Faster With USB?
A critical advantage vis-à-vis the new Fan-O-Matic's predecessor is the integrated USB port. The COM serial interface previously used has long been outdated, with barely a newer motherboard with i925X or i955 chipsets in particular sporting such a beast - and when they do, often the external connection can only be established via extra slot brackets.
One thing stands out, however, the first time you connect it to a computer: It locates an additional COM port; a fact which is also indicated by the driver to be installed. A look inside the device's guts confirms our suspicion: An FT232 from FTDI converts the signals from the USB data to a common COM interface. Thus the new USB connection entails no speed bonus, but only makes it more flexible to deploy on newer motherboards. A native USB solution would be a whole lot faster and would spare users the hassle of selecting the COM port.
FTDI232 USB to serial interface IC converter; the USB port is on the left.
The core of the Fan-O-Matic comprises the PIC micro controller 18F8720 from Microchip. The controller has 128 kB of program memory and less than 4 kB of RAM. More efficient programming is necessitated.