majins
Well-Known Member
Thought Id make this to share what I have done and help anyone else that wants to simplify there active cooling.
I had previously been using old AC to DC power adapters from thing I no longer needed (Old modem 7V 2amp)
For my flower room
And for clone room a 5V adapter from a old shaver.
I got sick of this setup since had to run extra wires so decided to look into a DC-DC converter on the cheap.
I came across the LM2596 (buck transformer) which is a 12-50V input step down to 3-36V.
You pick them up for a few Dollars, I got a pack of 10 for $10
Just make sure you pay the $0.20 more for the 50V max input one since the cheapest one on ebay max input is 42V which will be too low for 3070 being driven hard.
Wiring is simple enough, Just wire it straight to the LED driver.
Before turning on make sure the trim pot is turned all the way down to its lowest voltage since if you go too far past 12V the fan will fry.
So far its been running for a hour and the buck transformer is barely warm to the touch.
Has gotten rid of the mess of wiring so there is only 1 cord coming off each LED which is the drivers AC input.
Also been able to adjust the fan speed to the point where it doesnt make any noise. On 7V the old PC fan is quite loud.
I guess reliability has also increased since you now have each fan taking its own power souce where before if the power adapter failed all the fans would stop.
Will update my findings after a few days once im 100% sure its not going to fail from input voltage being close to its limit. But with such little amps being drawn though it I doubt there will be a problem.
I had previously been using old AC to DC power adapters from thing I no longer needed (Old modem 7V 2amp)
For my flower room
And for clone room a 5V adapter from a old shaver.
I got sick of this setup since had to run extra wires so decided to look into a DC-DC converter on the cheap.
I came across the LM2596 (buck transformer) which is a 12-50V input step down to 3-36V.
You pick them up for a few Dollars, I got a pack of 10 for $10
Just make sure you pay the $0.20 more for the 50V max input one since the cheapest one on ebay max input is 42V which will be too low for 3070 being driven hard.
Wiring is simple enough, Just wire it straight to the LED driver.
Before turning on make sure the trim pot is turned all the way down to its lowest voltage since if you go too far past 12V the fan will fry.
So far its been running for a hour and the buck transformer is barely warm to the touch.
Has gotten rid of the mess of wiring so there is only 1 cord coming off each LED which is the drivers AC input.
Also been able to adjust the fan speed to the point where it doesnt make any noise. On 7V the old PC fan is quite loud.
I guess reliability has also increased since you now have each fan taking its own power souce where before if the power adapter failed all the fans would stop.
Will update my findings after a few days once im 100% sure its not going to fail from input voltage being close to its limit. But with such little amps being drawn though it I doubt there will be a problem.
