You are sitting at the computer, it’s summer outside, there is no air conditioning. My hand is already tired of endlessly fanning myself with newspaper, and sweat from my forehead is dripping onto the keyboard. Common situation? If you don’t have extra money, a homemade fan will help. To make it, you don't need to run to the store for parts. Everything you need for a leaf blower is in the house. Don't know how to make a free fan at home? Follow the text!
What does an air cooler consist of:
- engine
- fan blades
- stand
- power supply
The last point can be omitted if you do USB fan with your own hands. The computer has a voltage of 5 volts. You will need a printer cable, an old mouse, or any unnecessary device with a USB cable.
If you are a fan of DIY projects, you probably have some useful junk in your house. Otherwise, you have no need to know how to make a fan yourself.
Can't find an electric motor in a box of unwanted parts? You can make a fan from a motor from an old disk drive or a broken toy. Let's look at a few examples of how to make a mini fan from scrap materials.
Glue, cardboard, toy motor
To make a small propeller you will need a piece of corrugated cardboard 30x30 cm.
We glue the support in 2-3 layers, the area is at least two palms. We make the rack for the engine in the form of a prism 10–15 cm high. For cutting, we use a stationery knife. We bend the structure along a ruler.
How to make a mini fan durable and stable? Let's use a glue gun. No other glue will allow the connection to be made as reliably.
We connect with hot glue, and as thickly as possible: the structure should turn out to be monolithic. The blades can be made from thinner cardboard. The packaging for a mobile phone accessory is suitable.
This is the most critical element: the blades must be absolutely identical in shape and weight. Otherwise, your propeller will vibrate during operation and will quickly fall apart.
We glue the blades (carefully) onto a cardboard sleeve, observing aerodynamics. The planes should be rotated 30–45 degrees in opposite directions. To simplify the design, we assemble a USB fan with two blades with our own hands. They are easier to balance, and such a propeller can cope with cooling no worse than a three-bladed one.
Test run and balancing
We make a hole in the very center of the bushing (using an awl), place it on the motor axis, and carry out a test run. Of course, before assembly it is necessary to coordinate the angle of attack of the blades with the direction of rotation of the motor. Otherwise the fan will blow reverse side. If there is vibration, the propeller can be easily balanced by simply lifting the blades. After making sure that the propeller rotates smoothly and blows where required, we glue the motor onto the stand. Don't spare glue!
We connect the USB cable to the power wires of the engine. Of course, it is better to do this with a soldering iron, but given the scanty power, you can get by with simple twisting. The main thing is not to forget to insulate the connection using electrical tape or tape.
How to determine the power pins of a USB cable
Any USB connector consists of 4 pins. We are not interested in averages, these are information wires. The 5 volt power supply is located on the outermost contacts. Wiring in the illustration:
If you reverse the polarity, nothing bad will happen. The motor will just spin in the wrong direction. How to determine the motor supply voltage? There is no need to look for markings. If the toy (where it was installed) is powered by three batteries (1.5 volts each), then the motor is 5 volts. If from two batteries - for USB power it won't fit.
CD
Don't know how to make an efficient CD fan? It's easier than it seems. We divide the disk into 8 sectors. Even number It is easier to balance the blades if axial runout occurs.
We cut out the blades with ordinary scissors. You can do this job using construction knife, or melt the sectors with a soldering iron - there is no big difference. If you accidentally break a CD, get a new one.
The extra segments are broken out, the rest are given the aerodynamic shape of a propeller. To do this, just heat the workpiece over a candle or using a hair dryer. If you make a mistake with the geometry, you can always correct the situation by reheating. This is the advantage of crafts made from a CD.
In the center of the structure we glue a thickening: any piece of plastic 5–10 mm. We drill a hole in it for mounting on the electric motor shaft.
