FanShim and built in Raspberry Pi OS software fan controller

Support
#1

So now that the RPi foundation sell their own fan I noticed in raspi-config that the software to controll it is now in there. When you set it up it seems to ask what GPIO pin to usefor the pwm controll for the fan. I gave it the GPIO pin for my fanshim (18) and set the temp threshold to 60 degrees to see if it would work, and it does. Now I do not have the use of the LED or the button but the fact the fan can be run quickly, or if I do not need the other features is a real bonus.

My one question is,can you see any issues doing this long term? I’d imagine that it same as the Pimoroni control software, so in theory should be ok for just running the fan?

#2

I’ve done it via the dtoverlay, which is what that option ultimately does.
If you check you config.txt file you should see the following line.
dtoverlay=gpio-fan,gpiopin=18,temp=60000
The way the fan shim works is a ground on the fan control pin turns the fan off. That dtoverlay entry does the same thing so no issues doing it that way.

If you add the following line to your config.txt file, your Pi will do a proper shutdown when you press the button on the Fan Shim. Leave it powered and pressing it again will have it boot up.
dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown,gpio_pin=17,active_low=1,gpio_pull=up

The LED is an APA-102 RGB LED. GPIO 14 is clock and 15 is Data. With a little work you could have it do something.
Fan SHIM at Raspberry Pi GPIO Pinout