I did part of the images and had an artist do the ones that were more complex. It really needed something visual that reduced well (photos don't) to go into each fan kit. I was happy with the way they turned out.

I had no idea how LOUD those Spooky power supplies were since I hadn't heard one in a home environment before. But holy crap they are unacceptably loud. I didn't know people had already tried other fans. I'm hoping I can get one set up that will work for both early Spike1 with the front mounted fan and the Spooky in one, but I need to get the Spooky Meanwell power supply taken apart to check the actual connector since I'm just going off specs for the unit from the company, then I can get get the first test fan installed and start temperature testing over time.

WoZ had 5 fans (LCD, Case, ATX, switching power supply, CPU fan). That was the main problem. By replacing the LCD and cabinet case fans with noctua fans (I made a how-to thread on it https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/quieting-down-a-woz-ecle-machine ) the sound was made WAY better.

Houdini with the added power supply is loud, but we're back to meanwell crappy fan choices.

Getting this replacement set up with the right connectors and thread cutting screws for Spooky and early or contract Stern Spike systems with the front-facing fans is looking pretty good. The fan is literally more than 10x quieter than the terrible stock fan.

Glad I was able to help. This started as a DIY project and turned into a product for sale I never intended to make for others. But most people wanted something they could just plug in so that's where I went. At least now there's a way to quiet the fan. I can't imagine if there was no way to do it. It's OBNOXIOUS from the factory.

Okay, so the first Spooky test fan is installed and testing underway.

Some notes:
1> Meanwell is using Sunon fans in this giant power supply Spooky is using, but it's not their super-silence series - it's a regular ball bearing fan that cranks out a whopping 34.5dB. Crazy loud.
2> It's not as easy of an install as the Spike fan replacement due to some weird wiring choices at the back of the cabinet by Spooky and some dumb engineering choices by Meanwell.
3> This Meanwell power supply pushes air INTO the power supply, whereas the vertically mounted Spike fans pull air OUT of the power supply.
4> The replacement fan is literally 10x quieter than the stock Meanwell Sunon fan (Model KD1206PTB1).
5> Because it's a vapo bearing vs plain ball bearing, the replacement fan uses about 1/4 watt and .02amps to run, while the stock fan uses 1.8W and .15 amps to run - 7 times more power.

We're probably about 8 weeks away from having this plug and play Spooky/Front Mounted Spike fan available for purchase.

I've been working with a Rob Zombie for testing, but if any Spooky owners with America's Most Haunted, Alice Cooper, and TNA can verify what model meanwell power supply is in their machine, it would be helpful.

Thanks!

Thanks!

So that's the same model as in Rob Zombie. Only need confirmation of what's in Alice Cooper now. Because of the way the wire is routed it needs a much longer wire to the connector than the Spike kit, but since I'm having it done custom for the full order, that's not a problem, just a data point.

Once I make instructions for the Spooky kit (instead of me figuring installation out as I go on this first test), it's probably a 30 minute job. One of the dumb things is the Meanwell case screws need a #2 philips, but the bracket screws Spooky used on the power supply side of the brackets need a #1 philips, so there's lots of unnecessary back and forth, where if Spooky had just used #2 compatible screws, there would be none of that - everything would work well with a #2 philips, making it faster.

Why did you take the power supplies apart the first time?

Thanks for the model number!

Who was recommending that fan? It's a terrible choice. You have the reduced airflow (which I've proven is fine with long term temp testing since that's what the ones I use do), but you get almost NONE of the benefits of sound reduction since it's still a whopping 20dB with too much power draw. It's crazy. I can't find the life rating on it, but as a straight up ball bearing fan, I'd be shocked if it was over 40,000 hours, which is bad because unlike Sterns, the Spooky meanwell fans run all the time the machine is on. That's only like 4-5 years at a 24/7 location.

The one I'm testing now has slightly better airflow than the vantec, 1/4 the power draw of that one, and only 10.7 dB. That's almost 10x less loudness and about 4x less perceived volume than the vantec. It's roughly the same as the quiet plug n play stern fan kit.

Haha, I don't want to name and shame. It was more a rhetorical "What kind of person would do this?" kind of question.

Since you replaced the fan twice already, did you find a way to get the old fan out and the new fan in with that metal lip on top WITHOUT unscrewing and shifting the circuit board away from the fan so it could be slid out from under the lip then up and out? It's a hassle, but I don't see any way around it...

Here's the stock fan stuck under metal lip with circuit board jammed against it.

fan-out-with-lip (resized).jpg

And then with the circuit board unscrewed and shifted down to allow for fan to be removed.

fan-out (resized).jpg

Yeah, it's not hard, just an irritating engineering fail that involves lots of tiny screws and will make it a little harder/more annoying for a novice. Not as hard as without illustrated instructions, but a bit harder. If only Meanwell had thought about the construction a smidge more...

Awesome, thank for you for confirming!

Pinball Life is now carrying the Spike Plug n Play Quiet Fan Kit:

https://www.pinballlife.com/stern-spike-system-plug-n-play-quiet-fan-kit.html

Oh, there's no real secret for the Spooky/Alternate Front Fan Stern power supplies, either. Just like with the DIY I posted that started this thread, if people want to roll their own on this version, too, that's great. I'm just providing a finished kit that gives less-techy pinheads the right fan without having to crimp connectors on and with the correct length of wires protectively shrink wrapped. A solution for those that DON'T want DIY and just want to have a fan and some install instructions that they can install and enjoy with a minimum of hassle.

