How to Turn a PC Fan into an Exhaust or Intake Fan?

Sellasie I

Active Member
I bought 4 of those spiderman fans from newegg.com. I am going to try to hook them up to this 4 fan LCD display speed controller from ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/5-25-LCD-Panel-CPU-Temp-PC-Fan-Speed-Controller-ESATA_W0QQitemZ150296127583QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item150296127583&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A3|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A100
I should be able to simply connect the power and ground wires from this controller unit to a 12V DC adapter correct?
 

Eddie McPot

Well-Known Member
I bought 4 of those spiderman fans from newegg.com. I am going to try to hook them up to this 4 fan LCD display speed controller from ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/5-25-LCD-Panel-CPU-Temp-PC-Fan-Speed-Controller-ESATA_W0QQitemZ150296127583QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item150296127583&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A3|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A100
I should be able to simply connect the power and ground wires from this controller unit to a 12V DC adapter correct?
I like that controller man! Yes you should be able to do that. Post some pixels when ya done. Great ideas.
 

Sellasie I

Active Member
I like that controller man! Yes you should be able to do that. Post some pixels when ya done. Great ideas.
Yeah I was thinking that controller would be pretty cool lol. It even tells you the temp of 4 different areas inside your cabinet (uses 4 probes). I wanna make a lil rectangle panel with it and the four 80 cfm fans for an intake, I'm gonna mount the panel on the side of the cab. That way even when the lights are off I should still be able to keep an eye on the temps inside the cabinent's different sections ;) I dont know why the thing has slots for various media cards though :confused:
 

nerfarrow

Active Member
I haven't even started to grow anything yet but I wanted to chime in with what I did for ventilation in my up and coming grow cab.

I bought 6 120mm fans from newegg and a fan controller. I had a PC power supply sitting around that I'm using to power all 6 fans.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835168006 x 6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811995016 x 1


I did it this way so I can easily control the speed (air flow) of the fans individually. This will allow me to regulate the temp in the cab... at least that is the hope.
 

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Eddie McPot

Well-Known Member
I haven't even started to grow anything yet but I wanted to chime in with what I did for ventilation in my up and coming grow cab.

I bought 6 120mm fans from newegg and a fan controller. I had a PC power supply sitting around that I'm using to power all 6 fans.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835168006 x 6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811995016 x 1


I did it this way so I can easily control the speed (air flow) of the fans individually. This will allow me to regulate the temp in the cab... at least that is the hope.
Man! Looks like a professional build, keep us updated brother. +rep
 

justatoker

New Member
I haven't even started to grow anything yet but I wanted to chime in with what I did for ventilation in my up and coming grow cab.

I bought 6 120mm fans from newegg and a fan controller. I had a PC power supply sitting around that I'm using to power all 6 fans.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835168006 x 6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811995016 x 1


I did it this way so I can easily control the speed (air flow) of the fans individually. This will allow me to regulate the temp in the cab... at least that is the hope.

just a lil helpful advcie. make all those holes at the top for exhaust and put your intakes at the bottom.. you wil get much better results. Hot air rises. looks great man.
 

nerfarrow

Active Member
eddie mcpot said:
Man! Looks like a professional build, keep us updated brother. +rep
Thanks Eddie! I picked this thing up off craigslist for $65. Had to do a bit a work to it, reinforce some stuff and add the casters to the bottom (I have wood floors so I wanted it to be easily movable). I'm planning on doing a grow journal soon as I get everything ready and running.

just a lil helpful advcie. make all those holes at the top for exhaust and put your intakes at the bottom.. you wil get much better results. Hot air rises. looks great man.
The top part of the cab will be my flower room and the fans at the top (the two near each other) are exhaust and the bottom two are intake. The bottom part of the cab will be my mother/clone/veg room (if I can get everything to fit). It will be a little crowed in there so I didn't want to put my intake fan near the bottom in case it might get blocked.
 

Sellasie I

Active Member
I haven't even started to grow anything yet but I wanted to chime in with what I did for ventilation in my up and coming grow cab.

