Add Cooling Fan to A/V Cabinet - Page 20

Use a relay

Hi all,

I was thinking of going with 2 120mm fans from cool components. The application is a large av cabinet that will be cooling a power amp. The units are variable speed, always on(not interested in thermal control), and will be powered through a switched outlet.

Does anyone have any feedback on the cool components units in terms of problems or noise complaints?

Thanks in advance

The first thing to consider is a passive approach to improving cooling. I was having problems with my AVR overheating while listening to action movies at high levels. I bored a hole several inches in diameter behind the AVR and just below the top of the cabinet. The problem went away and the whole cabinet's internal temperature dropped.

I was seriously considering a solution with cooling fans, but it became unecessary.

If I was adding cooling fans, I would worry about increased noise. Large diameter fans turning at slow speeds address this problem. I would also want to have some kind of speed control so that the fan was turning no faster than would be required to obtain the desired amount of cooling.

Here is a package of products that I would consider:

(1) A 12 volt DC power supply. Even the largest fans only use a few tenths of an amp, so a 1/2 or 1 amp power supply would suffice:

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_10001_252808_-1



A fan speed controller:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998129



A large diameter slow speed fan:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835345007

There are usually a bunch of spare power connectors inside the PC. The ground line is usually a black wire and the 12 volt line is usually a yellow wire. The connectors are usually the type called "molex". You can buy these connectors in electronics store or you can liberate one from a cheap CPU fan. The power drawn by PC case fans is usually trivial and running them directly from PC power should have no bad side effects.

Hello all, I am trying to revive this as someone might have come up with new things, I actually found this at walmart, it's a power adapter that has molex adapters so you just need the fan(newegg has good prices)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103052&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Case+Fans-_-N82E16835103052&gclid=CNSer6jTibcCFcXe4Aod9j8Ang

http://www.walmart.com/ip/16318477?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227000000000&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=&wl3=21486607510&wl4=&wl5=pla&veh=sem#Item+Description



this is my new project and it's just on the planning, I am trying to cool off an Onkyo HT-S5000 which I heard gets pretty hot.

I am trying to use some stuff that I have lying in the house, I have several old desktops with their power supply but I think that might be overkill to power two 120mm computer fans, also the power supplies are the size of a brick. I also have several power adapters from an IBM laptop thinkpad T41(I think these are 9v) not sure if these will work.

Any advice on either using the desktop powersupply or the laptop power adapter?


This is the technical info for the laptop power adapter, 16V might be too much?


AC adapter: This ac-to-dc converter supplies the necessary power to the computer. The ac adapter also charges the battery pack when it is installed in the computer.
Universal AC adapter (72 W):
Input is 100/240V AC, 1.4/0.7A, 50/60Hz
Output is 16 V dc, 4.5 A

A small "wall wart" DC power supply will power a fan. Look at the amperage rating of the fan and buy one that meets the specs. I used one of the "universal" DC adapters with adjustable voltage - which works as way to adjust the fan speed (a static setting). A laptop power supply is way overkill, too. These fans are usually <15W...

Also, the power supply you show has a 16V output, which is above the 12V input most fans will use. 16V may kill it.

Jeff

Also be sure that there is an adequate sized air intake as too small an intake will cause the fan to over heat as well as increase its noise level. - sort of like blocking the hose on a vacuum cleaner. Use convection to help move air. Cool air should enter at the bottom front of the rack and exhaust near the top rear.

Hello,
I need some advice, I don't know much of this but from my research these are the two methods that I am looking at with their aprox costs.

Any advice on either one of the methods is much appreciated, I want to know if I really need a CPU fan speed controller as it gets a little complicated with the molex connectors or should I just strip the cables and solder them, if not I think I might have to purchase additional molex connectors/adapters


This is an instructive I found only, this is the cheap method.

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Cooling-Fan-For-Under-10-Bucks/step2/Making-the-connections/


So Method one, cheap method
- one DC 9v adapter, I can find one in the house, 9V instead of 12v as it will have the two fans running slower than at 12V - if this is inaccurate please let me know. cost- free
- 2 CPU 120mm CPU fans - newegg has 4 of these for $14 free shipping
- one on/off 12v switch cost $5
wires will be stripped and connected to the switch, this is for a two fan setup
total aprox cost $13 per set up.( I am looking to build two of these 2 fan setups)

Method two

- 2 CPU 120mm CPU fans - newegg has 4 of these for $14 free shipping
- one on/off 12v switch cost $5
- one CPU 3 or 4 pin speed fan controller - ebay $4
- one Raidmax molex 12V DC adapter from walmart $12 shipped
aprox cost per set up : $28

Why dont you just use one of these...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5472147&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=CNyiz7KgjLcCFUVyQgodAycA6g

Ive been using one for three years with 4 SilenX 120mm case fans and it works perfectly.