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Step 5Final Assembly and Extra Touches
I used white plastic tape to hinge the door, although you could certainly use small hinges from a hardware store and simply glue them into place with the door fit into the front for proper opening and closing. I glued small lengths of foamboard inside the fridge assembly and then glued cut pieces of a flexible refridgerator magnet on both the inside of the door and the foamboard lengths to make a magnetic "catch" to hold the door closed. I also threw in a battery powered White LED and used a leaf switch to turn the light on when the door was open. I ran the wiring of the leaf switch along the inside and through a small hole in the back to attach to the AA battery holder glued to the outside back of the fridge, then used white plastic tape along the wire run, attaching it to the interior side.
For the handle I used a cheap hardware store drawer pull.
As you can see by the door, I wanted this to look like a store "cooler" that you see for drinks, so I cut a window and hot glued a section of plexiglass in the window.
For the handle I used a cheap hardware store drawer pull.
As you can see by the door, I wanted this to look like a store "cooler" that you see for drinks, so I cut a window and hot glued a section of plexiglass in the window.
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5V is fine for powering a fan (well duh you can get USB powered fans comercially). I am not sure how much current a USB port can handle.
Too be safe I would buy a cheap USB Hub with its own power supply and power the "fridge" off of that. It may or may not be as reliable but since it is powered off the hubs power supply you won't fry the power on your computers usb. I have two notebooks that have fried power on their usb ports (data connectivity still works but you need external power on the device, such as a hub).
For temp control couldn't you build a switch with some resistors to regular the current going into the module? Also, for a desktop hack perhaps you could wire the module directly to the power supply on the computer by routing the cable through an expansion slot. Of coarse with that you might get two effects. Firstly you might end up with a freezer rather than a fridge, and two the heatsink will could get extreamly hot. In that case you would def need some additional cooling.
Thanks for this instructable it has given me some ideas. Such as building a custom case (perhaps using styrofoam as an insulator) and a brand new module. Such as this one http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/QK66