Wiring computer case fan in car?

[Weeznur32 10+ year member]

Iv seen some of you do it and I bought a computer fan to keep my amplifier cool. how do I wire it up to my amplifier/battery?

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[sexiewasd 10+ year member]

either buy a 12v fan, or as most of them are 5v go to radioshack and buy a 5v regulator, they're only a couple bucks.

EDIT:

these ones: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062599&CAWELAID=107597886

one side is 12v+ from the car, the middle pin is ground to the car, and the other side is 5v+ out to the fan, then ground the fan to the car. they are marked on the package which side is which.

If you really want to get fancy you could wire up a mosfet or relay to the remote wire for the amp so the fan turns on with the amp, or install a rocker switch, otherwise it's just going to run all the time.

 

[Weeznur32 10+ year member]

yeah I bought a 12volt one but not sure how to wire it because there are 3 wires. Im assuming 2 go to the remote turn on and 1 goes to ground?

 

[sexiewasd 10+ year member]

It should have black, red, and (yellow or white) wires. black is ground, red is positive, the white/yellow wire is a speed sensor for the motherboard in a pc, and can be completely ignored for this. You probably shouldn't run it directly from the remote turn on lead. It may be able to handle that small of a load, but it also may not. They really aren't capable of supplying much power, and may blow an internal fuse in your head unit if it can't power the fan.

 

[Weeznur32 10+ year member]

It should have black, red, and (yellow or white) wires. black is ground, red is positive, the white/yellow wire is a speed sensor for the motherboard in a pc, and can be completely ignored for this. You probably shouldn't run it directly from the remote turn on lead. It may be able to handle that small of a load, but it also may not. They really aren't capable of supplying much power, and may blow an internal fuse in your head unit if it can't power the fan.

Okay, so should I hook it up directly to + and - wires running from battery to amp?

I tested on the remote turn on wire and ground and it worked fine but dont want to run risk of blowing fuse.

 

[sexiewasd 10+ year member]

yes the amp's power lead should go to the fans red wire, and black to either the car's chassis, or the negative wire on the amp, which ever is easier, but you will need some sort of switch in the circuit or the fan will run even when the car is shut off. The remote lead is capable of supplying the power for a relay nicely. A relay will use between 100-200 milliamps, where the fan will draw around an amp at 12v. The top relay and the socket below it on this page LINK are a good choice. the pins are labeled on the bottom. they have five pins labeled (30) (87) (87a) (85) (86). Connect the amp's positive to pin 30, the fan's red wire to 87 and cut the remote lead, connect one side of the remote lead to pin 85, and the other to pin 86, it doesn't matter which side is on 85 or 86