How-To: Make Homemade Fan Controllers

[MacJunky]

You can basically make your own "manual fan voltage adjustment device" using a rotary switch and some diodes scavenged from various old electronics. If this thing's wires had not been ripped off in the sea of random parts that is one of my desks and if I had another set of diodes on it, this would be suitable for controlling two fans. It is just a 2 pole 6 position rotary switch with diodes recovered from an old non-functional car tape deck. It originally had wires and connectors recovered from an old failed VCR but I seem to have lost those for the moment.

With the current diode configuration of the pictured switch you have 5 speed settings and an off setting. Very cheap to setup.

I have been meaning to get it a knob and mount it in my case for some years now(that is why it was in the sea of parts and lost it's wires and connectors) but I just never got around to it and my computer's fans are just not loud enough to require it.

For those that must ask adding LEDs to this sort of setup is not hard at all.

[arekieh]

The main part of the guide is centered around Molex Fans, which cannot be controlled by programs like speedfan.
Although i can add that into the guide as well.
thanks

EDIT* Can you expand a bit on what you mean, not very electronic savvy.

EDIT2* Anyone intersted in buying fans, i think ill make an FS thread pretty soon, i have a box of about 20 sitting in my room. And the only one i use that didnt come with my case is a 40mm on my northbridge

[arekieh]

Sorry for the double post, just testing my signature :D

[zlojack]

ariekeh, where do you get the cable?

I've looked at crappy tire and bust buy, but no luck.

I need to do some wire work on my fans.

[yamawho]

You can use a pot to control the speed.
If you want to get fancy add a capacitor and a transistor.
I used to do this when I was building model train speed controllers.

I know this is OT but has anyone come across a guide to link two power supplies together ?
Might be a solution to use two 500 watt psu's instead of a 1000 watt unit ...

[arekieh]

Originally Posted by yamawho

You can use a pot to control the speed.
If you want to get fancy add a capacitor and a transistor.
I used to do this when I was building model train speed controllers.

I know this is OT but has anyone come across a guide to link two power supplies together ?
Might be a solution to use two 500 watt psu's instead of a 1000 watt unit ...

Ooo good idea that would be awesome, can you explain your capacitor and transistor thing?

Originally Posted by zlojack

ariekeh, where do you get the cable?

I've looked at crappy tire and bust buy, but no luck.

I need to do some wire work on my fans.

I got most of the cables from odds and ends, and some of them came with fans i already had. or i switched around the cables of the actual fan

[slntdth93]

Originally Posted by yamawho

I know this is OT but has anyone come across a guide to link two power supplies together ?
Might be a solution to use two 500 watt psu's instead of a 1000 watt unit ...

its not in stock at ncix Dual PSU 24-Pin Adapter Cable Products Model: ULT40011 [DualPSUAdapter] : Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come
only place i could find it easily

[yamawho]

I'll need to dig through my notes and post back, may take a few days ...

[MacJunky]

Originally Posted by yamawho

I know this is OT but has anyone come across a guide to link two power supplies together ?
Might be a solution to use two 500 watt psu's instead of a 1000 watt unit ...

It is possible with the right hardware, I know I had a bookmark on another computer but the partition is in a format that this OS cannot access. I will try to find the page again.

*Edit
I am no electrical engineer but this one looked promising:
Sharing the Load between PSU's in a system By: Yo-Duh_87
Sharing the Load between PSU's in a system By: Yo-Duh_87 (page 2, Going further)

[yamawho]

OK found it

We need 1000 MF capacitor,voltage regulator and 1K pot.
I'm sure a 5K pot would work and for the other parts just get something that can handle the voltage like 0 - 16v. Then you need to look up how the B, C, E are configured on the particular component you are using. Like on the voltage reg TIP 29C they are in the order shown. you may need to look it up and confirm the position.

Set up using a battery or something before you wire into the computer psu and test using a voltage meter or a fan.