Ok so I dismantled an old laptop we had sitting in the basement and I took out the fan. Its a pretty small fan but I still would like to power it up and stick it in the middle of my vino because an oust fan is too big to fit in between the shelves. How do I go about powering this fan? What do I need to buy at the hardware store? Thanks guys.
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For starters, you'll need a power supply. Still have the one from the laptop? That ought to do the trick, but you'll need to find a way to wire the fan to the power supply. Probably cut the end off the laptop power supply, and add a different type of connector that you can adapt to wires on the fan, maybe a small spade or bullet connector, something along those lines.

You may want to also consider one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...name=Case-Fans

You'll get a bit more air movement and they're still pretty small. And the lights are neat :-)
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You need to check out and see what voltage the fan runs at first. There should be a label on the top of the fan that says what it is.
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here's what I am working with. It probably won't do much of anything but I figured I would give it a shot.

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You need to match the fans voltage with the “output” voltage of an AC Adapter. The AC Adapter also needs an amperage rating equal to or higher than the fan. Most computer case fans have a sticker that shows the voltage and amperage.
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Those little fans work great. Best thing to do is to use an old cigar box to mount it to. If you have two fans you could do a push pull fashion. Only having one fan you could just cut a hole on one side for a breather?

Those little buggers vibrate a lot and tend to fall over and move around a lot when they are not mounted to something.
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so all I need is an AC adapter?
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You need the RIGHT AC adapter. But yeah, that's it, just a way to get DC voltage to the fan.
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The fan says 5v on the back
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This ought to work: http://laptopupgrade.stores.yahoo.net/5vacpowaddaf.html

Or drop by radioshack and see what they have.
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