Where to get an electric motor
This design uses a drive from a floppy drive. Power supply is 5 volts, speed is moderate. Most likely, you do not have a separate disk drive collecting dust on a shelf; it can be found in the system unit. Nobody uses floppy disks anyway, you can safely disassemble it for spare parts.
The convenient flat motor housing allows you to assemble the fan on a flexible leg. To do this, twist a piece of copper single core wire in a pigtail, and wrap it to the power cable using electrical tape.
The motor with the propeller is glued to the flexible stand either using hot glue or wrapped with the same electrical tape. Unless you're entering a fan design competition, you don't have to worry about aesthetics.
After spending 2–3 hours, you get a convenient, portable “device” that can be installed anywhere without leaving your computer.
Aesthetics from a plastic bottle
If you want not only fresh air, and to make the product pleasing to the eye, we use other materials. The basic components remain the same: a motor from a children's toy and an old USB cord. By the way, you can connect such a fan to a 220 volt outlet using Charger for a smartphone (with the same USB port).
The highlight of the design is the body. The propeller is made from plastic bottle. The twisted plug will serve as an axial bushing. The stand can be made from a bunch of cocktail straws.
We assemble the elegant base from a second PET bottle and a CD glued to the bottom. If you have free components, you can install a connector and a switch.
Despite the “lightness” of the design, the fan turned out to be quite stable. If necessary, you can put some weight in the body.
Use of factory parts
Let's return to the presence of conditionally unnecessary computer components in the home workshop. For example, a cooler from a power supply or system unit.
The electrical part of the work is reduced to a minimum. If the power supply is 5 volts, we work according to the scheme: USB cable. To supply 12 volts you will have to look for a power supply or a phone charger. In addition, there are “turbines” that are connected to a 220 volt network.
Actually, to make a fan from a computer cooler, you just need to fix it on some kind of stand. And if you use batteries instead of a USB cord, the flow of fresh air can be organized anywhere.
Video on the topic
Let's make a simple fan.
You will need:
1. 3V motor
2. Section for 2 batteries of 1.5 V each. I bought it from the CHIP and DIP store.
3. Switch.
4. Wire 15 cm.
5. Reels from fishing line or ropes, a jar from Polysorb, a jar of gouache.
6. Impeller from the power supply cooler.
7. Soldering iron.
8. Thermal gun.
9. Self-tapping screws 11 pcs. 2cm long.
1. Take spools of thread with a diameter of 5 mm and a height of 4.5 cm - from fishing line or cord.
Mark the hole for the switch with a marker and use nail scissors to cut the hole slightly smaller size switch and insert the switch into the reel:
2. Now we form the fan frame: put 3 bobbins together and mark four holes for bolts or screws with a marker on the bottom of the upper bobbins. We burn holes through the edges of two bobbins:
3. Using a lighter, melt and clear the red wire from the section with batteries and attach it to one terminal of the switch, and to the other - the second red wire. To isolate the terminals from contact with each other, fill them with hot glue:
4. We attach the red wire to the plus + of the engine, and the black wire, respectively, to the minus - of the engine:
5. The top can be made from a gouache box: on the lid with a soldering iron we form a hole for the wires and 3 holes for the screws. And on the box itself we cut a hole with nail scissors slightly smaller than the diameter of the engine and place it inside. As in the case of the switch, you can pour hot glue on the outside for reliability.
6. We place the impeller from the cooler on the plug, fill the voids with plasticine or fill it with paraffin, use a screw or an awl to make a hole in the plug, fill it epoxy glue or hot glue, and place it on the engine. If this epoxy resin- leave it to dry for a day and only then turn it on!
The question is trivial. First, we recommend determining the installation location homemade fan. Two types of engines dominate in technology: commutator (historically the first), asynchronous (invented by Nikola Tesla). The first ones make a lot of noise, switching sections causes a spark, the brushes rub, causing noise. An asynchronous motor with a squirrel-cage rotor is quieter and generates less interference. You will find the start-up relay in the refrigerator. By adding a couple of phrases of humorous phrases, we will return the seriousness to the site. How to make a fan with your own hands without scaring your family. Let's try to answer.
