Alright, ive made a homemade laptop cooler, and everythime I want to use it, i have to plug and unplug it, i have harvested a power button off an old desktop i had. Also i took an LED too. I was wanting to know how to splice the LED to glow when the fan on the cooler is on.
you will need a resistor in the positive wire to the led. then splice the + & - from the led to the + & - of the fan. if your fan is running off 12v, use a 420 ohm resistor or if your fan is with 5v then use a 70 ohm one. this would have been better placed in the modding section, but since it's here please show pics of it being built!
well, its not really much just a card borad and duct tape model i hopt to get some plastc sheets and make a permeanet one in the next week or so. Ill post pictures anyways.
Heres the pictures! This is a front view. The blocks in the upper corner allow my laptop to sit at an angle to increase air circulation. Heres a side view the small black square in the box corner is a double rocker switch. Im also showing the 12v DC power pack. Heres the inside, not much, just abunch of taped down crap. A kinda sideview of the inside. Those big wads of crap on the sides and the top is what supports the box. Its not much, but it gets the job done.
duct tape prototype action! i would say to get your led connected, and then transfer everything to wood. hardboard would be good for the top and bottom pieces. the "shower board" variety would give you a glossy white finish.
I got 4 LEDs and found out that they each run on 3v, so when i wired them all together in the circut, I didnt need any resistors, because that adds up to 12v!
Very good job! To many people get too wound up in making it ultra neat (like me ). Very functional and I love Duct tape.
you still need a resistor, even if it is only 1 Ohm or so, because leds do only drop voltage, but have no real resistance. if you put only leds, there is a risk of the current becoming quite big and burning those precious leds.
I heard on the radio a cop called in a suspected bomb. Turned out to be the innards to a toilet. He really needs to turn in his man card.
