Living in the proverbial glass house, we can’t really throw stones at [ellis. codes] for modifying a perfectly fine Vornado fan. After all, he chose that fan specifically because, unlike most fans, it featured a DC motor. DC motors are generally easier to control using a microcontroller, which set the stage for adding an ESP32 and a WiFi interface to the fan.
Opening up the original fan revealed a surprisingly sparse interior: a power supply and a tiny PCB dedicated to speed control. Interestingly, the speed control appeared to be just a potentiometer paired with a 24 V supply. It wasn’t entirely clear whether the motor itself contained circuitry to handle PWM control, but it seems likely.
To maintain compatibility with the original system, the project used a digital potentiometer IC in place of the mechanical pot. A neat aspect of this modification is that it replaces the existing control board using the same connectors. That means if you ever want to revert the fan back to its original state, all you have to do is swap the boards back—no soldering or complicated rewiring required.
https://hackaday.com/2025/11/15/if-it-aint-broke-add-something-to-it/
