Power supply for fans question

[Heinekenator]

I have a couple of case fans installed in the back panel of my cabinet for monitor cooling. What i'd like to do is run these fans (and probably the light in my Happs translucent trackball) off of a power supply separate from the PC's supply.

I have an old 235W ATX supply that i'd like to use. From what I understand, to get the supply to turn on, I short pin 14 (green) to any of the black ground pins.  I'm not sure I understand how to turn it off though. Is it that once the short is broken, the supply turns off? Or should the short be momentary, and another short across those pins turns it off? And if its the former, is it safe to just solder the two pins together so the supply is always on when it's plugged in?

Also. I wish to have an external switch for the cab to turn on the PC (and everything else, via a smart surge strip). Could I wire both power supplies to the same switch, and what kind of switch do I need?

Thanks in advance.

[Chris]

I have an old 235W ATX supply that i'd like to use. From what I understand, to get the supply to turn on, I short pin 14 (green) to any of the black ground pins.

[cholin]

Well I would say use an adapter too.  Look around on the net for power supply mods though because those people always seem to know whats going on.  Other than that, try it!  Give it a go and see how it works out.

[Franco]

Yeah that will work fine. I have 4 LED fans, my Car amp, my coin lights and my rotary interface running off a seperate ATX supply like you intend.

Permently joing the green and black are fine, I used crimp connectors. I can access the power switch through my coin door, I suppose it depends

[tommy]

Ive seen people take a common house fan and put it in the cab   

[Heinekenator]

Thanks for the information. Love the blue fans, Franco. Wish I hadn't already ordered a bunch of black ones!

Also, if anyone else is interested in this, I found an informative article here:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/directron/2powersupplies.html