I thought we could have a look at what plug'n'play options there are for PC fans.
First some waffle about what they are.
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We often name them by the number of connections they have. 3 pin came first, and later the 4 pin. A 3 pin plug will actually plug into a 4 pin socket, as both have the same power pin locations. To make them run full speed, it's only the power pins (+&-) that need using. You need to pay attention though, as plug it in the wrong place, and the fans fried. https://allpinouts.org/pinouts/connectors/motherboards/motherboard-cpu-3-pin-fan-connector/
These fans are a nice safe 12V DC. Most of us will have a 12vdc power brick doing nothing. Most have a 2.1mm DC jack though.
Unfortunately I have the slowest VPN in existance, so can't even get an ali link up. A 2A 12V 2.1mm PSU is £3.99 delivered (5$)
Ali will sell you a 2.1mm to 4 pin adapter. Then a 3pin or 4pin fan can be plugged to the 12vdc adapter to work the fan.
At 2A, that PSU will run 24w of fans. If that's not enough, a laptop style brick commonly delivers 5A or even 10 if you wish. I have a 2A that's variable voltage, between 3v and 12v, giving fan speed regulation. Which is fine, but really we are using just 2 pins of our fan, and the others are tach and speed regulation, if we had better means of control.
Running more fans from a single PSU means buying a 4pin splitter. Be aware, that the leads of the splitter might only be 30cm long. So the fans can only be 60cm (plus the fans own ~20cm lead) apart. There are extensions available. I use splitters in a row, going fan to fan. I buy a 10 pack and just daisy-chain them.
These fans range from uselessly small, to 14cm typically. Rarely more than 10watt and most are not even 1watt.
A useful aspect of these fans, is the ease in which they can be summed up. You can stack them in a row, for additional shove. If a single fan can shift 40 foot of air, and sucks hard enough to lift water 1mm, them two such fans is still 40 foot, but now 2mm of lift. This is useful if making small carbon filters. You can chop a pringles tube to 50mm and fill it. Perforate the lids. Then stack a few little fans until it works.
For the more able, an old PC will give up a couple of fans and the PSU. You ground the green wire to bring it on. You can skip dive this sort of thing.
Does anyone know of an inline speed regulator for 3 or 4 pin fans? I have a 4pin one but it's output is a ratio of the pwm from the motherboard. I have no motherboard.. but these 10w variants really want to use proper control, not lower voltage. All these fans are EC fans so using them with lower voltage is a compromise you start to feel on larger models.
First some waffle about what they are.
filedata/fetch?filedataid=2026029
We often name them by the number of connections they have. 3 pin came first, and later the 4 pin. A 3 pin plug will actually plug into a 4 pin socket, as both have the same power pin locations. To make them run full speed, it's only the power pins (+&-) that need using. You need to pay attention though, as plug it in the wrong place, and the fans fried. https://allpinouts.org/pinouts/connectors/motherboards/motherboard-cpu-3-pin-fan-connector/
These fans are a nice safe 12V DC. Most of us will have a 12vdc power brick doing nothing. Most have a 2.1mm DC jack though.
Unfortunately I have the slowest VPN in existance, so can't even get an ali link up. A 2A 12V 2.1mm PSU is £3.99 delivered (5$)
Ali will sell you a 2.1mm to 4 pin adapter. Then a 3pin or 4pin fan can be plugged to the 12vdc adapter to work the fan.
At 2A, that PSU will run 24w of fans. If that's not enough, a laptop style brick commonly delivers 5A or even 10 if you wish. I have a 2A that's variable voltage, between 3v and 12v, giving fan speed regulation. Which is fine, but really we are using just 2 pins of our fan, and the others are tach and speed regulation, if we had better means of control.
Running more fans from a single PSU means buying a 4pin splitter. Be aware, that the leads of the splitter might only be 30cm long. So the fans can only be 60cm (plus the fans own ~20cm lead) apart. There are extensions available. I use splitters in a row, going fan to fan. I buy a 10 pack and just daisy-chain them.
These fans range from uselessly small, to 14cm typically. Rarely more than 10watt and most are not even 1watt.
A useful aspect of these fans, is the ease in which they can be summed up. You can stack them in a row, for additional shove. If a single fan can shift 40 foot of air, and sucks hard enough to lift water 1mm, them two such fans is still 40 foot, but now 2mm of lift. This is useful if making small carbon filters. You can chop a pringles tube to 50mm and fill it. Perforate the lids. Then stack a few little fans until it works.
For the more able, an old PC will give up a couple of fans and the PSU. You ground the green wire to bring it on. You can skip dive this sort of thing.
Does anyone know of an inline speed regulator for 3 or 4 pin fans? I have a 4pin one but it's output is a ratio of the pwm from the motherboard. I have no motherboard.. but these 10w variants really want to use proper control, not lower voltage. All these fans are EC fans so using them with lower voltage is a compromise you start to feel on larger models.