Aspects of designing a homemade fan
The design of the fan is so simple that there is no point in telling or describing the insides. What to consider when designing? Remember the growl cyclonic vacuum cleaner, volume above 70 dB. Inside is a commutator motor. Often deprived of the ability to regulate speed. Decide, is a similar sound pressure level acceptable at the installation site of a homemade fan? Having chosen the second, we will concentrate on asynchronous motors, simple models do not require a starting winding. The power is low, the secondary EMF is induced by the stator field.
Drum asynchronous motor with a squirrel-cage rotor, cut with copper conductors along the generatrix, at an angle to the axis. The direction of the slope determines the direction of rotation of the engine rotor. Copper conductors are not insulated from the drum material; the conductivity of Olympic metal is superior surrounding material(silumin), the potential difference between adjacent conductors is small. Current flows through copper. There is no contact between the stator and rotor, the spark has nowhere to come from (the wire is covered with varnish insulation).
The noise of an asynchronous motor is determined by two factors:
- Alignment of stator and rotor.
- Bearing quality.
By correctly setting up and servicing an asynchronous motor, you can achieve almost complete noiselessness. We recommend considering whether sound pressure level is important. The case concerns a duct fan - it is allowed to use a commutator motor, the requirements will be determined by the location of the section.
The duct fan is placed inside the air duct section and mounted, breaking the duct. The section is removed for maintenance.
Noise loses its dominant role. The sound wave, passing through the air duct, attenuates. Particularly fast is the part of the spectrum that has inconsistent dimensions relative to the width/length of the path section. Read more textbooks on acoustic lines. The brushed motor can be used in a basement, garage, or unoccupied areas. The neighbors of the cooperative will hear, but will rather be too lazy to pay attention.
What is good about a commutator engine, what are we fighting for the right to use? Three disadvantages of asynchronous:
At the initial moment, the asynchronous motor does not develop a large torque; a number of special design measures are taken. It doesn't matter for the fan. Majority household models equipped with asynchronous motors. In production, the number of phases is increased to three.
Finding a motor for a fan
One YouTube video suggested using an engine direct current 3 volt from a hardware store. Tops a USB cord, works by rotating the laser disc blade. Useful invention? If you're tired of the extra port, this will help you survive the heat. It’s easier to take a processor cooler and power it from the system unit. It runs at 12 volts yellow wire(red for 5). The black pair is earth. You can assemble it from an old computer. Citizens of the Russian Federation are simply too lazy to invent, so we throw interesting equipment into a landfill.
Asynchronous fan motors operate without a starting capacitor... The peculiarity of fan motors is that they come directly with a winding. A couple of tips to help you get an engine:
Make a fan impeller
The question of what to make a fan from has not been resolved; the authors kept silent about the impeller. First things first, the refrigerator! The compressor is blown by an impeller. When you get the motor out, remove it. It will come in handy. Concerning washing machine, launch the drum onto an aircraft propeller. Plastic tank It's good to make a body. Heat the folded areas with a hair dryer.
Inspect the blender and equip it with an unnecessary laser disk shaped like an impeller. You can make a fan yourself using available materials. You don't need a lot of power, and there's no point in trying too hard to fine-tune the details. We believe that readers know how to make a fan with their own hands.
Eternal CPU cooler fan
We decided to please our readers by telling you how to make a fan. This is not the first review, I had to dig around to find something worthwhile. The idea of creating an eternal fan that spins forever looks great. User mail.ru posted a design that looks attractive. Let's take a closer look, while thinking about how to make a fan that runs forever.
You know, of course, system units work quietly ( modern models). The slightest noise means: the cooler's axis is out of alignment, or it's time to lubricate the old fan. They work for hours, the days turn into weeks, system unit will last for years. It became possible thanks to well-thought-out technology. Think about it, noise depends on the magnitude of the friction force. Mechanical energy becomes thermal and acoustic due to the presence of roughness. CPU coolers They rotate easily, just need to blow.
