# Electrical help? (With pictures!)



## Oaklandish (Aug 21, 2007)

Hi all.. Figured this would be the best place to answer my questions and help me out a bit..

I'm in the process of building a grow box.. It won't be anything big and fancy, but it will be filled with little gadgets.. As far as lighting goes, I am thinking about using a 2 foot T5 floro, either 2 bulb or 4.. Maybe even 8, I am still not fully decided on what I want to do.. Anyways.. I don't have a whole lot of money laying around at one time, so I am slowly buying parts that I will need to make things work smoothly. Right now I am working on the ventilation aspect of it...

I bought a fan controller (4x 120mm 12v fans), hooked it up to the 450 watt jumped computer power supply, worked like a charm.. One catch, the power supply fan is LOUD.. I looked around online for smaller, "silent" or "quiet" power supplies, I'd like to keep this project as stealth as possible, but I don't really feel like spending the money on one because I already have one. I went ahead and opened up the power supply to investigate.. I've seen power supplies use a 2 or 3 pin connection before for their fans.. So I was curious as to if this was a similar scenario, and I would just be able to plug another one in.. Turns out it's hardwired in.. I know I can splice a new, quieter fan in there, but my question is, how safe is this? I would definitely secure the new connections so that they are not exposed.. I am looking to avoid any possibilities of something going wrong (ie fire). The fan in there now is a 12 volt dc, standard, just like the rest of my fans.. I'm pretty sure I can just splice the positive and negative to the new fan and close it back up and be on my merry way.. Anyways, I'd like some input and ideas..


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## Oaklandish (Aug 21, 2007)

Not exactly the information I was looking for as I already have all of the hardware for my configuration, the wiring I am questioning is the fan within the power supply.. But thank you..


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## jash (Aug 21, 2007)

good luck with your set up


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## Growdude (Aug 21, 2007)

Oaklandish said:
			
		

> Not exactly the information I was looking for as I already have all of the hardware for my configuration, the wiring I am questioning is the fan within the power supply.. But thank you..


 
Why not use a plug in transformer pack, no need to use a computer power supply.


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## Oaklandish (Aug 21, 2007)

The way the fan controller gets power is through a molex connection, otherwise I would use a plug.. Now, if theres any way I can get a plug with a molex, I would take that into consideration.. I'm just trying to be creative with my setup


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## Growdude (Aug 21, 2007)

Oaklandish said:
			
		

> The way the fan controller gets power is through a molex connection, otherwise I would use a plug.. Now, if theres any way I can get a plug with a molex, I would take that into consideration.. I'm just trying to be creative with my setup


 
Well either way you can slice in your cooling fan for your power supply for your fans just the way you described in your first post.

Or just splice in your fans to the power pack.

Either will work.

If you use a power pack just make sure it has enough wattage for the fans.
Not sure how many fans you are hooking up but a computer power supply is way more than needed, you can run a 400 HPS on the same power most power supplies will draw.


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## Oaklandish (Aug 21, 2007)

I guess my next question is.. How much do the ampere's matter? Most all computer fans are rated at 12 volts.. The fan that's in there right now has 0.14 amps, a spare one that I'm looking at next to me is rated at 0.32 amps.. When should I be worried?


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## Growdude (Aug 21, 2007)

Oaklandish said:
			
		

> I guess my next question is.. How much do the ampere's matter? Most all computer fans are rated at 12 volts.. The fan that's in there right now has 0.14 amps, a spare one that I'm looking at next to me is rated at 0.32 amps.. When should I be worried?


 
Probably be ok, that fan is running off the output of the P.S.


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## Mutt (Aug 21, 2007)

I still don't get why you are doing it this way. I understand creativity, but you can easily put them on a 12V wall wart. Radio shack has em for 10 bucks and can handle up to 1amp. you can hook a lot of fans up in parrallel that way. and only use minimal juice. unlike using the power supply.

As far as quieter, you can get CPU cooling fans cheap pushing 30+ CFM's. All I do is put weather stripping between the fan and where it is attached. Can't even hear it unless your head is in the box. Save a lot of $$$ that way instead of buying power supplies. You can get a 4-pack of em from radio shack for like 15 bucks. 

Also the power supply will generate heat even without the load. The output to the fan is 12VDC period. So you are wasting power....to a grower our elec. bills are precious.

The T5's the amount would be dictated by your grow size. These are going to spin the meter being on 24/0....so anyway to curb your elec. usage do it. IMO.

Not sure what your trying to accomplish this way....but I would ditch the power supply and just use a wall-wart. You can put a potentiometer inline and maybe control the fan speed....haven't tried that...didn't see a need I want the fan runnin full tilt.

As far as the molex connectors, just go to radio shack and use them for your wiring from fan to AC-DC convert. or do like the rest of us and use wire nuts...up to you. It has no bearing on the power supply...it's just a connector nothing special. Radio Shack sells them with the connecting pins ready to plugnplay. 

Good luck and Good growing dude.


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## Oaklandish (Aug 22, 2007)

Wowww!! Tonight a friend told me to come by his place because he has a bunch of grow equipment he doesn't want because he doesn't use it anymore... And that I can take it for free... FULL SETUPS!! 250watt hps - 1kw! This is huuuuge luck!! I'm gonna stop by in the next couple days.


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## louis (Aug 23, 2007)

Mind introducing me?


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## Oaklandish (Aug 23, 2007)

Update: I swung by and took a peek, definately a legit offer, there was boxes and boxes of grow equip available for me.. Unfortunately I don't have room for operations that big in my house right now, so I want to continue my semi-stealth project.. I went out and bought the 12v wall adapter as suggested, now I am a little confused as to how to get this to work.. The molex is 4 connections, red, black, black, yellow.. I read up on them a little bit, red being 5v, the black's being grounds, and the yellow being 12v.. I'm going to assume I use the yellow as one of the connections, so do I just use one of the black's as the second? I get nervous about splicing things that are going to be plugged directly into the wall in the future..


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## Growdude (Aug 23, 2007)

Oaklandish said:
			
		

> Update: I swung by and took a peek, definately a legit offer, there was boxes and boxes of grow equip available for me.. Unfortunately I don't have room for operations that big in my house right now, so I want to continue my semi-stealth project.. I went out and bought the 12v wall adapter as suggested, now I am a little confused as to how to get this to work.. The molex is 4 connections, red, black, black, yellow.. I read up on them a little bit, red being 5v, the black's being grounds, and the yellow being 12v.. I'm going to assume I use the yellow as one of the connections, so do I just use one of the black's as the second? I get nervous about splicing things that are going to be plugged directly into the wall in the future..


 
yes yellow and black, how many amp is the wall pack?


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## Oaklandish (Aug 23, 2007)

1000mA...

I just tried it, and it did not work.. =[

Adapter I am using

Controller I am using


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## Oaklandish (Aug 24, 2007)

Turns out you can buy anything on ebay... YES!


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## Oaklandish (Sep 7, 2007)

Okay.. Update..

Picked up this yesterday 

along with some reflective tape. Next is to go check out what kind of lights I can get at the hydro store so I can make a box accordingly... Ventilation is prewired to make sure it runs, I will be getting a small carbon scrubber in the near future along with some mylar.


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