Tell me more ×
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

I'm all new to electronics and I was wondering whether or not this work.

That one, as you can see it has a black + red cable, can I connect it to this Brushless DC Cooling Blower Fan 12V 50mm x 40 mmx10mm 4010 2 pin Wire?

And as you see in the 2nd picture, it has a white thing on the cables, can I cut that off and connect all the cables together and then, would the fan start working?

share|improve this question
1  
That 'white thing' it's a connector – m.Alin Apr 8 '12 at 16:34

3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

The battery holder is for 4 AA cells, which are 1.5V for alkaline, or 1.2V for NiMH. That's either 6V or 4.8V in total. The fan is a 12V. It may work at the lower voltage, though it won't blow very hard. AndrejaKo suggests to use a second set of 4 AAs to get to 12V, but you better get a 12V DC wall wart. Make sure it's DC! The 100mA the fan uses will drain your batteries in a day.
The white dingus is a connector, which you would use with a mating part, which you probably don't have. So you can cut it off, and solder the wires directly together.

share|improve this answer
Could you link me to something with a 12V DC Power adapter? When I search for it on eBay all I see are wall adapters (like those that convert EU->US adapters), how does that work? – Peter Apr 8 '12 at 16:42
1  
@Peter - Sorry, that's what we call them here, you'll find them as "wall wart", like this one. Look for 12V DC. Current > 100mA is probably not an issue, most have at least 500mA. – stevenvh Apr 8 '12 at 16:47
How would I connect that thing into the fan? Thanks. – Peter Apr 8 '12 at 16:56
1  
@Peter - it has a connector, though a different type than the fan. You could cut both connectors and solder the wires together, or find a DC power socket for the wall wart. – stevenvh Apr 8 '12 at 17:00
up vote 0 down vote

The answer is maybe.

Usually the 4*AA holders are used to create batteries by serially connecting the 1.5 V (nominal) cells into a 6 V battery. The voltage drops with use and can go as low as 3.2 V in some cases when the battery is nearly depleted.

On the other hand the fan in its specifications has the 12 V input voltage and maximum current of 100 mA. It's more or less usual laptop fan and it may or may not start working at 6 V. Basically such fans need some voltage to start operating and then can work on lower voltage. The 6 V provided by the holder populated with fresh AA cells is on the lower border of the start voltage. If the cells aren't fresh, the fan probably won't start.

The solution to this problem is to get two such AA cell holders (or one for 8 AA cells). This would give you nominal voltage of 12 V at the fan and it should work fine.

About the connections part: Take two holders, connect red wire of one holder to black wire of the second holder. This will give you a 12 V battery and you'll have one red and one black wire free. Connect the black wire of the newly created battery to the black wire of the fan and the red wire of the newly created battery to the red wire of the fan. You may want to put a switch on the connection between the two red wires or on the connection between the two black wires so you can more easily turn the fan on and off. In addition to that, the lowest voltage you can expect from the battery now is around 6.4 V with no load. This should be enough to be sure that the fan will work until the cells are completely depleted.

And yes, you can safely cut the white connector from the fan, it's just there so you can plug the fan into a device which has the matching receptacle. If you don't have the receptacle, you don't need the connector.

share|improve this answer
I was just wondering whether or not the principal work, there are several holders for 12V on the bay aswell. Would black go to black and red to red? I mean, does + go to + or + to - ? – Peter Apr 8 '12 at 16:31
@Peter Refresh the page to see the newest version of the answer. If something still isn't clear, feel free to ask. – AndrejaKo Apr 8 '12 at 16:33
Thank you so much Andreja. Now I know something more. And as for the switch, can I just purchase a switch of eBay like ebay.com/itm/… and connect it? How do I do it? And can I also use a voltage LCD or something, and between what cables would that be? Sorry if I'm annoying. – Peter Apr 8 '12 at 16:39
This is the voltmeter I mean ebay.com/itm/… as you can see it has three cables, white, black, red. – Peter Apr 8 '12 at 16:44
@Peter Take a look at the description of the items. The linked item is a momentary pushbutton and not a switch. The difference is that when you press the switch, it holds its state until you press it again. On the other hand, the pushbutton will automatically return to its starting state as soon as the pressure is removed. Also I don't see what the initial state of the pushbutton is from the linked page. There are in general two states: normally open which closes the connection between pins when pressed and normally closed which opens the connection between the pins when presses. – AndrejaKo Apr 8 '12 at 16:52
show 7 more comments
up vote 0 down vote

Convention rules here Red is + so series connect two 6V compartments then 12V fan runs Red to Red and Black to Black.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.