The author of the video - we apologize for the lack of a name, we justify: the video is in English - suggests assembling an eternal fan from an accessory. The fitting accuracy of the parts is high, the blade rotates easily. Costs are reduced to a minimum. The author of the video posted by the deirones channel noted: the processor fan is powered by direct current. I climbed inside and found four coils, equally spaced around the circumference, with their axes directed towards the center of the device.
There are no commutators inside, which means a paradoxical fact: the field of the coils is constant.
If the induction motor of a typical fan is powered by 220 volts alternating voltage, which creates a rotating magnetic field, in our case the picture is constant. You could say: inside the rotor sets in motion a commutator that creates the desired distribution. This is not true, and is confirmed by the further course of the author’s thoughts and the result of experience. Western innovator decides to replace the coil permanent magnet. Indeed, there is no alternating field - why electric current?
The author demonstratively cuts off the power cord and places neodymium magnets ( hard drive) frame perimeter. Each is on the continuation of the coil axis. The work is completed, the blades begin to rotate vigorously. We believe that a principle is simply used that is hushed up in orthodox literature. trade secret patent holder.
The initial movement of the blade is obtained by random fluctuations in the air. Reminiscent of a magnetron, the vibrations are caused by the natural chaotic movement of elementary particles. The question arose as to what determines the direction of rotation. The design is absolutely symmetrical. We decided to look into it and express our observations:
Agree, it’s more convenient than stirring things up USB ports, constantly wasting batteries. The eternal fan operates from an arbitrary position and is devoid of wires. We believe that the strength of the magnets plays a decisive role. The simple rule no longer works: more is better. A golden mean is emerging. When the blades spin from a random air flow, overcoming a field of neodymium pieces. Weak magnets are probably powerless to maintain stable rotation. The field strength must be exactly that created by the coils under the influence of +5 or +12 volts.
Correctly create an eternal fan
We discussed how to make a fan, measure the direction, force magnetic field coils Enjoy special devices. A magnetometer, Teslameter, is formed by a magnetic induction converter, a measuring module. When fields interact, the resulting pattern is called coupling. The converter generates EMF. The size is determined by the measured strength of the magnetic field. Like two fingers! Costs 10,000 rubles.
The magnets will be located at a considerable distance from the axis. The coils are much closer. You need to know how the picture changes with distance. According to Coulomb's law, the force decreases in inverse proportion to the square of the distance, which is true for single charges of arbitrary sign. Magnetic poles individual ones have not yet been found in nature (it is not possible to create them), the cube of distance is included in the law. Let's say the distance to the coil from the axis is 1 cm, the diagonal perimeter is 10. This means that neodymium should be 10 x 10 x 10 = 1000 times stronger than a small coil.
Nobody obliges to place neodymium magnets around the fan perimeter on diagonals. The poles lie crosswise. Adjust the force of influence over a wide range. By placing neodymium magnets in the center of the sides of the fan frame, we significantly increase the field strength. Let's do the calculation. Let's say the hypotenuse of a triangle with a side of 10 cm is a diagonal. The distance to the center of the square will be equal to 10 / √2 = 7 cm. You see, the ratio drops from 1000, reaching 7 x 7 x 7 = 343. We are desperate to find strong neodymium magnets to create an eternal fan.
Let's measure the strength! A compass is suitable (there are custom designs that you can assemble yourself, for example, http://polyus.clan.su/index/indikatory_magnitnogo_polja_svoimi_rukami/0-52). One coil should be connected to the power supply. Then find the position, the arrow brought up will deviate by about 45 degrees (if you don’t like it, take any other azimuth). Then start experimenting with neodymium. Place the piece on different removals, ensuring that the arrow deflection coincides with that obtained when using the processor fan coil. Surely the distance is not equal to the diagonal, half the side, the neodymium will have to be broken and cut.
