Bucko
01-31-2007, 11:02 AM
I bought some nice looking blue cooling fans for my PC, but I'm not 100% sure on what all the wires are for.
They have the three pin plug on them like a CPU fan does, but I'm not sure what the yellow wire is for.
I know the black and red are the 12v positive and negative wires, as the fans came with a 3 to 4 pin adapter and the red and black go to the 12v power, but coming off the adapter is the back wire and the yellow wire going to another plug the same as the fan.
Here's a couple of pics to make it easier to explain (excuse blurriness, my cheap camera doesn't like close ups):
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8199/plug1bo6.jpg
On the right is the three wire fan plug, on the left is the adapter lead that came with it. The adapter lead has 4 wires coming out, red, two black from the same socket, and the yellow.
So as mentioned, the red and one black go to the 12v half of a 4 pin molex, but the yellow and other black goes to this:
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1395/plug2hh6.jpg
It's the same plug as on the end of the fan lead, however it only has the 2 wires, ie no red 12v + wire. So there is the spare pin in the plug.
Now these fans came with no instructions, so I can't RTFM either.
And finally on these fans, they have a small variable resistor coming off them to adjust the speed, which looks like this:
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/5622/speedadjustvt5.jpg
It is adjusted with a small phillips head and only has two wires going to it and says 20k on the side.
My question is, if I want to control the speed of both fans at once, rather than 2 speed controls, I want to put one bigger (in size, not value) varible resistor on the front of the case. What would I need to do as far as wiring goes?
I know it should be a simple job, but I'm having a blank.
Thanks in advance.
Lee.
They have the three pin plug on them like a CPU fan does, but I'm not sure what the yellow wire is for.
I know the black and red are the 12v positive and negative wires, as the fans came with a 3 to 4 pin adapter and the red and black go to the 12v power, but coming off the adapter is the back wire and the yellow wire going to another plug the same as the fan.
Here's a couple of pics to make it easier to explain (excuse blurriness, my cheap camera doesn't like close ups):
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8199/plug1bo6.jpg
On the right is the three wire fan plug, on the left is the adapter lead that came with it. The adapter lead has 4 wires coming out, red, two black from the same socket, and the yellow.
So as mentioned, the red and one black go to the 12v half of a 4 pin molex, but the yellow and other black goes to this:
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1395/plug2hh6.jpg
It's the same plug as on the end of the fan lead, however it only has the 2 wires, ie no red 12v + wire. So there is the spare pin in the plug.
Now these fans came with no instructions, so I can't RTFM either.
And finally on these fans, they have a small variable resistor coming off them to adjust the speed, which looks like this:
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/5622/speedadjustvt5.jpg
It is adjusted with a small phillips head and only has two wires going to it and says 20k on the side.
My question is, if I want to control the speed of both fans at once, rather than 2 speed controls, I want to put one bigger (in size, not value) varible resistor on the front of the case. What would I need to do as far as wiring goes?
I know it should be a simple job, but I'm having a blank.
Thanks in advance.
Lee.