How do i power these computer fans?

How do i power these computer fans? Any ideas homies?

radio shake has power plugs you just need to match the wattage and volt level on the package old cell chargers work if the wattage ect. match up too just splice the wires and your good to go.

thanks bro, + rep for you

Since I only use my comp fans to remove light heat. I connected them to a solar panel. And the light produces the energy for the panel.

You can use a wall wart, those bulky dc converters you plug in the wall for most smaller things these days... Chop the connector off, ignore the blue wire, and connect the red and black wires to the wall wart wires. One way will work, every other way will do nothing except maybe render the speed monitor blue line useless which you will never need anyway. You can't really hurt it as long as you aren't feeding over 12v.

9v-12v will do but they're probably 12v. If you want them to run quieter a lower voltage will slow them down just don't try below about 9v or they may not start up when plugged in.

Add the amperage of however many fans you want to use and if it's not too high you can run a few fans off one supply. Dc power won't hurt you either, as long as it says 12v dc output on the wall wart go ahead and play with it until you get it.

You can even power them off a 9v battery, just to be sure they're working and you have the right power wires.

Mikey Hustle said:

Since I only use my comp fans to remove light heat. I connected them to a solar panel. And the light produces the energy for the panel.

Click to expand...

got a pic? and where did you get it?

i got the fan working now, i took a old phone charger, thanks man!

bongblasts said:

i got the fan working now, i took a old phone charger, thanks man!

Click to expand...

glad to help have fun and keep on toking

How many fans can you run on a 12v adapter??

OregonMeds said:

You can use a wall wart, those bulky dc converters you plug in the wall for most smaller things these days... Chop the connector off, ignore the blue wire, and connect the red and black wires to the wall wart wires. One way will work, every other way will do nothing except maybe render the speed monitor blue line useless which you will never need anyway. You can't really hurt it as long as you aren't feeding over 12v.

9v-12v will do but they're probably 12v. If you want them to run quieter a lower voltage will slow them down just don't try below about 9v or they may not start up when plugged in.

Add the amperage of however many fans you want to use and if it's not too high you can run a few fans off one supply. Dc power won't hurt you either, as long as it says 12v dc output on the wall wart go ahead and play with it until you get it.

You can even power them off a 9v battery, just to be sure they're working and you have the right power wires.

Click to expand...

You have to look at the labels on the fans, it will say the amps, usually it's less than .5 amp per fan if you are talking the small ones. Then you add up all those amps and compare to the total output listed on the wall wart adapter. As long as all the fans amps combined are less than the output of the adapter you are good.

You can get adapters that will power several average fans, or some adapters will be overworked by just one.

You can also hotwire computer power supplies to run many more fans than a wall wart can, if you are working on a larger project, but that kinda wastes more power than is necessary and you'd be better off with just larger 120v fans at that point.

Some items will list amps in mA (milliamps), google the conversion if you need to but .1 amps is 100milliamps. If a fan takes 500ma and the adapter say it puts out .1 amps that wouldn't be large enough of an adapter and would go out on you.

If you don't have labels on something and don't care much about the stuff hook it up if it's all 12v and if the adapter gets more than just warm to the touch either right away or after a few minutes or then a few hours like other adapters you have for other things then forget it, it's drawing too much power and the fan is too big or the adapter is too small amps wise.

i have a old laptop adaptor will that work?? output is 16v 4.5A

my fans say Dc12v 1.4W

i wouldn't go over the fans power levels if i was you do the fans voltage or less IMO

If you want to use the 16v laptop supply it would work very well and power anywhere from 1 to 3 of those fans, they're a bit high wattage actually for computer fans but you would need to add a resistor to drop the voltage. I suggest 200ohm 5w as a good place to start, it'll cost $1 or something stupid, but that's just a guess and might make them run a little slower than you want.

Rather than a resistor a potentiometer would let you adjust the voltage if you find one rated for 20v+ and 5w+. A light dimmer for example made for 120v wall switch plates would work easily and you may have a spare old one around the house or can pick one up for pretty cheap.

They would be ok on 16v for a while, not sure how long, but adjust the speed down to 3/4 speed with the light dimmer and you'll be good long term because that's 12v.

I'd use both a 50ohm 5w resistor and a light dimmer so they could never go over 12v and you could use full speed on the dimmer or adjust down for silence, or just make sure you never turn the dimmer up too much, set a physical limiter on the knob or something so you never have to worry about it.

you said from 1-3...but im trying to run 4 at the same time off of one power source..

OregonMeds said:

If you want to use the 16v laptop supply it would work very well and power anywhere from 1 to 3 of those fans, they're a bit high wattage actually for computer fans but you would need to add a resistor to drop the voltage. I suggest 200ohm 5w as a good place to start, it'll cost $1 or something stupid, but that's just a guess and might make them run a little slower than you want.

Rather than a resistor a potentiometer would let you adjust the voltage if you find one rated for 20v+ and 5w+. A light dimmer for example made for 120v wall switch plates would work easily and you may have a spare old one around the house or can pick one up for pretty cheap.

They would be ok on 16v for a while, not sure how long, but adjust the speed down to 3/4 speed with the light dimmer and you'll be good long term because that's 12v.

I'd use both a 50ohm 5w resistor and a light dimmer so they could never go over 12v and you could use full speed on the dimmer or adjust down for silence, or just make sure you never turn the dimmer up too much, set a physical limiter on the knob or something so you never have to worry about it.

Click to expand...

why not use an old atx computer power supply? I run a lot of pc fans in my operation. Just wire the mother board plug like in these photos and it stays on all the time when plugged in, no pc needed.. or you can put a switch in the circuit if you want. Lets you run all the fans you want As you can see, I simply snipped the green and black wires there and wrapped em together and taped them. The wire color isnt really important, most of them use a green a black there. As long as you short the same two wires as the locations in the pix, it should work just fine.

Oh excuse me, I read where you put 1.2w on the fan as if it said amps.

No problem man, you can run way more than that they only draw .11 amps ea. I said before that sounded awfully high for computer fans, it's because I misread it. You don't need a larger computer supply.

sounds like a very good idea...but im trying to cram all this inside an old pc case..so i took the PS out

try this it has ac to molex, you wont have to cut any wires so its safer, also much cheaper

http://shop.ebay.com/knightdiscounts/m.html?_nkw=molex&_sacat=0&_trksid=m270&_odkw=&_osacat=0&bkBtn= $9.99 Shipped!

the main key is to match the voltage but not to exceed the amps

the link above is for a 2000mA or 2 amps power supply with a 4 pin molex connector, this should be enough to power 4 120mm fans @ 500mA..

if your buying your fans off a PC Parts site like www.newegg.com the voltages and amps will be under the specifications tab.
if you're not, goto newegg or google and search the fans you have or are planning to buy.. more then likeley some source will have the info if the store or website you bought from or packaging didnt.

Thanks for answering one of the questions I was going to have to ask myself

i edited the link in my post, last one was a ridiculous price after shipping totaled around 25$, this one is the same one but only 10$ shipped