By sawing one edge along the length, we carefully break the parts on a nail, obtaining the required field strength to create an eternal fan. We assume that the induction is distributed proportionally to the volume. Today we explained clearly how to make a fan with your own hands!
Power supply
Anyone who wants to make a fan with their own hands sees 3 problems: getting a motor, power supply, and making a propeller. The parts must fit together. Three problems solved, you can start making a fan with your own hands. Today there are an abundance of switching power supplies at home. Think about it, it started in the 90s. Gaming consoles, Cell phones, other equipment. Equipment breaks down, switching power supplies remain. The voltage is sometimes non-standard; most motors operate on any voltage. The revolutions will simply change according to the voltage. There's a broken one lying around at home Appliances- Make a fan yourself immediately.
Homemade fan power supplies
People are constantly trying to make a special fan with their own hands. One issue is often beyond the scope of discussion: the power source. The design of the fan itself is so obvious that there is no point in going into more detail. So, it’s clear that there are an unimaginable number of batteries today. Will they be able to work for a long time? The answer is no. As a last resort, take the “crown”, in Soviet time considered a reliable source of energy. The power supply is bad, the power will gradually drop, the speed will decrease, and it will irritate people. Stability without additional effort is important. There is no small 12 volt battery - get ready: let's start looking for how to make a power source for a homemade fan.
The first thing that comes to mind is to screw up the computer. It is known that miniature devices are powered by a USB port. Gadgets are recharging. USB port is a source of inexhaustible energy. The voltage is low, you will need a low voltage DC motor. We believe you can find it at home or buy it at a hardware store. How much port power will be: according to old standards, 2–3 W. Another thing is to find a host device with an updated version of the interface (2014 was considered a rarity). The developers promised to deliver 50 W (it’s hard to believe even more). True, there will be more wires, rated voltages will increase. We remind you that according to tradition, power is supplied to the red (+), black (-) wires. White, green - signal.
It's clear, high power It’s difficult to expect - even if the port supports, the motor will not pull. It is recommended to look for a higher voltage. The motor must be supplied with higher voltage. For example, it is recommended to use a processor cooler. The supply voltage is less than the required 12 volts, the rotation speed will simply decrease. Beware of exceeding it - the motor may burn out.
We are looking for energy, the question is easier to solve than for 3 volts:
12 volt power supply for a homemade do-it-yourself fan
We suggest not collecting pulse block food, do it yourself with your own hands. Let us remember that the former are distinguished by small-sized transformers. Therefore, the power supply will be relatively large in size. Will consist of the following parts:
- A step-down transformer. We will not name the number of turns in advance, the voltage is unknown, rectifying it with diodes, we get 12 volts. Of course, you can experiment, like the YouTube video about homemade radios, grab the reader and look for a ready-made solution.
- The bridge is full-wave; by adding three to one diode, we increase the efficiency. Radio components are not very expensive.
- The backbone of the power supply is ready so that the homemade fan can serve for a long time, let’s straighten out the network ripples. After the bridge, we will turn on the low-pass filter and redraw the circuit from the Internet.
The output is a constant voltage with an amplitude of 12 volts. Be careful not to mix up the terminals. Where the “plus” comes out and where the “minus” comes out can be understood by studying the diagram. Below is a drawing of the bridge, look and read the explanations. In radio electronics, the direction of current is indicated opposite to the true one. Charges flow, according to popular belief, in the direction from plus to minus (towards electrons). Reading the diagram, you will see: the emitter of the diode, transistor, marked with an arrow, looks incorrectly. In the direction of movement of positive charges. Each one has marks and is indicated on the diagram by a huge triangle arrow. Therefore, we always find out “plus”, guided by graphic symbols shown in the drawing.
