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Main => Everything Else => Topic started by: Ed ONeill on June 18, 2004, 09:30:49 am

Title: Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: Ed ONeill on June 18, 2004, 09:30:49 am
Ok here is the situation I just built a portable laptop mame machine.

Last night I was playing for an hour and all of a sudden the laptop shut down I ccould figurte out why until I lifted the laptop out, well it turns out I was blocking the cpu fan underneath. I of course didn't know there was one located under the laptop...stupid me

Well all is good and the ccomputer is not dead.

So I made some adjustments and it is working good but it still seems a little warm...My thought is to put a a case fan on the back of the unit , but I need it to be battery powered.

Anyone know if it can be done(hacked)  or if one even exists

Thanks in advvance
Ed

Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: GamingGreg on June 18, 2004, 01:54:36 pm
Standard PC case fans work off of the 5 volts DC line from the PC power supply.  I don't know how many amps they pull though.  It's possible to make that battery powered, but it might drain the battery faster that other things since it is an electric motor (Albeit a small one though).
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: Hoagie_one on June 18, 2004, 03:56:10 pm
doesn USB give of +5 v?

Could hack a usb cable to power it
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: danny_galaga on June 20, 2004, 11:35:35 am
those types of fans are pretty low wattage. id go with hoagie-ones idea- run it off the usb
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: Ed ONeill on June 20, 2004, 12:58:06 pm
Thanks guys.....COOL !

I wasn't really sure if the case fan would work or not I get those volage things all mixed up.

So the usb cable idea sounds good ...now I just need to see if I can find a small enough fan to fit my project.

Anyone know exactly how big a 60 mm fan is?
I need the size in inches.

Signed
Ed

Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: _Iz- on June 20, 2004, 03:19:55 pm
Anyone know exactly how big a 60 mm fan is?
I need the size in inches.


60mm / 25.4  = 2.36" which is just shy of 2 3/8"
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: krick on June 20, 2004, 11:35:31 pm
Why reinvent the wheel?  Here's EXACTLY what you need...

BYTECC Bytecc Aluminum Notebook Cooler NC-500
http://www.byteccusa.com/product/cooler/nc-500.htm
(http://www.byteccusa.com/images/NC-500.JPG)

Only $17.00 from here...
http://www.coolerexpress.com/notebookcooler.html (http://www.coolerexpress.com/notebookcooler.html)
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: Ed ONeill on June 23, 2004, 08:16:12 pm
Awesome!... krick

I would love to do that  but  I only have 2 usb ports one is for mini pac the other for the mouse which I need to play trackball games.

I may howwever still use your suggestion if the case fdan doesn't work to well..I of course will have to buy a usb hub/splitter in addition to the cooler.

BTw how long would the fan run for using one 9volt battery

Thanks
Ed
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: AlanS17 on June 23, 2004, 08:33:11 pm
You can splice an AC adapter to accomplish the same thing. Plus it provides a constant source of power. That's how a fan on my jukebox works. Then it's just a matter of finding the proper AC adapter, which shouldn't be hard. It's only a fan!
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: fredster on June 24, 2004, 03:11:20 pm
I had a game that had the 5v go parallel to some LEDs.  But in between there was a rechargeable nicad battery mounted on too.

It would keep the lights on after the system was shut off.  I guess it recharged from the power supply when it was running.

It was some old poker machine.  The leds were in the back.
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: Ed ONeill on June 24, 2004, 08:17:38 pm
alans17..... sorry I wasn't clear.  want the machine to be fully battey powered.

Thanks
Ed
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: NiN^_^NiN on June 24, 2004, 11:21:47 pm
There is a PCMIA fan u just slot it into the laptop and it just uses the power from the port to blow air out the side of the laptop quite cool and only $15 or lower (i think???)

 ;D
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: gprime on June 25, 2004, 12:42:38 am
I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 and recently it has been overheating a LOT. I google'd around for an answer to my problem. Someone suggested I follow the Dell user guide to take apart the laptop to take the fan out and clean it. I was thinking; "Hah! A little dust can't make that much of a difference!" Boy did they prove me wrong. I did what they said, took it apart (very easily mind you -- I was sort of surprised) and took off the fan / heatsync and took my vaccuum cleaner to it. Then I vaccuumed some dust off the inside of the case, including the grill, and put it back together. Then.. WOW.. I mean wow! It ran so much cooler I couldn't believe it. I can run cpu intensive games and it barely gets warm at all; the fan doesn't even need to speed up anymore (before over 50% cpu usage, the fan used to go crazy loud).

Just a suggestion.
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: krick on June 25, 2004, 04:46:50 pm

I would love to do that  but  I only have 2 usb ports one is for mini pac the other for the mouse which I need to play trackball games.

I may howwever still use your suggestion if the case fdan doesn't work to well..I of course will have to buy a usb hub/splitter in addition to the cooler.


It also comes with a PS/2 connector to tap power off of a keyboard (mouse?) port instead.  You can see it in the picture and here's the text off their website...

Powered by ps2 power y adapter. (with USB adapter)
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: crashwg on June 25, 2004, 06:15:01 pm
I'm not sure abou the specs of Ed's laptop, but I can't say I've seen a laptop in the past few years that had ps/2 ports...

Ya never know though.
Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: Ed ONeill on June 26, 2004, 11:17:06 am
Krick and crash...LOL (that sounds so funny together)

I did notice the specs on the website about the ps2 connector.

I actually do have a ps2 port but it is located on the right side and if you look at this picture closely you'll see that it's covered up, and even if if I notched a space in the wood side rail there still wouldn't be enough space to fit the connector in.

(http://home.comcast.net/~coin-opcollector/mameonthemove9.JPG)

NIN^_^ Nin ...any links to what you are refferring to .


Thanks guys
Ed

Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: krick on June 28, 2004, 11:00:16 am
Ok, next idea...

How about using the BYTECC cooler but tapping power off of the Mini-PAC?

The BYTECC cooler doesn't really need a USB or PS/2 port, it just needs a 5 volt connection.

I believe that the Mini-PAC has a 5V connection for a trackball.  You could tap off of that.

Title: Re:Anyone know if a case fan can be battery operated?
Post by: Ed ONeill on June 30, 2004, 10:36:35 am
Krik...your always thinking man...thanks

I was already thinking of a diy notebook coller like the one you gave me the link for it really doesn't look that complicated. I could probably build it before the cooler would arrive at my house...LOL

Signed
Ed