Simple USB fan

This simple fan is designed to keep your wireless internet router cool!

Step 1: Construction

Materials

-Cable with male USB end
-12v computer fan
-Solder
-Electrical tape

Assembly

Strip the ends of the USB cord to revel 4 wires. Strip only the ends of the blue and green wires. Strip the ends black and red wires on the fan too. Solder the Green wire to the black one and the green to the red. Wrap electrical tape around the connections. Now wrap electrical tape all around the exposed wires. Plug it in to your computer's USB and Place on a vent on the router. This simple fan will keep it from over heating during long uses and will prolong its life.

Comments

[knexfreak32]

I just want to let you know that when you talk about soldering it basically sounds like you are saying + connected to - which = short circuit.But your probably not saying that.

[hsarode1]

I dont noe what is the voltage that comes from USB red n blac wires pls can eny1 tell me what is the voltage running in a usb port

[dog digger]

5v

[colorex]

Dude you have the same router as I. Mine also gets hot... It's a WRT150N... :)

[Justins210]

Nice instructable and stuff, but I am not rly all for simple passive USB projects like this. Guess what happens if you short out or pull to much current from the USB port....boom your port is fried ( yes this has happened to me.). I'm just saying u have to be really careful and have experience to do this stuff ( from the looks of it your not because you are using a wood burner to solder.). ;)

[dmonday]

POE uses 15 volts, the fan should be able to handel 3v difference

[evan1123]

The correct connection should be black to black and red to red. White and green are the lines for data transfer, red and black provide power.

[iProton]

Would this mod be enough to keep an HDD cool?

[Hakimi]

How come 5V power from USB... powering 12V Computer fan?? Is it become slower? Why not just taking a parallel power from same DC power jack that supply to router since the power from DC adapter is 12V?

[DBLinuxLover]

I had a ghetto-er version. I have a Linksys WRT54G, so there's lots of room to play around with inside. Mounted a 40MM fan inside, and soldered the wires on to the power connectors.

[jgeekw]

pretty ingenious. keeps it covert. How were you able to take apart your router. Last linksys I tried to get into, i had to basically crack the shell cause there we no screws. I even looked under the rubber feet.

[DBLinuxLover]

Okay, before I start, doing this will void your warranty. You have to pull the blue front away from the black shell. It's probably attached with a sticker of some sort. Press down on the black shell while pulling away on the blue, It may seem destructive, but there are no screws.

[jgeekw]

cool. thanks for the info

[Xellers]

Do you know if it would be possible to use one of the cables that plugs into the router for power? Could it be used instead of a USB connection? I want to know because I have a computer that's not always on, and a hot router that's always on because we have a Skype phone (definitely worth buying). I want to see if I can get the router to power its own fan. Thank you.

[jgeekw]

Check out DBLinuxLover's Post. You could do it that way.

[dylanwinn]

Use any old wall wort you have lying around. I didn't have a spare usb cable, so I used a 120 volt AC - 5.4 volt DC transformer with an 80cm CPU fan, and it works well.

[Xellers]

I know I can do that, and I have plenty of them laying around, but I want to know if I can use the router's own power.

[Charger_06]

Yea, that would work. I don't know witch terminals have power and ground though? I'll look in to that. You'll also have to get the etherheart connector.

[Xellers]

I have many of those router cables, so I guess I can cut one to see what wires there are. If there are power leads they will probably be red and black, and some poking around with a voltmeter will probably determine everything for sure.

[Yerboogieman]

maybe red/white

[roelor]

only got a black red white and green cable. I think i should use the white and green

[updown789]

no use the black to black(black usb to black on fan) and the red to red, thats the power for the usb cable

[roelor]

O wait i get it the green and black ones,

[animal0307]

umm yea thats not really a smart idea because a usb port doesnt put out 12v of power and if you try to draw to much from you usb you could fly the port or worse your computer... you are better off splicing you fan wires into the power pack of you router

[martini161]

not true, itll just only draw 5v from the usb to keep the fan quiet ;p

[bigt4616]

ya, i agree with martini on this. your computer would only let 5 volts come out and if it overloads it, the computer is smart enough to shut off the port.

[Sk8erCk4Life]

I added a twenty five foot audio cord onto it. So will it mess my PS2 up.

[MrSmartGeek]

umm, u should really use a 5.1 volt computer fan

[Nameless37]

Doesn't usb only give 5V and the fan is 12V BTW where did you get the fan?

[Charger_06]

yup it keeps the rougher cool though. and i got it off a heat sink out of an old computer. you can buy them just about anywhere though.

[dylanwinn]

Should the fan point up or down? (Blowing into or sucking out of the router)

[DBLinuxLover]

Its better to have it blowing out of the router. (remember in science there is no such thing as "suck". lol). Its better to have it pull cool air up from the bottom, drag it over the components, and blow it out. But it should work either way.

[dylanwinn]

[Update] Never mind, I pointed the fan down (blows into router) and cranked the transmitter up to 70 DB up from the 42 DB factory default (Using the Tomato Custom Firmware), and after 5 minutes, the router is no warmer than my keyboard. [/Update]

[Eeeeeeeeeekz]

how were you able to adjust the db signal?

[dylanwinn]

In the tomato firmware, go to wireless > advanced. Find transmitter power, then change it to anything you want. Then hit save. A little warning though, setting it any higher than 150 could reduce the life of your router and/or cause upstream connection issues (the device gets a powerful signal from the router, but the router gets a very weak signal from the device). You can safely set the power at about 70 DB without a fan, higher with one, though 255 is the physical limit.

[power]

there's a problem with mine. it always say unrecognized driver when I plug the usb into it what can I do?

[kraM]

if you have red and dlack wires on the cable attach the fan to those red to red, blk to blk, if thaat dos not workt just try different combos

[power]

tried all combos. still doesn't work even though the cable is still new

[kraM]

check this site out if this dos not help you mite be sol http://www.hardwarebook.info/

[Nirjuana]

Youknow, USB gives you just 5v so I guess the fan don't spin as fast as it could.