Kabul Tanker

Hi,

I am looking for specs on a fan to install into my HL Tiger, to be mounted in front of the two motors. I figure on creating an opening where the drivers view slit is. However, two questions...

1. What sort of dan, I mean what voltage, amps, etc?

2. Where do I wire it in? I was thinking directly into where the power is fed from teh circuit board, that way the speed of the fan will adjust with teh demand being put on teh motor.

thanks!!

swathdiver

Unless you've upgraded your electronics and motors, you don't need a fan to cool them. The Suntech's already have built in cooling. What you might focus on cooling is the board- the part with the heatsink. Those babies getting hot and popping are why I have 6+ dead boards!

Kabul Tanker

Thanks... Ya all I have done is upgrade the tank with Metal gears and teh new mortors which came with them as a package. So should I mount the fan below the engine vents so it sucks air into the compartment, similar to speaker but on teh opposite side?

thanks

swathdiver

If you want to draw air into the compartment remember that dust and dirt will be drawn in too. You could make it an exhaust fan, you'd have to seal the other vents or air would be drawn into them to get to the fan. I bought some of that foam filter material that we use on home computers to filter the air but decided against it for now. A computer fan could be hooked directly to the battery, off the smoke unit or right off the motors so the faster the motors work, the faster the fan does to keep up.

Kabul Tanker

Hmmmm.. Good points. I am going to have to think about this. I was worried about putting a filter like material over the fan intake for fear of it getting clogged and being a pain in the .... but if I purchased teh metal grills... maybe I could place the screen between the plastic and metal grill so it could be easily accessed....

thanks for your input.

kevinb120

I wonder if you can use a normal computer motherboard chipset heatsink with the very small fan on the board [sm=72_72.gif]

swathdiver

Your welcome! Last year I was one of the new guys asking questions about my new tank. Now I get to return the favor and enjoy doing so. All these ideas promotes the hobby.

Yes, lotsa guys use computer fans in the tanks. Lately they've been using them in place of the 130 motor on the smoker, pretty ingenious of them!

Kabul Tanker

Well I have been messing around with the fan, running it and placing it in different spots, this is without consideration to what my be pulled in (ie dust, dirt, etc.). Well I have found it is such a small space that fresh air being pulled in from anywhere is a good thing. It does not need to directly blow on a specific board or part there of. Simply it needs to be placed so that it can pull in fresh cool air. There is only one place to mount it though.. Thats opposite to the speaker... now do you mount it to the chasis or the removable top portion... if the later now you have one more wire to worry about when you remove the top. Maybe a quick connect connector would do.. similar to what is used for a battery in your cordless phone.. this would allow you to essentially use adhesive silicone and place it right against teh engine grill.

If it is mounted to the chasis.. it will have to be built up so that the fan is right against the grill so that it draws in fresh air rather than circulating warm air. It will have to be put on mounts which would need to raise it almost 3/4 of an inch.

So far.. I have not decdied yet be I think we all prefer "Semi" permanent improvement 9in case they don't work) i.e. the silicone adhesive to the top portion rather than building the fan up to meet the grill...

having said this however... a tube could be placed between the fan and the grill, part of the build up process, which could have a slide in filter....

Any thoughts? This is important I feel though after hearing so many stories about burnt out boards.

Just thinking out loud.

Thanks!!!!

martin g

I used a 12V laptop fan. pic below, it blows right through the tank and out the rear vents. I connected it to the power switch so it is always running when the tank is on. I got it from tandy, like Radio shack i believe. This is a conversion from a non S+S tank by the way, without smoke of course. By siting it here idoes not draw in dust, the fan is just powerfull enough to circlulate, I assume the flow is from rear to fan and back rear again, just a gentle air movement to expel heat.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...n/IMG_1275.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...n/IMG_1277.jpg

Wozwasnt

I've used a CPU cooling fan to cool the heat sink and another for the smoke machine.-

Kabul Tanker

Have you had any dust problems with teh fan drawing air from teh plastic vents?

Kabul Tanker

Martin G

Question, where does your fan get its air from?.... There is no opening in front of where the fan is.... or does the fan simply move air around. Can you feel air come out of the grill area? I am a firefighter and we deal with fans alot and I know if there is not a source for air you simply just recirculate teh same hot air. My idea of putting it under the grills was to draw fresh air into the unit (although a filter may be required for teh dust now.)

THANKS!!!