TR Forums

Playing with a smoking room vent fan idea. How can I get a PSU to power fans without hooking up to a board?

I know some of you gerbils have an easy fix.

Connect the green wire on the 24 pin ATX connector to any of the black ground wires.

http://www.mbeckler.org/powersupply/

The main thing to be sure of is that you always have some sort of load.

Another possibility would be to use a wall-wart or similar PSU. They're silent, reliable, compact, etc. Just find one that puts out 12VDC (or slightly lower if you want to run fans at a slightly lower voltage, flow, and noise level) and can supply enough amps. I keep all of mine around if whatever they belong to dies so I can scrounge them up at times like this.

mattsteg wrote:

http://www.mbeckler.org/powersupply/

The main thing to be sure of is that you always have some sort of load.

Would 4-6 case fans be enough load?

Looking for Knowledge wrote:

mattsteg wrote:

http://www.mbeckler.org/powersupply/

The main thing to be sure of is that you always have some sort of load.

Would 4-6 case fans be enough load?

Yup. Just make sure they're always connected. If you try to e.g. turn on the psu and then hook up the fans it won't work.

I'm using a wall-wart power supply in my living room to power some mood-lighting. It is nice because it has a switch to adjust the voltage which allows varying brightness on the lights. I would think the same concept would work well for a 12v fan system. You could turn the fans up and down as needed.

I think the unit was like $10 at walmart. It is very similar to THIS.