The figure shows: the plus will be on the right, transmitted according to the diode arrow to the lower output terminal. The minus will go up. At AC voltage(roughly speaking) plus and minus will alternate from left to right, the name of the rectifier will become clear - full-wave. Works on the positive part of the voltage and the negative. Take power, low-frequency diodes. Solid size, power dissipation is relatively high. You can calculate using a simple formula taken from a physics course. We multiply the resistance of the open p-n junction (we leaf through the reference book) by the current consumed by the motor, taking a margin of at least 2 times. The motor housing contains an inscription indicating the power, which can be divided by the voltage of 12 volts, simply multiplied by 2 - 3, and taken a diode with equivalent power dissipation (see reference book).
Now let's calculate the transformer... We went here http://radiolodka.ru/programmy/radiolyubitelskie/kalkulyatory-radiolyubitelya/, chose the Trans50 program, we will master it. Please note that there is software available that allows you to calculate filter parameters. Do you regret that you decided to make a fan yourself? They offer to choose one of 5 windings. Steel is involved everywhere. You can make do, the losses will be great. The steel forms a magnetic circuit, the energy goes to the secondary winding. It's better to find an old rusty transformer. Times are bad; in the hungry 90s, landfills were littered with plates of scrapped windings. There were no problems with winding the transformers.
It's time to understand what voltage is required for the correct operation of the circuit. A term borrowed from electronics will help: effective voltage alternating current. The voltage across the active resistance creating a thermal effect is equal to constant voltage effective amplitude. For getting required size voltage on the secondary winding, you need to divide 12 volts by 0.707 (one divided by the square root of 2). The authors received 17 volts. The engineering calculation has an error of 30%, let's take a small margin (part of the amplitude up to 1 volt will be lost on the diodes).
As for the secondary winding current (required for calculation), type something like “cooler power” into a search engine. Let's do it together with the readers. Smart articles write: the current consumption of the cooler is indicated on the case. Once you have the required parameter, we’ll plug it into the calculator. The author took the voltage of the secondary winding to be 19 volts. The voltage drop across p-n junctions of powerful silicon diodes is 0.5 - 0.7 volts. Therefore, an appropriate reserve is needed. Smart heads searched and concluded that the processor cooler does not consume more than 5 W, therefore, the current is 5 divided by 12 = 0.417 A. We substitute the numbers into the downloaded calculator, and for the strip core we get the transformer design parameters:
- The cross-section of the magnetic core for winding is 25 x 32 mm.
- Window in the magnetic circuit 25 x 40 mm.
- The magnetic core is finished with a frame for winding wire with a thickness of 1 mm and a cross-section of 27 x 34 mm.
- The wire is wound along larger side windows, there is a margin of 1 mm from the edges, a total of 38 mm.
The primary winding is formed by 1032 turns with a diameter of 0.43 mm. The approximate length of the wire is 142 meters, the total resistance is 17.15 Ohms. The secondary winding consists of 105 turns of a copper core with varnish insulation with a diameter of 0.6 mm (length 16.5 meters, resistance 1 Ohm). Now readers understand: the question of what to make a fan from begins to be decided by the core...
How effective are the proposed technical solutions? Fans are known to Ancient Egypt. Evidenced by a Michael Jackson video recommending “Remember the time.” The plot was hardly prepared without the consultation of archaeologists and historians. We would like to report that in Mexico, most ladies use fans. The Spaniards know how to deal with the heat; the country lies on the equator. Think about it...
Comments:
Installing a fan is a sensitive issue. Before making a fan with your own hands, you need to determine its installation location. The fact is that in the manufacture of structures today two types of engines are used:
- collector;
- asynchronous.
Collector sounds when working loud noise, when it switches, a spark occurs. In addition, the movement of the brushes also makes a lot of noise.
Asynchronous motors, which are equipped with a squirrel-cage rotor, are the complete opposite. At self-production For fans, you can use an element from the refrigerator as a starting relay.
