Fans and power supplies and wiring.

I'm trying to complete my first COB light and I've run into a problem. I'm not sure if I've done something wrong, or if my understanding is flawed, or a part is not working right and hoping someone can provide some advice.

I've split the original power into two lines, then each of those into three lines, for a total of six. Green ground is connected to a junction box, three pair of lines feed one side, three feed the other.

When I hook up one fan, it's great. I'm going red-red and white-black and ignoring the yellow/blue lines on the fan. The problem is when I hook up two, they won't start, if I push one, it will spin slowly. If I hook up three or more, nothing. And yeah, I wish I had a functional multi-meter, I thought I did, but was wrong (so I don't need advice to get one, that's in the works ). I'm using a Rhino AS-20, and based off Gaius' Battlestar Ganjatica plans, that should be able to power this many fans in parallel, right?

I was planning on using this same plan for wiring the drivers from a 15A extension cord, but now I'm wondering if my plan needs to be revised. I'd like to get it right with the fans before I power up the COBs.

There was a RIU thread on fans and power that stated just bring all the lines back to the power and connect and my variation of splitting the lines to deal with sides didn't seem like a big deviation, so I'm kind of surprised to see the fans act like this. But I'm not a wiring expert, by any means. So I am grateful for any advice/explanation of what's the problem could be.

How many amps do the fans use?: ADDED UP altogether....

What is the Current on the Power Supply aka Amperage?

Could be bad fans too, have you tried another power supply to make sure?

The fans are rated at .24A (240mA, Alpine 11 Plus) and the supply is 1500mA. So six fans should come in at 1440 mA, so should be capable enough. But I'm seeing problems with just two of them clipped in, much less all six. The fans seem okay if I run them singly. I don't think I have any spare DC power supplies, I'm wondering if it could be the culprit? I can dig around my PC parts and see if I have an old one for a laptop or something, else I may need to go look for one locally.

You should take a picture of the fixture focusing on your wiring so we can see exactly how you have it

Here is the junction box. The red and white lines from the Rhino (22g) go to the respective yellow nuts, where they are joined with two strands (16g, trailer wire, what I had around). Each of those go to a tan nut, where they are joined with three more strands that go out to the fans. Right now I am just wrapping the 30g fan wire around the 16g wires, but when I am done, I will solder them together.

Thanks for looking at this!

I dug up an old IBM T10 laptop power adapter - not sure if I can use this for 12V. It's rated at 16V 4.5A, is that viable to try?

Okay, looks like I'd need to add a resistor to run that power supply to the fans, so I'll see if I can find a 12V one somewhere that's 1.5A or greater.

Sonnshine said:

the supply is 1500mA. .

Click to expand...

what @Abiqua said
Voltage or power rating on power supply

Fan usually run with constant voltage drivers between 5-12V DC
I do not recommend u try 'old IBM T10 laptop power adapter 16v 4.5A'
Resister value and losses are a hassle. I would just get a 12v constant voltage driver
Single driver like meanwell APV-25-12, LPL-18-12/LPH-18-12 will work
try this link for wall plugins
Plenty of cheep options on ebay but good to have the most reliable fan power supply u can find.

Thanks robincc, I'd reached the same conclusion about that laptop power supply. I'll just go ahead and order one of those MW drivers, thanks for the info.

Bonjour
You could try with a old phone charger. It is only 5V but could be enough to cool your pannel.
Could you tell me the name of the "plugs" you used to connect the wires on the picture please. Is it cheaper than wago?!?
Have a great day ★

Those are just common wire nuts, generally used in US house wiring, used to splice wires together. You strip the wires, wind them together and trim to about 1/2" then twist the nut on, the inside is threaded and keeps all the connections snug. It's generally used in boxes for 120V wiring, I'm doing it on the DC side, along with the box, mostly to just balance the weight on the other side of the frame to match the AC wiring. The nuts are inexpensive, you can get them in packs of hundred for $4 or so. Also called cone connectors.

