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Created 2006-03-23 Views 4
Modified 2006-07-11 Id 283
Author Laurie | FAQmaster
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How to make a simple USB-powered fan (external)

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This tutorial is courtesy of Anton, aka .mp3. Originally inspired by Quinn's pictorial in the Forums.

Zalman USB-Powered Fan

Here's a simple guide how to build a USB-Powered Fan for your Apple Cube. Just follow these steps and you will have a cooled Cube in a couple of minutes. Note that you can use any fan you want, but I choosed the Zalman OP1. Note that this isn't my idea from the begining, I got the idea from Quinn from CubeOwner.

Here's a list of all things you need:

  • Zalman ZM-OP1 Fan
  • USB-Cable
  • Electrical-tape
  • Knife
  • Scissor

Well, let's get started. Start by cutting the USB-Cable in the length you want. And then start cut of the housing of the cable. Under the housing you should see the metalgrounding, cut that of to. Now you should be able to see four cables a white, red, green and a black. The only cables you need to care about is the black and the red. The green and the white are just for data. And your cable should look like this right now.

cube_1_thumb

Now it's time to start remove the housing on the red and the black cable. Take away a bit of the housing and separate the metalwires from each other on each cable. And your cable should look like this right now.

cube_2_thumb

Take the power-adapter that came with the Zalman fan and cut of one of the black/red cable that goes to the connector. So you just end up with two cables that goes to the same connector. Do same thing with the two cables as you did with the cables on the USB-Cable. Remove the housing and separate the wires from eachother on each wire. Here's a picture of the power-adapter.

cube_3_thumb

Now it's time twin the cables together, and this is the hardest part of the process. Twin the red cable from the fan connector with the red cable from the USB-Cable. And then you twin the black cable from the fan connector with the black cable from the USB-Cable. When you done that put some electrical-tape over each cable, and add some electrical-tape over the two cables. Voila it's finished, connect the Zalman fan to the connector and try it out. It should look like this.

cube_4_thumb

A really nice feature with this fan is that it can be powered by an USB poweradapter. For example an iPod poweradapter, it works perfect.

cube_5_thumb



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