• Welcome to RCTalk! 🚀

    Join the #1 RC community where hobbyists connect, share, and get expert advice on RC cars, trucks, boats, drones, and more!

    • Friendly & passionate RC enthusiasts
    • RC tips & troubleshooting
    • Buy, sell & trade RC gear
    • Share builds & upgrades

Cooling Fan

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

El Pirata

RCTalk VIP
Messages
7,212
Reaction score
7
Points
221
Location
2nd Star to the Right
RC Driving Style
  1. Bashing
I was thinking anout trying to mount a CPU fan in one of my buggies as a prototype for cooling both the air that geting into the engine as well as cooling the engine itself as well. I was thinking about placing it where the crude rectangle is in the pic and running it off say, 1 aa battery. What do you guys think?

cpufanplace.JPG
 
How do you plan on mounting it? Some type of angle bracket and use those two screws to hold it in place? What size fan are you thinking?
 
Originally posted by mcvickj
How do you plan on mounting it? Some type of angle bracket and use those two screws to hold it in place? What size fan are you thinking?
I could be crazy wrong but dont most CPU fans work off 120 A/C. I know I've seen 12DC, I dunno If one AA 1.5v wil do it or not? But I've been wrong alot in my life
 
Everything in a computer outside of the power supply itself is at most 12V DC. The power supply steps the power down to that level for every device... other devices such as USB use 5v and so on... but no more than 12V DC. I don't think a 1.5v AA battery would do much to a CPU fan, nor do I think it would really work. I think your idea is good, but I just don't see any practical way of pulling it off... a fan would get trashed so fast in a buggy anyway with crap getting in it, bouncing around, flipping over... I just don't think it would work out well. I don't mean to sound negative for the idea... the idea is awesome, just don't see it happening on something like this.
 
why not trying to hook it up to a 9v battery? That seems like it would work. then so crap doesn't get into it, get an old air filter element and trim it down and put it over the fan. I think it will work.

L8r,
Garrett

o yeah.. btw, nice storm. but isn't that the stock engine? why? lol jk
 
Originally posted by notriceforsupper
why not trying to hook it up to a 9v battery? That seems like it would work. then so crap doesn't get into it, get an old air filter element and trim it down and put it over the fan. I think it will work.

L8r,
Garrett

What kind of air filter u talking about stretching out...a 1:1 cause a 1/8 just dont work, maybe we're thigns of something diffrent

Originally posted by notriceforsupper
o yeah.. btw, nice storm. but isn't that the stock engine? why? lol jk
Because of the dual K's with Twin Sirio .27s
:yes:
 
Don't do it man !! The rotational direction of the fan blade in direct proportion to the wheel spin will offset and cause the flight path to be uncontrollable. This has been tested by NASA when they were going to send a K3 to Mercury. The project was scrapped and I hear that the prototype K3 is in the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum.



Or maybe you could get a small cpu fan from Radio Shack that runs off a 9V battery.
 
Originally posted by militarymaxx
Don't do it man !! The rotational direction of the fan blade in direct proportion to the wheel spin will offset and cause the flight path to be uncontrollable. This has been tested by NASA when they were going to send a K3 to Mercury. The project was scrapped and I hear that the prototype K3 is in the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum.



Or maybe you could get a small cpu fan from Radio Shack that runs off a 9V battery.
I was thinking of radio shack too. I am quite certain since it's an electric motor that it will spin quite well off a single AA but if need be I can do a 9v battery. If I was going to add a filter of some sort I think I'd just opt to add a piece of screen door material on each side of the fan.
 
You could cut up a pair of nylons to use as a filter. I don't think screen door material would be enough.
 
A guy at the local track got one off Ebay. It's even got a thermostat, so when the truck shuts off, the fan continues to run till the engine is down to a pre-set temp. It's not a high volume blower but it makes a big difference, according to him. It's powered by the same pack that runs the receiver. Very low current draw.
He mounted it with zip ties on the side of the cooling head. Right about where you have that flat rectangular piece. It's cooling a Sirio .18.
 
Originally posted by ImBroken
Hey El, ya got an extra pair of Nylons layin around?


lol
Now that's actually a great idea. Hell I can pick up a cheap pair at the store and try them out. The only worry I have is that the nylons will be too big to fit semi tightly around a CPU fan. Maybe cutting it into pieces and zip ties will be the answer.

Originally posted by Rolex
A guy at the local track got one off Ebay. It's even got a thermostat, so when the truck shuts off, the fan continues to run till the engine is down to a pre-set temp. It's not a high volume blower but it makes a big difference, according to him. It's powered by the same pack that runs the receiver. Very low current draw.
He mounted it with zip ties on the side of the cooling head. Right about where you have that flat rectangular piece. It's cooling a Sirio .18.
So the fan itself is actually connected to the engine? I never thought about that approach.
 
Originally posted by El Pirata
Now that's actually a great idea. Hell I can pick up a cheap pair at the store and try them out. The only worry I have is that the nylons will be too big to fit semi tightly around a CPU fan. Maybe cutting it into pieces and zip ties will be the answer.

So the fan itself is actually connected to the engine? I never thought about that approach.
I think he was making a joke not helping you, lol.
 
I've seen people ziptie a fan to the top of the cooling head, and run it off of a 9V, but I don't think it did much good.:doc:
 
Naa, it takes a lot of heat to melt plastic. A lot more then your engine at 250 degrees at it's hottest point. The cable ties don't melt do they?

CPU fans get really f'ing dusty and they still work okay. I'd just go bare and see if it makes a difference. Then you can put something over it, but if you're only running it at 1.5 or even 9v it won't have a lot of power and anything dense enough like nylon will probably restrict the air flow too much.

If you tun the buggy with the lid on, it will only get dusty, not muddy, unless you drive through puddles.

If you need more power, just hook up a 12v gel cell. I'm sure the extra 10 pounds won't make much difference.
 
I always love these discussions.

EP, is your engine running so hot that you actually think a little fan is worth the effort? I don't want to discourage your creative thought process, but you add one more mutliple moving part gadget to a buggy like yours and you are only asking for more hardcore damage when you frag that sucker.

I personally think that your engine only needs additional cooling of this nature if it is overheating. The cooling head and ram air cooling that the vehicle's motion provide are typically sufficient...otherwise, our RC manufacturers would be including some kind of fan unit or radiator unit similar to a 1:1 auto.

Experiment away, but do not be surprised if you see no real gains from this.
 
Originally posted by SkyMaxx
Experiment away, but do not be surprised if you see no real gains from this.
Man am I getting a greast supply of daggers from you... I was going to try it no matter what anyone else said but I was looking for a few ideas. I can't wait until radio shack opens tomorrow.
 
Do your thing El, let us now what happens. Hey mount it on the roof and have a helli....................lol. That could help on the landing for that big jump you are planning.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top