PC fan conversion

i know there are many tutorials for this but i cant figure out how to rewire a pc fan. my pc has 3 wires(red, black, and white) with the 12volt adapter only having two wires, both black, except one has marking or print on it. How do i wire these?!

the one with the markings is probably the positive, hook it to the red wire, the black to the black and leave the white wire off as itll just be for fan speed.
if it doesnt work like this then swap the 2 wires around.

No worries guy, you can't fuk it up and get zapped or anything. Just try a different wire if that doesn't work.It's idiot proof ( i know well)

I don't want to rain on your parade, lord knows I get set on building some weird shit myself, but a pc fan is too weak and more expensive than a cheap fan from walmart. Personally, I would abandon this project, however if you dont I wish you luck.

I agree w/ Plasma however if you're strapped for cash by all means but ebay Muffin Fans there slightly larger and more powerful yet not expensive

I too was thinking about computer fans and i still think im going to go with that idea. I blew one of my fans out trying to wire it last night. I need a couple of them to cool down this stealthy grow box i have constrcted, and if these case fans work on a computer well, i beileve they shold work just well on this box of mine.

The thing about the PC fans is that their quiet as fuck...

I actually got a few of these today. they're rated 74 cfm. I wired them up and tested them and they were pretty powerful when used in combination.

I'm gonna run 2 in 3 out, and through a homemade carbon scrubber.

i can't seem to figure out how to wire them up? i was using smaller type of power cord, thats what blew the fan up. what has to be used to plug it into an outlet?

blacky656 said:

The thing about the PC fans is that their quiet as fuck...

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--yepppp you know it. I want to run 2 out and two in, flowing threw the box.

here's a quick tutorial. I just did it real quick since I was doing this last night anyways.

hope this helps out.

Once you've done that, get any 12v (output) adapter. DO NOT plug the fans into a socket or they WILL be permanently damaged. They are meant to be supplied with low-voltage DC (12v DC), not 110 AC.

Also notice the wires: Black to Black, Red to White. Don't forget to wrap electrical tape around the exposed wire.

I tried to take a picture of the fan working to show that it works fine, but every picture looked like it was standing still. All in all, takes about 3-5 minutes.

You can hook up a few fans together in this same manner. I'm no electrician, so I'm not sure exactly what number is safe to do. I'm doing two on one adapter and 3 on another.

thank you man,
i wanted to use them for my grow but i didn't figure out how to wire them.
i tried to plug them to a 9 volt and a 12 volt battery thought but i figured out it would run out of power

yeah a 9v will def not keep them running for very long.

here are some pictures of how i've used the fans in a small cab. the top 2 are to extract and the bottom 2 are intake. I'm going to add a 3rd extractor for a carbon scrubber later.

the back is pretty messy, but i just wanted to have the wire taped down so i wouldn't accidentally rip it out. All the exposed wire was taped before though.

I have also done four fans, but I placed two extraction fans on the top of the box and one on the left bottom side and one on the right bottom side intaking air.

You can do this as well and is what i plan to do next so i can get my plants a bit closer to the 400watt hps.
Slightly different setup to what you guys are doing but if you did this on a 150-250watt hps it will help in confined spaces

AKASA 120mm Amber series 3pin Ultra quiet case fan

I was thinking about connecting a dimmer switch to the fan so I can fiddle around with speed, incase my figures are slightly off. That way I won't have to buy another fan if my calculations are missing something.

Right now I know I need at least a fan capable of shifting 24cfm. But I'd like to buy one that can do a little more in case it has to compensate for things I haven't considered.

Later I'd like to connect all my equipment to an old laptop running some simple code that'll regulate the growroom environment. But that's overkill I think, for now. If I can figure out how to do the dimmer switch thing, I'd just need to keep figures on paper for at most 3 days to figure out the perfect speeds for my fans to keep temp and humidity where I want it.

So, anyone know where I can get a suitable dimmer, in the UK?

I thought Mapline would have something, but no luck.

Hey everyone... Does any one know how to wire a 4 wire pc fan to a 2 wire adapter?? The pc fan wires are black, red, yellow, and blue... The adaptor wires are black and black with white writing... Please help

christony420 said:

Hey everyone... Does any one know how to wire a 4 wire pc fan to a 2 wire adapter?? The pc fan wires are black, red, yellow, and blue... The adaptor wires are black and black with white writing... Please help

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Chris: Not sure if it's any help now, but there is two links to answer your question any more then... I don't think it's possible. Not in 2 wire.

link 1 (what is 4 wire fan):
http://www.electronicspoint.com/4-wire-speed-control-computer-fans-t153207.html

link 2 (how it works, or why it won't):
http://www.jmcproducts.com/products/pwm_fans/pwm_faq.shtml

Sorry for bumping a fairly dead thread, but figure information may be handy to others.