Page 1 of 1

Warm cupboard

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:37 pm
by Bowser_23
Hi - be gentle, first post, hope this is the right place

Have Mac Mini, Apple TV, Modem, Router and 4 drive NAS, all on 24/7 and all getting pretty hot in a cupboard. Can you recommend a silentish fan to get some of that heat out. Living in France so needs to be 220-240v

Thanks

Chris

Re: Warm cupboard

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:23 am
by Vicotnik
Passive intake at the bottom, exhaust fan at the top somewhere. Ideal is something like old computer fan paired with old mobile phone charger.

Welcome to SPCR. :)

Re: Warm cupboard

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:03 am
by CA_Steve
Vicotnik wrote:Passive intake at the bottom, exhaust fan at the top somewhere. Ideal is something like old computer fan paired with old mobile phone charger.
+1.

Unless it's a really old phone charger, it will have 5Vdc output. So, you'll need a fan that starts up at less than 5V. You can get an idea by looking through the Fan/Control articles.

Re: Warm cupboard

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:57 am
by Bowser_23
CA_Steve wrote:
Vicotnik wrote:Passive intake at the bottom, exhaust fan at the top somewhere. Ideal is something like old computer fan paired with old mobile phone charger.
+1.

Unless it's a really old phone charger, it will have 5Vdc output. So, you'll need a fan that starts up at less than 5V. You can get an idea by looking through the Fan/Control articles.

Great thanks all - how do I connect the phone charger to the fan?

Re: Warm cupboard

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 8:02 am
by Vicotnik
Both should have two leads; + and -. Those are the two you are interested in anyway. The fan might have three leads (+, - and RPM) if it's a three pin fan (normal chassis fan).

Connect + on the fan to + on the charger. And - to -. If you connect + to - the fan will not spin, but nothing will break since the fan usually is polarity protected. Short circuiting the charger can damage it though, so be careful not to do that.

If you've never meddled with basic electronics before this is a great way to learn.

Re: Warm cupboard

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 8:47 am
by Spoon Boy
If you didn't want to go with active cooling (using a fan) and cutting holes in the door, another option if it suited the surrounding decor could be to change the cupboard door for a louvre door.