Case fan and controller confusion!!! Please Help...

mechaaizen

mechaaizen

Member
So long story short in a effort to make my grow box run cooler i purchased 4 120mm case fans and a 5 fan controller. Now my hopes were that I could plug it all into the controller and go but I soon realized that there are more pieces to the puzzle. I still have no power supply.

Looking around the internet I see a few options.

#1 Buying a adapter. This one to be exact: 100-240v AC to 12 & 5v DC 4pin Molex 2A Power Adapter


or

#2 Making a portable molex power supply out of a computer power supply.

Now Im hoping I can use an adapter so that there is no hack work on my end. But I fear wattage will not be enough. :wall:

Pretty much Im stuck and I need help for the ones that are running a similar system.

Im trying to run
2 120mm fans for exhaust
controlled by this baby Sentry 2

Max output of the controller is 10w per fan but Im not sure how much the controller needs to operate.

I appreciate help you can give.
 
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
The cooler guys Adapter is fine, I often suggest them, but they are a little spendy and only have 2a's. [Which is fine for a couple of fans]

Then....how are you running the fans, 2 wire, 3 wire or 4 wire?

I was going to use a similar controller but I have a Playstation 2 power supply that uses 12v @ 8a's or so. But this only might work with 2 wire fans. I haven't gotten a chance to break into these controllers to see how they actually work.

What is the amperage on the 120mm fans?

What is the max power of the controller and how much per channel?
 
mechaaizen

mechaaizen

Member
Abiqua said:
The cooler guys Adapter is fine, I often suggest them, but they are a little spendy and only have 2a's. [Which is fine for a couple of fans]

Then....how are you running the fans, 2 wire, 3 wire or 4 wire?

I was going to use a similar controller but I have a Playstation 2 power supply that uses 12v @ 8a's or so. But this only might work with 2 wire fans. I haven't gotten a chance to break into these controllers to see how they actually work.

What is the amperage on the 120mm fans?

What is the max power of the controller and how much per channel?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the response. Im not sure if I am answering your questions right but I will try my best. The fans are 3 pin (red, yellow, black). Ampere says 0.12A+/-10%. Controller has a 50 watts max at 10 watts per channel.

Now the controller has 4 pins but only 3 wires. Does that change things?
 
avrum

avrum

Well-Known Member
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
What avrum is describing is basically what I have done. [Except I have put a 1k Linear Pot inline as my fan control.]

However.....since you have a third wire, the controller can adjust RPM without the CPU to 3 wire Fans, that's the whole point of the controller to regulate fan speed aka voltage/rpm/or as PWM. A 4th wire would have been PWM control. The controller itself only needs a ground and live to power up [Red and Black]

Your fans are 120mA's [.12 A] so that means each fan pulls 1.44 watts @12v's. You will be fine.
 
mechaaizen

mechaaizen

Member
Word. Well connected a fan to a 12v I had around the house. Now my question is could I do the same thing with the controller? Or could I use a 3 pin to molex adaptor to make a power supply?
 
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
mechaaizen said:
Word. Well connected a fan to a 12v I had around the house. Now my question is could I do the same thing with the controller? Or could I use a 3 pin to molex adaptor to make a power supply?
Click to expand...
Either will work. Just need the two wires. 3 pin to molex is prob safer in the long run for mounting.
 
mechaaizen

mechaaizen

Member
Alright so I went to a local electronic store to pick up a 12v 1A switching power supply. Everything is connected and I get power BUT the controller starts to smoke as soon as it is plugged in.

What could be the problem? Is it over powered?
 
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
mechaaizen said:
Alright so I went to a local electronic store to pick up a 12v 1A switching power supply. Everything is connected and I get power BUT the controller starts to smoke as soon as it is plugged in.

What could be the problem? Is it over powered?
Click to expand...
Or wired incorrectly? Does it have a schematic in the instructions? Could be wired backwards, but impossible to say without pics.....
 
mechaaizen

mechaaizen

Member
No schematics.

I might have wired incorrectly. The guy at the store said to connect the yellow wire on the molex y split to the red wire on the ac adapter. But instead went with red on the molex because the red and black are next to each other on the controller.

What do you need to see? I will take a few pics now
 
mechaaizen

mechaaizen

Member
Here is the controller
IMAG0149.jpg
and here it is connected to the molex connector
IMAG0150.jpg

here is the ac adapter. I connected red on red and black on black.
IMAG0151.jpg
 
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
Diagram.png

Sorry didn't mean for it to be so small but it is a clickable thumb to the bigger size. 3 &4 pin diagrams....
 
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
Give me a minute, it is all out of whack. See where you are hooking up red to red on the 4 pin, that should be red to the yellow and black to the black [ground to ground]

The red wire on the 4 pin is 5v+!!!!! That is why it was smoking I believe, try again..if it works, you didn't fry it:leaf:
 
mechaaizen

mechaaizen

Member
In the diagram it shows the yellow as +12V. Does that mean I should have followed the instructions sales guy gave me?
 
mechaaizen

mechaaizen

Member
No luck. Wont even turn on. I think I saw a quick flash but nothing the second time I tried. I hope I didnt fry it.
 
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
You can also try it with the 5v+ and ground to see if that is enough juice too.......might be....

Check if you have a mini-breaker or a fuse on the Controller, might have to reset it. Might be burnt, a multimeter is probably a good idea to check it, if possible.

Damn, hate when bad shit happens too, hopefully it's just a hiccup.......
 
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