Need help on wiring 4 axiel pc fans plz!!!!

[UBER21]

Hey guys need a little assistance trying to wire 4 pc fans on one 12v adapter.......My question is what amperage would be safe to run these fans??? 3 fans are rated 12v 16A each for a total 480MA and the last one is rated at .25A at 12v...totalling up to be 730MA am I safe to buy an adapter rated for 800MA withought the fans burning out on me ? or is less amperage preffered? I dont want to cause a fire with a burnout caused by overload....Thanks Uber

 

[Anghellic]

16A on 3 fans? I take it you meant 160 mA. Totaling 730 on a 800 mA adapter. I believe if you wire it in parallel you should be just fine.

 

[UBER21]

Yes Anghelic thats exactly what I meant...lol......730MA on a 800MA adapter......

 

[Guest]

if you can find one a PC power supply is the best bet. You can splice your four fans into that with no worries.

 

[UBER21]

if you can find one a PC power supply is the best bet. You can splice your four fans into that with no worries.

Thanx baja sauce but since space is a factor the power supply is out of the case......I hooked up the 4 fans to a adapter that i bought at radioshack.......which is 12v and 800Ma.....The fans are running but they seem to be lacking in power? any ideas why? I spliced the wires and put red with red black with black and then wired them to the adapter......which had no color coated wires at all it had an outer coating that was white with 2 separate wires coming from the one adapter?

 

[Guest]

I tried using an old cell phone charger, same thing your using i assume. When i hooked up two fans it slowed way down. I would suggest one adapter per fan which would be more impractical then a PC power supply. The power supply is the size of a brick and should be easy to work around.

Try running one fan off the adapter and see what happens.

 

[SoEx]

Thanx baja sauce but since space is a factor the power supply is out of the case......I hooked up the 4 fans to a adapter that i bought at radioshack.......which is 12v and 800Ma.....The fans are running but they seem to be lacking in power? any ideas why? I spliced the wires and put red with red black with black and then wired them to the adapter......which had no color coated wires at all it had an outer coating that was white with 2 separate wires coming from the one adapter?

I think you may have a misunderstanding about voltage and amperage, perhaps?

You have four fans rated at 12 VDC, correct?

What is the amperage for each of the fans? .## amps or ### milliamps. Note, the amperage is not dependent upon the voltage.

Add each of the amperages up to see what you'd need to supply. Example:

2 fans at 250 mA (milliamps) or .25 A (amps).
2 fans at 173 mA (milliamps) or .173 A (amps).

== 846 mA. If you had a supply that put out 12VDC @ 1A you'd probably be good. Those wall wart AC adapters can run hot as is, and they'll often put out something like 14.4 V under low load, thus slightly overvolting your fans as well.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there since I couldn't follow what you were sayin'.

 

[UBER21]

I tried using an old cell phone charger, same thing your using i assume. When i hooked up two fans it slowed way down. I would suggest one adapter per fan which would be more impractical then a PC power supply. The power supply is the size of a brick and should be easy to work around.

Try running one fan off the adapter and see what happens.

I will try that.......to see what happens......

 

[UBER21]

I think you may have a misunderstanding about voltage and amperage, perhaps?

You have four fans rated at 12 VDC, correct?

What is the amperage for each of the fans? .## amps or ### milliamps. Note, the amperage is not dependent upon the voltage.

Add each of the amperages up to see what you'd need to supply. Example:

2 fans at 250 mA (milliamps) or .25 A (amps).
2 fans at 173 mA (milliamps) or .173 A (amps).

== 846 mA. If you had a supply that put out 12VDC @ 1A you'd probably be good. Those wall wart AC adapters can run hot as is, and they'll often put out something like 14.4 V under low load, thus slightly overvolting your fans as well.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there since I couldn't follow what you were sayin'.

Maybe I did lose you in what I was trying to say......Here goes.....the adapter I bought at radio shack is 12v and reads 800ma......Now my fans all 4 of them add up to 730ma....... 16a,16a,16a and 25a = 730ma.....

What im trying to find out is how much higher do I need to go as far as milliamps? withought burning my house down......I saw other adapters rated 12v with 1000ma and some in the 1200ma and 1500ma.......The power supply will take up valuble space in the case thats why opted to wire them to an adapter.........

 

[GrowMan]

very likely your fans are running at 1.6 amps... certainly not 16 amps and most definitely not 160ma... some axial fans spin at some amazing speeds which wouldn't be possible at less than an amp (taking their size/resistance into account of course )

 

[UBER21]

very likely your fans are running at 1.6 amps... certainly not 16 amps and most definitely not 160ma... some axial fans spin at some amazing speeds which wouldn't be possible at less than an amp (taking their size/resistance into account of course )

I have 3 of these fans on the case hope u can see them........

and the fan reads like this 12v .16a

 

[Me2]

I`d hook them up to a car battery with a multimeter in series to measure the actual current draw. The battery will give you plenty of current headroom for the test.

 

[Dr Dog]

Maybe I did lose you in what I was trying to say......Here goes.....the adapter I bought at radio shack is 12v and reads 800ma......Now my fans all 4 of them add up to 730ma....... 16a,16a,16a and 25a = 730ma.....

What im trying to find out is how much higher do I need to go as far as milliamps? withought burning my house down......I saw other adapters rated 12v with 1000ma and some in the 1200ma and 1500ma.......The power supply will take up valuble space in the case thats why opted to wire them to an adapter.........

I am looking right at a few pc fans right now, it says nothing about mA. They say 1.6 a, which is a hell of a lot bigger than a mA with the m meaning mili

So you would need an 8 amp power supply to run those fans. that is what you should look for at radio shack

 

[UBER21]

Hey Dr.Dog thanx for stopping by brother........U said u are looking at some pc fans right? unless im going blind my fans read just like this........dc12v 0.16a all 3fans read this......and one fan which i bought seperate reads dc12v 0.25a......and the adapter from radio shack reads like this.....ac adapter for answering machines with a switch to adjust it goes from 9v,10.2v,12v and 13v......I have it switched to 12v and it also says on the back 800mA? is this right? Wait a sec now I think im getting what u mean......The fans are rated at a higher amperage than what my adapter is for......the adapter says 800mA and the fans have 0.16a not mA? So what should I look for when I go to radio shack....all the adapters I saw were in the mA range I didnt see anything with just the A?