At 22:08 -0500 08/27/1956, Marylynn & Tony wrote: >�I got a very warm, toasty-smelling fan motor in a matter of moments.
It may be that your fan just can't run on as low a voltage as 7 Volts. You may need to try the resistor method. >(astonishingly, it >still isn't all that quiet; I think it's mostly 9gb Maxtor hard-drive >noise). If your hard drive is very noisy, quieting down the fans isn't going to help much. First, you should decide whether it's worth fiddling with the fans in light of the hard drive noise. If you decide to go with the fans, you might try the resistor method. The goal is to insert a resistor in line in the red wire to cause a voltage drop, thus reducing the voltage that the fan sees. The voltage drop you get is the product of the value of the resistor and the total amperage that passes through the resistor. So, e.g., if you use a 20 ohm resistor and the fan/resistor combo draws about .25 amps, then you'll get a voltage drop across the resistor or .25 X 20 = 5V, reducing your voltage across the fan from 12V to 12 - 5 = 7V. A fan typically draws about .2 - .3 amps of current. Without going into all the messy calculations, I'd aim for 10 to 20 ohms of resistance. You'll want a resistor rated for about 1 watt of power or maybe a smidgen more. It's a lot easier to find 1/2 watt resistors (e.g. at Radio Shack) than 1 Watt, so what I typically do is get a couple of 1/2 watt resistors and put them in parallel. A 20 and a 30 ohm resistor gives a total resistance of 1/20 + 1/30 = 12 ohms. A pack of 2 to four resistors will cost less than $1. So I'd get a pack of 1/2 watt resistors close to 20 ohms (22?) and one close to 30 ohms (33?) and put one of each in parallel. Then cut your red wire and put the resistor assembly in series with the red wire. I like to take a wire tie and secure the resistors to the fan cage so that the air flows over the resistors on its way out of the machine. That way the resistors aren't adding heat to the inside of the computer, and it give you that little extra margin in case the resistor don't have quite enough wattage. Jeff Walther -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | SPECIAL SM LIST PRICES - 24x Bootable SCSI CDROM $39.99, Umax Processors $19.99 PowerSupplies from C500/C600 $49.99 J700/S900 $79.99 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
