USB Powered Desk Fan From JUNK

This is a small fan that you can put on your desk and is powered solely by the USB port on your computer. This can be made completely from junk and is a great first project for both USB and soldering. It is relatively easy, but some parts will take patience.

Step 1 Gather Materials

These are the parts you will need:

-Small Motor (you can get this from a portable fan)
-Fan Blades (you can also get these from a portable fan)
-USB cable (sorry, the one in the picture is different from the one used later on)
-Case (This is where you get to be creative; see step 3 for more info)

Tools:

-Soldering Iron
-Solder
-Knife (any kind will do; you can also use wire strippers)
-Tape (electrical tape is best, but I was out)
-Hot Glue Gun (this is not totally necessary, but it's the best thing for securing the motor)

Comments

[account3r2]

if you taped/tied the usb wires to the original wires and then pulled them out, you could have saved some trouble.

[Gage987]

What happened to your other eye?

[firestormcomputers]

I hope you dont only own an Emac yikes! I would never be able to live with myself . . .

[TheOneEyedHobo]

I think my head would have exploded by now if that were the case :)

[firestormcomputers]

good

[LinuxH4x0r]

Don't worry about overheating - theres a fan in front of it, and that sould create enough airflow to cool it. I like it except for the huge lamp base.

[vaiden]

USB is around 5 volts

[damntourists]

i think the problem is the fact that there's no voltage limit for the motor... find out what the max voltage is for it, then put a resistor on it.. or something

[TheOneEyedHobo]

The problem is definitely that there's no voltage limit. This is supposed to be an easy project and I didn't want to go into resistors.

[Bran]

I think these are 1.5v motors. Could be slightly more, but I've ran 9v through mine, and they still work, but you can't run 'em that hard for too long.

[Bartboy]

They are 3v, because they take 2 aa or 2 aaa

[jinventive]

Normally the motors are around 3volts.

[sardines454]

brilliant!!! making one right away!!! keep up the good work!!!

[sardines454]

one problem: if you leave this plugged in for 5 or more minutes my motor over heats ridiculously, other than that it works great though

[Bran]

Could the over heating problem be due to the fact that some of the hot glue might be covering holes in the motor which air used to flow out of? This is a great Instructable!

[sardines454]

hot glue isn't my problem, i know since i didn't use any glue, instead i taped it with electrical tape. could that be a problem?

[Bran]

I guess anything that doesn't let air go out of the motor will overheat it. I was wondering about just mounting it with the back end, due to the fact that the air doesn't flow through the back (I have a few of these motors myself).