Wiring help please- super basic/basic level

Waiks

Waiks

Well-Known Member
Hello :D

Idk if it's just me but google seems super shitty these days!
Been searching for the solution and nothing.
Here's where I'm at

I picked up some thermostat wire from HD. 18/2 150v. Stripped it has a white and red
Now that I'm thinking about it, is that safe? the 4 cobs will push 144v

My setup is 4- cxb 3070s ab bin ran on 1- hlg 185 1400 driver mounted on 4- arctic alpine 11 plus
I would like to run the fans in parallel using the same thermostat wire. I looked up a tutorial on youtube for powering pc fans with a usb cable and usb wall block. Tried it with a couple spare cables to no avail!

I'm hoping I'm doing it correctly...
The red from the thermostat wire hooked up to the red on the alpine, hooked up to the white on the usb cord.
The white from the thermostat wire hooked up to the black on the alpine, hooked up to the black on the usb cord.
Usb cord plugged into block.
Nada!
I'm going out to pick up an adjustable voltage power supply. I'm out of usb cords and adjustable could come in handy....should I pick up different wire to hook up the fans with?


TL;DR-
I want to run 4 arctic alpine 11 plus in parallel. What type of wire should I use in between the fans and the power supply? Is 18/2 thermostat wire okay?

My apologies if this is posted elsewhere... Thank you for the help!
 
Waiks

Waiks

Well-Known Member
Nice diagrams!
I watch your stuff on youtube. Beautiful. Inspirational!

I am so done waiting for things to ship. I have a solder but no experience, I'd rather use some sort of wire connectors.
I got the 18 gauge for the cobs, but what about for in between the fans?
 
Growmau5

Growmau5

Well-Known Member
Waiks said:
Nice diagrams!
I watch your stuff on youtube. Beautiful. Inspirational!

I am so done waiting for things to ship. I have a solder but no experience, I'd rather use some sort of wire connectors.
I got the 18 gauge for the cobs, but what about for in between the fans?
Click to expand...
Thanks for watching! For the fans, wire gauge is not critical. Doorbell wire is just fine, but I find it challenging to solder very fine gauge stranded wire to solid core wire. Stranded to stranded is easiest for me and my sausage fingers.

The arctic 11 has 4 wires if I remember correctly: +/- and 2 control wires. Make sure that these wires (blue& yellow) are not touching each other, or grounding out. Other than that, I can't think of why it wouldn't be working. Perhaps test each fan separately.
 
brettsog

brettsog

Well-Known Member
The power lines on the fans do not control the speed. U need 4 pin fans to be able to control via a thermostat.

Use a decent usb cable to start and use a high power outlet (Ipad wall blocks use 7.5v instead of 5.5 like most usb sockets).

your better buying an external 12v molex power supply and using that cable that Growmau5 suggested. Less pissing about. And u can buy small pc fan speed controllers for about £20 that let u vary speed of up to 4 fans individually. You can set rpm or temp control.
 
S

ShyGuru

Well-Known Member
It sounds counter intuitive but I believe you want to run the black wire from the power block to the red wire on the fan and the white wire on the power block to the black wire of the fan. A/c uses black as hot wire but d/c uses red as hot wire. Basically switch one set of connections. Does that make sense to you? If not I will find another way to word it. Good luck!
 
S

ShyGuru

Well-Known Member
The other problem could be most usb power blocks are only 5v and that may not be enough to start the 12v fan.
 
Waiks

Waiks

Well-Known Member
Ok so I made life easier on myself and hit up amazon for 4x 12" 4pin fan cable extensions and 3x 12" y splitters.
One extension to each fan (ordered two replacements due to frying)
One splitter to each pair of fans
One splitter connecting the two splitters
Said splitter spliced to adjustable voltage adapter
I say that right?
That gives me three feet of length between the fans and the beginning of the power supply cable. Should fit plenty on the 18 in l brackets I still need to get.

I will update with pics of the build when everything ships in....2 weeks after I had planned to be done lol. Patience


Thank you everyone for the input!!! Fuckin love this site
 
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
brettsog said:
The power lines on the fans do not control the speed. U need 4 pin fans to be able to control via a thermostat.

Use a decent usb cable to start and use a high power outlet (Ipad wall blocks use 7.5v instead of 5.5 like most usb sockets).

your better buying an external 12v molex power supply and using that cable that Growmau5 suggested. Less pissing about. And u can buy small pc fan speed controllers for about £20 that let u vary speed of up to 4 fans individually. You can set rpm or temp control.
Click to expand...
Speed can be controlled thru voltage w/ a rheostat....and 2,3 wire fans can also be controlled via thermostat. Done both. Maybe you were thinking of something else?
 
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