Can i make a standard 120mm fan into usb?

llmercll

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 17, 2010
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I'd like to take a 120mm case fan and a usb cable and combine them somehow, into a usb 120mm fan for my laptop. it would be a fan with a molex connector or the smaller 3 pin connector.

Is it as simple as connecting the red and black wires from the usb cable and the fan and wrapping it in electric tape?

thank you!
 
use the ground and 12v wires from the usb cable and make sure the other ground and 5v are capped properly

also your USB port probably only supplies .5A of power, most fans need around .01A(unless I really fuked up my math)
 
ive used these to repair my monitor that overheated by pulling out the fans and placing them inside my monitor housing. you can probably cannibalize the usb port and snip the wire if you wanted, and solder it to the wires from your fan. for $2.75 shipped it'll save you work, buying a resistor(maybe, not sure what voltage the cooler is), and look better than some weird makeshift job. not to mention less risk of making some sort of bad connection and having it break or start a fire. :D
 
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I'd like to take a 120mm case fan and a usb cable and combine them somehow, into a usb 120mm fan for my laptop. it would be a fan with a molex connector or the smaller 3 pin connector.

Is it as simple as connecting the red and black wires from the usb cable and the fan and wrapping it in electric tape?

thank you!

Yes, but you'll need a fan capable of decent airflow at 5v, which is all the USB port provides. I've done this with a 5m (16ft) usb cable.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/get_your_hack_on
 
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