I bought 6 120mm fans from newegg and a fan controller. I had a PC power supply sitting around that I'm using to power all 6 fans.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835168006 x 6
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811995016 x 1


I did it this way so I can easily control the speed (air flow) of the fans individually. This will allow me to regulate the temp in the cab... at least that is the hope.
Hey nerfarrow how did you wire your multi fan controller to the computer power supply? Was it plug and play? Did you have to cut any wires? Just trying to see if I should try connecting my multi fan controller to a 12V DC adapter or to a computer power supply like you did. If the multi fan controller simply plugs into to computer power supply thats the route I'll go! The fans plug into my multi fan controller using their factory wire harness - no prob there. I just need to know if the fan controller will simply plug into the computer power supply as well. Thanks and this is the computer power supply that I'm working with:







Which harness should the fan controller plug into?
The wires were also labeled when I pulled them from the cpu unit. Red=+5, it had 2 black wires both labeled ground, and a yellow wire =+12
 

nerfarrow

Active Member
Hey nerfarrow how did you wire your multi fan controller to the computer power supply? Was it plug and play? Did you have to cut any wires? Just trying to see if I should try connecting my multi fan controller to a 12V DC adapter or to a computer power supply like you did. If the multi fan controller simply plugs into to computer power supply thats the route I'll go! The fans plug into my multi fan controller using their factory wire harness - no prob there. I just need to know if the fan controller will simply plug into the computer power supply as well. Thanks and this is the computer power supply that I'm working with:

Which harness should the fan controller plug into?
The wires were also labeled when I pulled them from the cpu unit. Red=+5, it had 2 black wires both labeled ground, and a yellow wire =+12

The fan controller I bought had a 2 prong power connector. My PC power supply had a 2 prong connector already, but by the looks of the one you are wanting to get it appears to have the normal 4 prong connector. Looking at your pics I see a plug that has "P3" on it, that looks like a standard 4 prong connector, so I'd bet that is the one you could use.

To give the power supply power with out it being in a case isn't that hard. Normally your power supply has to be in a case so you can use the power button on the computer. There is a green wire on the big 24 pin (I think it's 24 pins) connector. Use a paper clip/piece of wire to jump the green wire with any of the black wires (grounds). Doing this will make the power supply think the power button is on. Then all you have to do is plug the power supply into a socket, power strip, etc...

I didn't see a power switch on that power supply so if you are planning on doing this I'd suggest you plug it into a power strip that has a switch on it so you can turn the power supply on and off with out having to unplug it every time.
 

Sellasie I

Active Member
Yeah I got everything running to one of those surge protectors (power strip) with the on/off switch. Thats how I normally shut everything down lol. I had never even thought about how I was going to activate the "on"button lol. Good lookin! Yeah you're right too, no switch on the power supply unit. So I need to jump the black wire to the green wire while the unit is unplugged from the power strip correct? Do I need to leave these connected forever or just touch them together briefly?Then simply plug it in and all should be cool?
I cant wait till the postman delivers the fan controller! :-)
Thanks a million for the info!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Eddie McPot

Well-Known Member
Yeah I got everything running to one of those surge protectors (power strip) with the on/off switch. Thats how I normally shut everything down lol. I had never even thought about how I was going to activate the "on"button lol. Good lookin! Yeah you're right too, no switch on the power supply unit. So I need to jump the black wire to the green wire while the unit is unplugged from the power strip correct? Do I need to leave these connected forever or just touch them together briefly?Then simply plug it in and all should be cool?
I cant wait till the postman delivers the fan controller! :-)
Thanks a million for the info!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Simply Jumper Pin 14 ( which is the green wire) to any of the ground pins which are 3,5,7,13,15,16,17 ( all which have a black wire). I use a paperclip to do so, just stick the paperclip into the connector like you would be pluging it into the motherboard. If you don't have a on/off switch on the back of the powersupply you can add a toggle switch between the green and a black.
 

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