Wiring PC Fans

X

Xen Cuts

Member
What's up guys.

So i have a problem, I bought two 12v pc cooling fans to vent my growbox, and I cant seem to get them to work. Here is what i have done to wire them.

- I bought a couple 12v AC adapters.
- I split the wire on the adapters, exposing both wire ends.
- I did the same with the cooling fan, except there was actually four wires for the fan, A red, a yellow, a blue, and a black.
- I tried twisting the red and yellow wires on the fan together, then the blue and black, to make 2 wires from the fan, then connecting them to the adapter, but that didnt work.
- I also tried just connecting the red, and black wires.

I honestly don't know what I'm doing wrong. Odds are I'm just retarded and am missing something critical and obvious. (yes i plugged the adapter into the wall) I have tried switching the wires from one another for a while now and nothing is happening. The fans are brand new, and the adapter is definetly working.

If you guys could give me some advice, I would great appreciate it.
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L

Lim Yo Hwan

Member
Red to Red and Black to Black.

I wired up 4 fans to an Xbox power supply from my broken xbox and I literally have no experience with wiring. I just put all the black cords together and all the reds and plugged em in.
 
X

Xen Cuts

Member
I don't kow what you mean. There are only 1 red, and one black on the fan. PLUS a blue and yellow.

As for the adapter, both wires are copper.


I feel so stupid.
 
L

Lim Yo Hwan

Member
Once u strip the black case around the adapter there should be abunch of different colored wires in there, just connect the black ones to the black ones on your fan and the red to the red
 
Nusky

Nusky

New Member
On mine its yellow and black. If the wires are on backwards it won't work at all.

There is only 2 wires you need. On mine it has an adapter from 2 prong to 4 pron molex. I just followed the wire from the 2 prongs into the 4 prong molex and snipped.
 
X

Xen Cuts

Member
I really don't know what you mean by "strip the black case around the adapter."

I have stripped the plastic coating that was around the wires, and tried different combinations between the two. The adapter plastic coating is grey, there is no indication of which is black and which is red.
 
Nice Ol Bud

Nice Ol Bud

Well-Known Member
Get the red wire from the PC Fan and connect it to the red wire from the adapater.
Now do the same with the black one.
As for the other 2 colored ones from the PC fan, do not worry about those. Simply cut them off.
Thats all.
 
Cid6.7

Cid6.7

Member
On your adapter there should be 2 wires joined together..
on one side should have either writing or lines like this ------- --- ------- -- the one with the lines is ground..
The other should have no writing or lines on it at all that would be positive..

Use black & red wires from the PC fan only..
It can work both way's (mine do anyway) & may run in reverse..
If it does just swap the wires around
 
GeeTee

GeeTee

Well-Known Member
xen cut the adapter wire should have markings or writings or a white line on the insulation the wire with the markings/white line connecdt that to the red. connect the other wire to the black and it should work
 
X

Xen Cuts

Member
Lol everyone keeps telling me, red to red, black to black. Well, as far as I can tell, on the adapter, neither wire is red, or black. I have tried to connect the red fan wire to Adapter wire A, and the black fan wire to adapter wire B, and when that didnt work, i tried to switch it up. I have also done the very same with a yellow wire, instead of the red.

Maybe I am over thinking this?
 
Nice Ol Bud

Nice Ol Bud

Well-Known Member
Cut off the yellow and blue wire.
Now try to wire both wires..
Red one to one, black one to one.
If dont work switch around.
 
X

Xen Cuts

Member
just out of curiousity, what's the difference if i cut off the blue and yellow wires? If I dont hook them up, what harm are they doing?
 
Xeno420

Xeno420

Active Member
no wonder! There is no way that lil thing will power those 2 fans. I'm a veteran pc tech so my advice is sound. If you keep trying to use a 200 mA adaptor with a pair of fans in parallel, you will get nothing or a blown adaptor and damaged fans that will overheat from making a 12v contact and not moving, just short circuiting inside (unless brushless fans are being used). Those look like 120mm fans, so you will require a minimum of 1000 mA or 1 Amp in layman terms. My suggestion would be to go to the swap meet and find an adapter, they are very common in bunches for a dollar each... about the wiring, click here ---->
Speed Control and the Sense wires are useless unless you have a device that detects RPM pulses and a wired knob to control fan speed. Otherwise do not worry about those wires.

What I do to check polarity is to connect one wire and quick tap the other 2 wires to see if there's some sort of movement in the fan, if not, then switch wires and retry. Good luck ^_^
 
X

Xen Cuts

Member
I don't understand, every other thread on this site talking about these fans, say running a 12v adapter is fine. The fan says 12v, 0.15 mA. My adapter is 12v, 0.2 mA. How is that not enough? the fan is only a 92mm.
 
HankDank

HankDank

Well-Known Member
Im sorry but i believe you CAN power those fans with that adapter, i just built a cab, i have 6 12v pc powered by one adapter and they run fine, no heat from the wires and have had NO blow outs.
The only wires you should need to worry about are the red and black on the pc fans, which are positive and ground. On your adapter cable one of the lines should be striped and the other plain, obviously by now you know all this from the other posters. connect them up, safely set up the adapter where u can touch the two wires together from the pc fan to the adapter wires, if you get nothing, do the reverse with the pc fans..if still nothing..take the other pc fan out of its box and try it..you very well could have a bad fan. But i do know the setup will work, i hardwired all 6 of mine to one adapter in 10 minutes and its ran fine ever since.
 
X

Xen Cuts

Member
Fuck! It was getting to the point where i was assuming it was the fan. I don't want to try the other un opened fan because to do this i have to snip wires, thus making it ineligible for return. And I don't know, I'm bummed out on this. My growbox setup was going perfectly until this. Any thoughts on what I should do? I have a more powerful adapter for a PC lying around, I could try that, but im sure its much stronger. Fuck, who knows.
 
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