Wall Outlet Fan controller

[wrrls0]

Does anyone know of any wall outlet fan controller or just any way to power multiple 120-140mm fans using a wall outlet rather than a power supply/ motherboard ports.

[Stardar1]

1 minute ago, wrrls0 said:

Does anyone know of any wall outlet fan controller or just any way to power multiple 120-140mm fans using a wall outlet rather than a power supply/ motherboard ports.

You'd be better off with a watch battery or a AAA than a 120V wall outlet...

 

EDIT: for a fan, for a fan controller... IDK

[d3sl91]

2 minutes ago, wrrls0 said:

Does anyone know of any wall outlet fan controller or just any way to power multiple 120-140mm fans using a wall outlet rather than a power supply/ motherboard ports.

Well,

 

If you use 120V (or 220) from the wall, you will have to convert to 12V for the fans at some point. Meaning, you can use any standard fan controller you want. 

 

Wall Outlet > 120/220v to 12v AC-DC Adapter > Fan Controller > Fans

[Stardar1]

1 minute ago, Stardar1 said:

You'd be better off with a watch battery or a AAA than a 120V wall outlet...

 

EDIT: for a fan, for a fan controller... IDK

 

2 minutes ago, wrrls0 said:

Does anyone know of any wall outlet fan controller or just any way to power multiple 120-140mm fans using a wall outlet rather than a power supply/ motherboard ports.

OK

 

A Molex powered fan controller:

 

Molex has 4 pins

5V (Red)

Ground

Ground

12V (Yellow)

 

So... you're still better off with batteries, unless you want to use a complicated transformer setup...

 

or, yano, a power supply. 

 

A fan controller is powered from a molex or sata power cable, and a cheap PSU will do the trick.

[Stardar1]

1 minute ago, d3sl91 said:

Well,

 

If you use 120V (or 220) from the wall, you will have to convert to 12V for the fans at some point. Meaning, you can use any standard fan controller you want. 

 

Wall Outlet > 120/220v to 12v AC-DC Adapter > Fan Controller > Fans

A lot of fan controllers use Molex or SATA power cables, so just 12V wouldnt do the trick. 

 

Molex is a 5V and 12V circuit

 

SATA is far more complicated. 

[d3sl91]

3 minutes ago, Stardar1 said:

A lot of fan controllers use Molex or SATA power cables, so just 12V wouldnt do the trick. 

 

Molex is a 5V and 12V circuit

 

SATA is far more complicated. 

But the fans and most controllers run off the 12v portion of molex connector, they do not use the 5v at all. So you could just use a 12v source. 

[wrrls0]

You mentioned using AAA batteries, wouldn't that be extremely dangerous as they are only 1.5V trying to power what is most likely going to be a 12V fan?

[Stardar1]

1 minute ago, wrrls0 said:

You mentioned using AAA batteries, wouldn't that be extremely dangerous as they are only 1.5V trying to power what is most likely going to be a 12V fan?

Well, it wouldn't be dangerous, and I would use more than one. 

 

Either way, a cheap small-form-factor PSU is easier than any of this, as a 120-12 AC/DC adapter won't be cheaper than this http://pcpartpicker.com/product/KwR48d/solid-gear-power-supply-sdgrflex220

 

[d3sl91]

15 minutes ago, wrrls0 said:

You mentioned using AAA batteries, wouldn't that be extremely dangerous as they are only 1.5V trying to power what is most likely going to be a 12V fan?

There are also very cheap 120v to 12V Molex power adapters. Here's one for $15 https://www.amazon.com/Coolerguys-100-240v-Molex-Power-Adapter/dp/B000MGG6SC

 

With this, you can plug directly into the back of a normal fan controller that uses a normal molex connector - no need for splicing. 

 

 

[Phate.exe]

16 minutes ago, wrrls0 said:

You mentioned using AAA batteries, wouldn't that be extremely dangerous as they are only 1.5V trying to power what is most likely going to be a 12V fan?

Not dangerous at all, although AAA's wouldn't be my recommendation.  My fans will run slowly at 6 volts, and my pump is far quieter at my usual 7 volts than it is running at the full 12.  I have a Molex fan controller.

 

AAA's (and pretty much any "normal" battery other than a 9volt) are 1.5 volts.  Wiring the batteries in series adds the voltage together, so 4 AAA's gives you 6 volts, and 5 will give you 7.5, which would power a fan quite well.  You've got the voltage, but you don't have much capacity, as you only have the capacity of one of the batteries in series (if I remember, it's around 900mAh for a AAA).  AA alkaline's are somewhere in the 2200-2500mAh range, so you've got way more capacity in 5 or 6 AA's.  Considering a 120mm case fan typically draws something like 50mA, you'll probably have something like 30-40 hours of runtime on batteries.

 

Really, you're better off just grabbing any old PSU and jumping a couple of pins with a paperclip if you want to power some fans.