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Wiring PWM fans to 2 wires

GarytheGeek
By GarytheGeek
in Cooling
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long story short, i want to cool something off using 2 140mm PWM fans that i have lying around. i have a 12v power source that i will be using to power the fans. the fan speed will be controlled by a potentiometer. 

my question is; which wire on the PWM plug to i connect to positive wire, and which one to negative? and can i leave the other 2 wires disconnected? or will i need to do something funky for this to work?

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Posted
1 hour ago, GarytheGeek said:

long story short, i want to cool something off using 2 140mm PWM fans that i have lying around. i have a 12v power source that i will be using to power the fans. the fan speed will be controlled by a potentiometer. 

my question is; which wire on the PWM plug to i connect to positive wire, and which one to negative? and can i leave the other 2 wires disconnected? or will i need to do something funky for this to work?

image.png.ccdfb11f8eecb1f08d35eb377c9103dd.png

 

Not that I'm really savvy about the technicality of what you're trying to do, but if I can power up my PWM fan directly by molex using a 4pin to Molex adapter, I don't see why you can't leave the Tach & PWM cable unused.

 

edit :

Mind you, the lowest voltage is IIRC around 5-6v, lower than that the fan likely won't spin.

See @tkitch reply directly below.

 

The adapter :

image.png.e22f92cfc99e818da3473537c2eace2e.png


 

There is approximately 99% chance I edited my post

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1 hour ago, Poinkachu said:

edit :

Mind you, the lowest voltage is IIRC around 5-6v, lower than that the fan likely won't spin.

a lot of fans won't start up at 5V even.  6V is also questionable for a lot of em.

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9 hours ago, tkitch said:

a lot of fans won't start up at 5V even.  6V is also questionable for a lot of em.

Agreed. While I do have some that will start at 5, 6 or 7, many start a bit higher. That said, once it's started, some can be ramped down to a lower voltage, while others pretty much hate going lower than the starting voltage.

I've been using computers since around 1978, started learning programming in 1980 on Apple IIs, started learning about hardware in 1990, ran a BBS from 1990-95, built my first Windows PC around 2000, taught myself malware removal starting in 2005 (also learned on Bleeping Computer), learned web dev starting in 2017, and I think I can fill a thimble with all that knowledge. 😉 I'm not an expert, which is why I keep investigating the answers that others give to try and improve my knowledge, so feel free to double-check the advice I give.

My phone's auto-correct is named Otto Rong.🤪😂

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Posted

the pwm and tac dont need to hook up. just the power and ground to the pot

posable some fans might not sping with out a pwm maybe might work by grounding it?🤷‍♂️

I have dyslexia plz be kind to me. dont like my post dont read it or respond thx

also i edit post alot because you no why...

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Not sure what wire my splitters use. But one is pwm 4 pin and the others are 3 pin (but full size 4 pin) best bet would to just look at a pwm splitter and see which wire isn't hooked up for the slave fans since pwm on splitters only need to be calculated off one fan not all of them 

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14 minutes ago, Linkinworm said:

Not sure what wire my splitters use. But one is pwm 4 pin and the others are 3 pin (but full size 4 pin) best bet would to just look at a pwm splitter and see which wire isn't hooked up for the slave fans since pwm on splitters only need to be calculated off one fan not all of them 

The tach (3rd) pin.

I've been using computers since around 1978, started learning programming in 1980 on Apple IIs, started learning about hardware in 1990, ran a BBS from 1990-95, built my first Windows PC around 2000, taught myself malware removal starting in 2005 (also learned on Bleeping Computer), learned web dev starting in 2017, and I think I can fill a thimble with all that knowledge. 😉 I'm not an expert, which is why I keep investigating the answers that others give to try and improve my knowledge, so feel free to double-check the advice I give.

My phone's auto-correct is named Otto Rong.🤪😂

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