Maxxfans Just Got So Much Better Thanks to This Upgrade Kit

If you own an RV, travel trailer, or truck camper, you probably know about MAXXAIR’s Maxxfan, as it is the de facto standard for ventilation in the RV industry. And it is pretty great exactly as it comes from the factory. But it turns out there is massive room for improvement and this upcoming Minuet kit will unlock your Maxxfan’s full potential.

Minuet is a replacement control board and motor for Maxxfan units. It lets you toss out the noisy brushed DC motor and swap it with a much quieter brushless DC motor.

But that’s just the beginning, because Minuet also serves up a veritable cornucopia of additional features. The Minuet control board is “smart” and can do all sorts of things, including responding to environmental conditions detected by its sensor suite. It can, for example, open up the lid and turn on the fan motor if it detects inside humidity over a specified threshold.

There is a lot going on here and the brain of the operation is an ESP32-C3 microcontroller. That doesn’t consume much power, but still provides lots of processing power, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and more. It controls the fan motor through a TI MCF8316D FOC (field oriented control) driver and the lid motor through a DRV8876 driver. It has ports to accommodate Maxxfan remotes and even the Maxxfan conductive rain sensor, plus additional expansion ports for Minuet accessories and your own custom add-ons.

Minuet is open source and its creator, Jeff Brown, designed it to be hacker-friendly. He lives the van life himself, so knows how important that is. You’ll be able to use official Minuet accessories, including the Light Accessory (a nifty LED strip), the Environmental Sensor Accessory, and the Smart Cover accessory. But you’ll also be able to create your own. The firmware is based on ESPHome, so mods should be easy to tackle.

If you’re interested, be sure to subscribe to updates on the Crowd Supply page so you get a notification as soon as Minuet launches.