Here’s a simple mod that breathes new life into an old computer case fan you may have laying about. A quick rewiring for convenient USB/FireWire power and a DIY stand later and you’ve got yourself a small, inexpensive, desktop fan.
Case fans typically run at 12V, so it might not be very powerful over USB’s 5V connection, though it seems fine in the video. If you’re running a FireWire-equipped Mac however, you could take advantage of the up to 30V offered by the port.
Check out the mod in full in the video below. Note: You may want to kill the sound.
Source:
MAKE
Trevor says:
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Great job. Now can you make a desktop computer out of old fan parts?
Andebe says:
March 8th, 2010 at 9:38 am
I am always looking for stuff on topics that I don’t know about. It’s not an easy task to find things that you don’t know about, because what do you look for?
This was right up my alley on something new to me. Great post! Thanks.
Olga says:
March 29th, 2010 at 10:11 am
What a gem! It’s so sad more folks haven’t heard about this place, this covered just what I needed today!!!
cool says:
April 23rd, 2010 at 11:03 am
how about usb wires from an optical mouse? it’s wires are orange/brown, green, blue and white.. where will i connect my black and yellow wire from my cpu fan????????????????????????????????????????????????????