Fan Manufacturing Principles
When making a fan yourself, you need to take into account some aspects, the most important of which is noise. To get an idea of the work commutator motor, you just need to remember how the Cyclone vacuum cleaner works, its volume is about 70 dB. Based on this, you should consider whether to use such an engine or not. In this regard, it is most realistic to use an asynchronous motor; moreover, when performing the simplest fan model, a fan is not required starting winding. And its power is small, and the secondary EMF is induced by the field from the stator.
The drum in an asynchronous motor has squirrel cage rotor with cut copper conductors along the generatrix, passing at an angle relative to the axis. It is this slope that determines the direction of rotation of the rotor in the engine. The copper conductors are not insulated from the drum material, since they have a conductivity that is superior to the surrounding material, and the potential difference between adjacent conductors is small. And due to this, a current flows through the copper. The stator and rotor are not connected to each other by contacts, and therefore no spark occurs, since the wire is covered with varnish insulation. That is why the noise of an asynchronous motor is determined by the following factors:
- ratio of stator and rotor;
- quality of bearing elements.
At correct setting asynchronous motor can be achieved silent operation motor. Well, what if we're talking about about how to properly make a duct fan with your own hands, then you can allow the installation of a commutator motor, but taking into account where the section will be located.
The duct fan is installed in the air duct section itself and is located in the center of the duct. For this reason, when a fan is made in an air duct, noise does not play a special role, since the sound wave attenuates while it passes through the duct.
Return to contents
To make a fan yourself, you need to purchase a model of a kitchen or bathroom fan, the one that is mounted to the hood. The box from under it will also come in handy, and you will also need:
- scissors;
- net;
- glue or tape.
Fan installation diagram.
The structure will be powered from the network, but will consume little electricity. To begin with, take a box and make a through hole in it. Fan design for hoods cylindrical, it will also be the basis for the shape of the hole.
Subsequently, a fan will be installed in this hole. The hole is cut with a smaller diameter than the structure itself in order to make it more stable and safe. An opening is made on the side of the bottom of the box to allow the cord to exit. To prevent the fan from dangling in the box, you can place cardboard scraps in it and secure it with electrical tape. For safety, a protective mesh is installed on the front part where the blades are located. The denser the mesh in the mesh, the less likely it is to get caught by the blades. Making a homemade fan does not require high costs, and if you decorate the box, you can get additional element interior arrangement.
Return to contents
USB fans: features
Such a model will not be easy to make. This great option for individual cooling when working at a computer. Such a device is obtained with sufficient power, and the energy consumption is not much more. To construct this design you will need:
- a couple of CDs for the computer;
- cord with USB plug;
- wires;
- an old motor, the kind usually installed on children's toys;
- wine stopper;
- cylindrical cardboard;
- glue and scissors.
First of all, the disk is cut into blades. The power of the air flow depends on the presence of blades; the more there are, the stronger the blowing will be, but the segments themselves should not be small.
Only one disc is cut, the second will be used as a stand.
To bend the blades, they are heated over a small flame and bent forward at an angle.
They should be turned in one direction. When the disk with blades is ready, a plug is inserted into its center and a hole is made in it.
In order to make the wire usable, the outer winding is removed from one end of the USB cord, under which there are 4 wires. The paired ones can be separated, connected to the motor and insulated.
If there is no air conditioning at home and even household fan, and the summer heat does not allow you to live normally, you can use your wits and use old computer parts. Any craftsman can assemble a fan from a cooler, fortunately, the materials for construction are always at hand, and in every home or office you can fish out something useful from computer trash.
Materials for useful crafts
To make this simple DIY device, you will need following materials and tools:
- soldering iron and related accessories (solder, rosin);
- a piece of USB cable of any length;
- knife, wire cutters, electrical tape;
- the computer cooler itself (one or more).
The fan will be connected via a USB connector to the computer. This makes it possible to use the fan without third-party power sources.