I never saw some in France. Do you believe that would be ok for 220V?
Cause it is cheaper than wago and look very easy to use.
Thanks

I've never done 220 wiring, so not sure. The nuts themselves are rated at 600V. They're only for pigtail splices and as far as I know (just someone who works on his own house projects, not an electrician), supposed to be inside boxes, not really exposed. And also, I'm pretty sure they're only for copper wire. I'd ask a real electrician to be sure. If so, you can order them from places like Lowes, Home Depot, they are very common.

Okay, my multi meter is okay, the leads just don't hook up right and connect, I barrowed another pair of leads and took some readings. I think I know what's going on, but I only do limited home electrical projects, so I want to run it by someone who has more understanding of the principals to make sure I am on base.

The power supply only reads 6-6.5 volts, it fluctuates. It's not WAI. I hook it up to the harness and the lines all read the same, so my wiring is good. But when I hook up a single fan, the voltage drops to around 2.8ish. I'm assuming that voltage drop is because of the thin, aluminium wires of the fan? When I hook up a second it drops even lower, 2.2V, so that is why the fans stop working.

I'm assuming a constant voltage driver like the MW APV-25-12 eliminates this issue? I'm using an open frame, and I've tried to balance all drivers and lights to hang evenly when suspended, or with minimal load balancing to correct. So I ordered one of the wall plugins from the page robincnn suggested, a 12V 60W 5A Meanwell laptop power supply - this one. http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=GST60A12-P1Jvirtualkey63430000virtualkey709-GST60A12-P1J

Should that work for 6 Arctic 11 PLUS fans, or do I actually need the constant voltage driver? The driver itself states constant for operation method, but I don't see anything specified like that on the wall supply. Nothing ships till Tuesday, so I can correct this if necessary. Thanks for any advice.

Sonnshine said:

Okay, my multi meter is okay, the leads just don't hook up right and connect, I barrowed another pair of leads and took some readings. I think I know what's going on, but I only do limited home electrical projects, so I want to run it by someone who has more understanding of the principals to make sure I am on base.

The power supply only reads 6-6.5 volts, it fluctuates. It's not WAI. I hook it up to the harness and the lines all read the same, so my wiring is good. But when I hook up a single fan, the voltage drops to around 2.8ish. I'm assuming that voltage drop is because of the thin, aluminium wires of the fan? When I hook up a second it drops even lower, 2.2V, so that is why the fans stop working.

I'm assuming a constant voltage driver like the MW APV-25-12 eliminates this issue? I'm using an open frame, and I've tried to balance all drivers and lights to hang evenly when suspended, or with minimal load balancing to correct. So I ordered one of the wall plugins from the page robincnn suggested, a 12V 60W 5A Meanwell laptop power supply - this one. http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=GST60A12-P1Jvirtualkey63430000virtualkey709-GST60A12-P1J

Should that work for 6 Arctic 11 PLUS fans, or do I actually need the constant voltage driver? The driver itself states constant for operation method, but I don't see anything specified like that on the wall supply. Nothing ships till Tuesday, so I can correct this if necessary. Thanks for any advice.

Click to expand...

That PSU is able to output 5A @ 12V so it should have no issue driving 6 fans. If the fans draw 0.24A it should be able to handle 20 fans.

Sounds to me like you have it wired in series instead of parallel. Positives should be tied together and negatives should be tied together. Shouldn't be dropping voltage if you have it wired in parallel

That aluminum wiring shouldn't be dropping the voltage either. There's tons of aluminum all over the world with no problems. The only. Issue with aluminum is it corrodes with dissimilar metals

Hi Getgrowingson - thanks for the reply, that's what I wanted to know. It's definitely wired in parallel, so I think it's the power supply that's dropping when any load gets put on it in that case. It's already only running at 6V, and fluctuates a even when not under load. I've got a much better one on order, thanks for all the input.