LEDgardener

So I got some 12v fans, with the idea that I would have a look at active cooling solutions. I also ordered a bunch of 12v dc drivers that I selected with the same logic I would choose a LED driver, now realizing that fans seem to work differently then leds.

I chose 12v drivers with the idea that I should stay under stated max A to be fine. Now I'm understanding that if current is too low, nothing happens, and if current is adequate or above, the fan will just pull what it wants...

So the fans didnt budge with the 12v 220mA DC power source. I chose the powersource with the idea that it was about 180% of max for a fan, and I would use a splitter to share the power to two fans. Then I tried the power source with a single fan and it still didn't budge.

After that I connected it to a 9v battery and it worked. Then I connected it to a 7-22v 1900mA led driver and it worked again, but with super high power.

Be careful if you are exceeding the maximum voltage input for a fan, they can catch fire pretty easy, as it was working from a 9V battery this tells me you may be putting far too much voltage into it. The rated input is usually on a sticker on the fan

TEKNIK wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 02, 2019 10:54 pm

Be careful if you are exceeding the maximum voltage input for a fan, they can catch fire pretty easy, as it was working from a 9V battery this tells me you may be putting far too much voltage into it. The rated input is usually on a sticker on the fan

The fan is rated for 12v and around 120mA... I only hooked it to the led driver for a second, just enough to see it worked.

But am I understanding correctly that with a fan it's the voltage I need to watch out for, and ampers are only a problem if there is not enough of them?

Yes that's correct, if you give it too much voltage it's a big issue, regarding amps you can give it as much as you want and it will only draw what it needs. In about a month I will have a converter that will work inline with your LED driver upto 60V input and the output will be 200mA 12VDC.

The fan drivers have stopped production, I will try to find another solution for you. Sorry about that, the company doesn't want to make them anymore as thier drivers have a fan auxiliary and they don't want the drivers used with other brands like meanwell.

Ok, it wasnt the Voltage Regulator, it was the 10A fuse. It blew but it wasnt visible. I measured, and it doesnt work high resistance. Off to buy a new one

Yep, no chance of damage. It may or may not power it for too long, though. 9V batteries dont have much capacity.

Right... and it would also depend on if you are powering anything else with that too... like LEDs or such.