Couldn't wait

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they/them edited
Couldn't wait

Edit: the chassi fan came with an ASUS chassi that now houses Noctua fans. It was just gathering dust. No fan-pun intended. The micro USB cable belonged to my USB chargeable bicycle lights that were stolen. Also covering dust.

I almost bought one of these but then I thought what the heck and made it myself. Now I’ll be able to cool my poor old laptop (Lenovo T480) when it plays 4K videos.

Though, the Micro USB cable only has + - nodes/ends while the fan cable has three. Wonder what the third one - which incidentally didn’t make the fan spin - is for. 🫣

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they/them

I think the other wire is for PWM speed control? anyhoos, nice work!

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they/them OP

Or RPM feedback: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachometer

Anyway, thanks!!! 🥰 It seems to be working! We’ll see when I wake up tomorrow and the rubber housing and/or the insulation tape has melted 🤣

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I’ve done this for years.

There are 2 types of fans, 5V and 12V. Since USB is just 5V, it makes 12V case fans spin slower - which has been fine for my use-case.

I have one 12V case fan that’s been running constantly at 5v for 4 years now (cooling 2 external drives). Not ideal, but it was free and immediate.

I’ve also done this to help keep a laptop cooler when it’s converting video. Laptop is resting on short blocks so fan can help move hot air away, and also move air across top of keyboard. Keyboard is 10F cooler than without the fan.

If you can, swap out the tape for some heat-shrink tubing. It’s cheap and does a much better job.

I put shrink on both wires, then a larger diameter one on both that’s much longer than the shrink on the wires. This makes for a strong joint.

Another trick is to cut the wires to different lengths so the joints are offset. This reduces having a single large bulge in the wire.

Welcome to the world of jerry-rigging!

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they/them OP

Thanks! Great idea! I just checked my “home depot” and they have both the heat-shrink tubings and those heat guns. I’ll grab ‘em next week. 😊

Another project I posted in another community a few months ago:
https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/dullsters@dullsters.net/p/827801/upgraded-my-server-rack-turned-shower-rack-with-dust-filters

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they/them

Hah! Oh I hope not that could be dangerous, maybe some wire caps would work better but it should be fine I think. Sure thing sweetie 🥰

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my poor old laptop (Lenovo T480)

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they/them OP edited

Noice 🤣 Now give me one that depicts it being upgraded with 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD and a WiFi 6e NIC. Which I did. 😁

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I just did a similar thing. I got a new battery for my RC crawler but it only had one plug where as the original had two and the plug you charge it from is different than the one that plugs into the truck so I moved the plug from the old battery to the new one.

Later I then moved it into yet another battery because the charging plug here didn’t have a balance lead so it’s not safe to use on the long run.

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