling coil to blow cold air inside the rack.

So I stripped the ice machine (pictures attached) and examined the unit. The device seems to be fairly simple - compressor, valve, copper pipes, radiators, couple of sensors , circuit board with on/off switch, water pump and a motor.

I've examined the circuit board and it seems that it's got a small microcontroller whose main function is to monitor the few sensors, to turn on and off the motor and the little pump and if no errors (lid open/close) - to turn on the compressor.

My plan is to get rid of all of the sensors and the main board and use a simple On/Off switch for the compressor, but ....... there's this valve (picture attached) that I have no idea what it does, why it's there, and wether I can get rid of it or it needs to be there and I will need to build an automation to control it along with the compressor.

I have drawn a diagram of the cooling system (picture attached), where I noticed all pipes have different diameter and are oddly connected.

May I ask a knowledgeable someone to provide me with some quick explanation of what this valve is for, and eventually - can I just ignore it or I will need to control it.

Any advice is welcome and will be highly appreciated to make that thingy work.

I've attached a couple of pictures for reference 🙂 Please ignore the inaccurate Block Diagram I draw and the dust and dirty unit (I'll clean it - once I have it working) 😁

Thank You All 🙏