PC FANS - I damaged 3 of them but why?

- A
- areaseg
  
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posted
18 years ago

Mon, Apr 3, 2006 3:25 AM

Hello!

I have a question to you all, and, believe me, it is making me think about it, and I can't find any answer. Maybe because I dont know much about electricity and electronic. I just like of electronic for hobby.

That's the story:

I was testing some fans of my PC to make the temperature of my computer lower. So I removed the fan form it and so I connected the fan (12v , 0.15 A) to a 12v power supply. So, accidentaly, the wires that come from the power touched one another and it made a short circuit, about 4 inches before the fan.

For my experience with radios, ampliffers and other similar things, even some motors of tape dacks, I never have experienced similar thing. SO I thought that If the shor circuit is before the aparatus it just stop working while the short circuit is closed, but with the fan what happened? The fan did not work anymore. I did it with more 2 fans, just to test and they also are not working.

What have happened? Can anyone tell me why?

Best resgards,

Carlos

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- Phillip
  
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posted
18 years ago

Mon, Apr 3, 2006 4:17 AM

Sounds like the power supply is not working.....

- B
- Bruce Lane
  
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posted
18 years ago

Mon, Apr 3, 2006 12:46 PM

In article , snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com (known to some as snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) scribed...

I suspect the fans are perfectly all right, but the short probably killed the power supply. Let me guess -- it was a cheap wall-wart (AC adapter) type, right?

It's great that you want to expand your knowledge of electronics. However, if your level of knowledge on the subject is as low as you describe, it would be of enormous benefit for you to take some basic electronics courses from whatever community college is local to you (assuming they still have such available).

Failing that, you can also grow your knowledge (and add a new facet to your hobby) by studying for your amateur (ham) radio operator's license. See

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or

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for details.

There's more to me suggesting this path than just answering your question. Playing around with electronics, especially anything involving power supplies, can be very dangerous. Ignorance of even the most basic safety precautions (such as doing everything you can to avoid shorts, and using a proper lab-type power supply that has short-circuit protection built in) can literally put your life at risk in some cases.

To put this another way: Growing your knowledge of even the basics, including electrical safety, will greatly reduce the chance of your becoming a statistic.

Happy hunting.