There are coolers different sizes. Their design includes wires with which you can adjust the number of revolutions depending on the temperature central processor. In our case, these wires will not be needed - we will work only with the black (minus) and red (plus) wires, which receive voltage from motherboard computer. The remaining wires can be cut off using wire cutters so that they do not interfere with assembly. We need to do this carefully so as not to damage the red and black cores we need.
Operating procedure:
- Take any unnecessary USB cable you need to connect the cooler to it. It may not be formally working, but here we need to find wires of the same colors as the cooler. For ease of work, the remaining wires are removed using wire cutters.
- Remove the outer insulation from the USB cable with a sharp utility knife: measure a distance of approximately 3-4 cm from the end of the wire and apply the knife to the wire.
- Then, in a circular motion, without pressing, draw the wire in a circle.
- Now pull the insulation - it should easily come away and expose the bundle of wires.
If you press too hard, cutting the insulation may damage the insulation of the wires underneath the outer layer of plastic you cut.
Then you will have to bite off the entire braid and repeat the procedure due to the fact that a slight violation of the integrity of the insulation usually leads to a short circuit. Now that you have prepared the wires yourself, you can proceed to the next step.
Soldering and insulating wires
- Take the wires of the cooler and the USB cable, remove about 10 mm of insulation and twist them so that the red wire is connected to the red, and the black to the black. Next, you will need a soldering iron to tin the twisted ends and thereby give strength to the connection. To do this you need to do this:
- heat the soldering iron and prepare a piece of rosin or flux;
- attach the twisted wires to rosin or soak them in flux;
- run the tip along the twisted wires if they are treated with flux, or apply them to a piece of rosin and press a little with a hot tip.
This process is called tinning the wires or treating the contact points with hot tin with your own hands. Rosin is needed to help the tin bond better to the surface of the bare USB wire.
Now you need to isolate the conductors to prevent this from happening. short circuit when connected to a computer's USB port. So, unwind a piece of electrical tape about 3-5 cm long and pass it between the soldered wires. Wrap one wire so that the tin-coated contact area is reliably insulated and no pieces of bare conductor are visible through the layers of insulating tape. Next, you need to cut off another piece of electrical tape and do the same with the second wire.
Stand
It's time to think about a stand for your DIY fan you just made. You will need a piece of copper or aluminum wire. Take a piece of wire and bend it into a “P” shape. Thread the ends into the bottom two bolt holes of the cooler. Bend the wire and thread the ends through the top holes. Now you can adjust the fan tilt level.
If there are many fans
You can make a whole battery of fans with your own hands. To assemble a fan from four or more coolers, you need to know how to properly connect them to the power source (USB connector of the computer), as well as how to connect these fans to each other.
Connecting cables
From school course physicists we know that there are two types of connections - serial and parallel.
With the first type of connection, you need to take the red (positive) wire from the USB cable and connect it to the red wire of the first cooler, and connect the black wire of the first cooler to the red wire of the second cooler, and so on. The last one, black, connects to the core of the USB cable of the same color.
Parallel connection is much simpler: all the red wires are assembled into one twist, just like the black ones. The red wires are connected to the red wire of the USB cable, and the black wires, respectively, to the black wire. To make the contact more reliable, you need to make tinning and wrap the contact points with electrical tape, as described above.
Decor
In any case, for these purposes you will need glue gun, which is usually used to make DIY products in mugs technical creativity or floristry. You can use it to glue the ribs of coolers in in the right places and let cool. But if you don't have a gun and just have wire and tape, you can fasten the coolers through the bolt holes with wire and wrap the edges with black tape.
So, you have managed to make sure that making a simple room air blower with your own hands is simple and accessible even to a person far from technical creativity. Such simple solutions are able to help out in a situation where you need to ensure coolness in the room in windless weather, and regular fan either it's broken or it's simply not in the house. In these cases, simple ingenuity comes to the rescue.