This is the fan I'm testing now - it's an actual production sample with the correct wire length and connector. But you should be able to buy a naked one with no connector and roll your own from the usual suspects.
spooky-fan-small (resized).jpg

Fun fact, the -10000 part number one is the European version that most places seem to have at US parts places. The actual one intended for North America is very uncommon for some reason.

Will do. It looks like we're about 6 weeks out now. I have to get the final factory sample I just got in and complete thermal tests on it and then they will start making them.

The plug n play fan kits through the pinmonk store and on pinmonk.com are out for a couple weeks. I thought I had ordered more far enough in advance of running out (lead time is long-ish), but orders have been steadily increasing and I ran out before the next ones came in. So I have no more for a couple weeks, but as of right now, pinballlife.com still has some stock, so if you need one right away you can get it there.

Pinball life is out of stock too now. So no more plug and play quiet fan kits for another week or two until more show up from the factory.

Thanks for the props! People have no idea how big of a difference it makes until they try one. It's not uncommon to have someone buy one, then come back 2 weeks later and buy 4 or 5 to do the rest of their Spike machines.

The spooky power supply is even MORE obnoxious, if you can believe that. It's also ALWAYS ON (no thermal switch). Relief is on the way for those machines too now, though. I think the factory samples I have now are the final ones before manufacture.

Next fan order arrived, so Spike plug n play quiet fan kits are back in stock for pin monk here and on pinmonk.com. Pinball life will be restocked and should have them the middle of next week.

If you're talking about the spike quiet fan kit pinmonk.com, just pick any of the spike games (deadpool, ghostbusters, munsters, etc) and the fan is listed as one of the options for it.

If you're talking about the spooky/early spike fan (the front-mounted fans), that kit isn't available yet. Probably another 3-4 weeks for the factory to make them.

No problem. You will be AMAZED at the difference.

I think the printed instructions that come with it are more concise, but your choice, both work.

For those waiting on the Pro front-facing fan and Spooky power supply replacement fan (it's the same fan for both), thermal testing should be done this week. I have factory samples already, so it's probably about a month out. I'll probably make a separate thread to gauge interest so I know how many to order.

Okay, some update news on the Stern Pro/Spooky larger fan now that I have a bunch of real-world min/max temp testing done.

I was surprised to learn that the Spooky Meanwell power supply SE-600-48 with the 34.5dB fan begins throttling load much sooner than the RSP-500-48 in the Sterns. The Sterns will run to 122F before it throttles load to 90% and the fan kicks on to bring the temp down. The SE-600-48 Meanwell power supply in the Spooky (and Multimorphic) despite being physically gigantic compared to the Stern power supply and the fan running all the time with no thermal switch begins throttling the load to 90% at only 104F. That's really low. Really. Low.

The lower temp specs also mean that the SE-600-48 Spooky/Multimorphic has a much lower upper thermal safety cutoff (140F) than the RSP-500-48 Stern power supplies which don't cut off until 158F.

So, pre-real-world-temp testing I was concerned about replacing the stock fan with a lower CFM fan to kill like 80% of the noise of the stock fan. But the initial thermal testing in a warmish room with the game closed up shows that there's only about 11 degrees of difference between the cabinet temp and the inside of the power supply at its warmest. And, there's about 17 degrees of buffer before the 104F 90% load throttle barrier. That seems acceptable. However, I can't know how much load Spooky and Multimorphic design their games to use with maximum features running at the same time, but I would be shocked if their designs exceeded 80% power supply load (which in Spooky/Multimorphic's case doesn't begin throttling to until 122F is hit). So, even if the room is mildly hot, I'm confident this fan will be fine.

I have some more testing to do (probably some other Pinsider guinea pigs), but this is moving forward well, so I think we're going to have a plug n play solution for the Spooky jet engine power supplies in addition to the front-facing fan Stern power supplies (SPV-300-48) I was originally trying to add coverage for.

Thanks for the compliment! Nice to get real-world feedback, especially from multi-pin Stern customers.

Someday...MAYBE Stern/Gomez/whoever will wake up and request Meanwell put these in their 300W and 500W power supplies from the China factory (which Meanwell has said they're willing to do for volume customers), but until then I'll continue to offer these plug and play kits, and instructions for rolling your own with part numbers is at the beginning of the thread for those that want to go that route. The stock Stern meanwell fans are just flat-out unacceptable for home use.

Yeah, I "over-wrote" the instructions so it's very clear with lots of illustrations documenting each step, but the actual amount of work is less than it looks like from looking at the instructions.

Awesome! Glad we're quieting these down, one machine at a time.

I don't think it works in beatles, although Stern has been known to substitute the 500W power supply for the 300W if they're out of stock to keep the line working, so anything's possible.

If the fan is on the front of the power supply, that's the 300W version that is not compatible. I'm working on one for those power supplies, but thermal testing with the production samples isn't quite done yet.

Awesome to hear that you were able to get them all done. The instructions are kind of long-looking, but actually, they're just over-written to make each step very clear and illustrated so almost anyone can do it by following them carefully.

I keep saying it, but I have zero idea why Stern doesn't just ask Meanwell engineering to make this change for both power supply types they buy (300W and 500W), especially since Meanwell engineering has said they're open to it. Lazy? 25 cent per unit cost increase compared to the aircraft engine fan they use now? No idea. But we can all hope.