Stealth pc grow box help

hi fello smokers and growers im new to RIU and i was wonder how i could power my fans, light ect.. just with the computer power supply.

i have looked on the net and at stealth grow boxs but they aint really that stealy with 3 differnt wires comming out the pc!! so to stop fix this problem if n e 1 have n e ideas on how i can do this, i would be very grateful with your help. i am from the uk if that makes a difference.

well, your power supply should have a whole mess of wires coming out of it. these are the power cords for your drives, CD players, fans, etc.

there will be many of these ends, with the white plastic pieces on them. there should be a yellow, red, black and white wire on each set, and there should be at least 3 sets of these coming out of the power supply.

now, if you have an old pc fan in front of that came out of a PC, odds are it still has the plastic connector on it, allowing it to plug into the power supply directly. if not, you have to do a little modification.

coming off of the PC fan will be two wires, a red and a black. all you need to do, is clip one of the plastic connectors coming off the power supply, so that you have access to all 4 of the wires behind it. you need to strip off the red and black wires, so you can connect them to your fan.

now, if you want to power the lights off the same power supply, i don't think that is possible with the existing wires coming out of it. see, it is a sort of transformer, stepping the power down from 120v AC (from the wall) to 12v DC (to power the computer)

there is one way that may work for you if you want to keep the number of wires coming out of the back to a minimum. in essence, you will be splicing the power cord for your lights into the power cord for the PC, creating one cord.

if you look at the PC power cord, on the end that plugs into the computer, it is a large, 3 hole plug. cut this wire about 4 inches back from the plug, to expose the inside of it and the 3 wires inside. there should be a white cord, a black cord, and a bare copper cord.

next, grab the extension cord that you want to power your lights with. this can either be one of those regular 6-foot cords, or a power strip surge protector. what you need to do, is measure out how much cord you need to keep inside the case so you know how much to cut. cut the male end (the wall end) of the extension cord off, leaving 2 feet or so on the other end, enough to run into your box. now take this, and splice it onto the PC cord you just cut. when you are done, you should have a pc cord, with an extension cord coming out of it up near the back of the PC.

that seem straight forward enough to follow? i know, i'm terrible at explaining things. let me know if that is what you were looking for. anything else, just.

The one thing you didn't mention is ELECTRICAL TAPE! Any time you do this kind of Gerry rigging you are asking for trouble. I do it all the time myself, so dont think I am ragging on you about it. Just be sure to tape the shit out of the cord. You will be watering your plants, so remember water and electricity makes for pretty sparks and electrocuted growers.

yeah, all the way. never use any other tape other than electrical tape when you are dealing with electricity. the duct tape may be within reach, but it will melt and possibly fry out later.

also, leave enough cord that you can remove either the lights or the plants themselves when you are watering. never water around a lit light bulb.

hi there guys welcome to my thread this is the 1 u want to look at i dont know y i got 2 i am a newby getting use to the rope lol. this is the link that has my recent progress. thanks for your input

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/303200-stealth-pc-grow-box-help.html

I tried doing what you're doing but after some research I took out the computer power supply and replaced it with a standard USB wall charger. I got it for something like $10. I spliced all three of my fans into an old USB cable and plugged it in. I run an intake, exhaust, and internal circilaton fan off it and it seems to be working fine. It freed up a lot of room too, and there isn't much to spare in a PC case.

bill6567 said:

I tried doing what you're doing but after some research I took out the computer power supply and replaced it with a standard USB wall charger. I got it for something like $10. I spliced all three of my fans into an old USB cable and plugged it in. I run an intake, exhaust, and internal circilaton fan off it and it seems to be working fine. It freed up a lot of room too, and there isn't much to spare in a PC case.

Click to expand...

yea an thats y it had to go. good idea there with the usb. with the 3rd fan do you think i would need it?. i got the exhaust where the lights r and the intake at the bottom...??

I got the idea for the 3rd fan from somewhere on here. It was something like $15. It's actually pretty cool. It has a variable speed knob on it and a metal guard so you don't zap your fingers with it whenever you reach in to do something. It's from Thermaltake. I can leave it on low, or turn it up so high it makes the dirt fly all around. The way I have it now, it's just enough to make the leaves blow around a little. I have it hanging from the inside top of the box. but the cord is long enough that it can go anywhere in the box. I don't know if it's helping, but it sure didn't hurt last time. Plus, when my last plant ran out of room and started growing into the lights, I think the extra fan was the difference between the plant getting burnt and surviving.

When I actually think I know what I'm doing enough to actually help others, I'm going to do a grow journal.

Good luck!

perkie said:

yea an thats y it had to go. good idea there with the usb. with the 3rd fan do you think i would need it?. i got the exhaust where the lights r and the intake at the bottom...??

Click to expand...

bill6567 said:

I got the idea for the 3rd fan from somewhere on here. It was something like $15. It's actually pretty cool. It has a variable speed knob on it and a metal guard so you don't zap your fingers with it whenever you reach in to do something. It's from Thermaltake. I can leave it on low, or turn it up so high it makes the dirt fly all around. The way I have it now, it's just enough to make the leaves blow around a little. I have it hanging from the inside top of the box. but the cord is long enough that it can go anywhere in the box. I don't know if it's helping, but it sure didn't hurt last time. Plus, when my last plant ran out of room and started growing into the lights, I think the extra fan was the difference between the plant getting burnt and surviving.

When I actually think I know what I'm doing enough to actually help others, I'm going to do a grow journal.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

hi bill thanks for that imput that very intresting. i have got a 3rd fan that come with the pc that i did wire up to see if it worked, running with the others at 5v. it doesnt blow that hard because of that but the other fans do keep the temp around at 25c. if i was to put a switch on it, it wouldnt make no difference on the 5v so i would have to run that on a 7v a 12v for it to work probley. is that right...??

i am on a budget witch is abit of a problem aswell. have you got a link to the site for me and ill have a look

Here's the site for the fan. I couldn't find the thread where I got the idea, but all I did was take this and wire it in with the other fans. At max speed it is pretty powerful and loud. At about anything below 3/4 speed it's just about silent. When I eventually rebuild my PC case or make a new and slightly larger one, I am going to use these for intake and exhaust too. Mine gets all the power it needs on whatever a standard USB charger puts out. It seems to keep the single speed fans at about a perfect level and gives the variable speed fan all the juice it needs to go faster too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Thermaltake-AF0007-120mm-120-mm-Mobile-Cooling-Case-Fan_W0QQitemZ320484642666QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a9e5f8f6a

perkie said:

hi bill thanks for that imput that very intresting. i have got a 3rd fan that come with the pc that i did wire up to see if it worked, running with the others at 5v. it doesnt blow that hard because of that but the other fans do keep the temp around at 25c. if i was to put a switch on it, it wouldnt make no difference on the 5v so i would have to run that on a 7v a 12v for it to work probley. is that right...??

i am on a budget witch is abit of a problem aswell. have you got a link to the site for me and ill have a look

Click to expand...