Home-Made Cooling Pad With Speed Control

Hey guys, well last night and this morning i was busy making my self a home made cooling pad, with some crap laying around the house. I don't know if there is already one but i'll put this one up. I will upload pictures tomorrow. The total project was about 1 hour and cost less than $10. It also has a speed control which is cool (it is built on my ac/dc adapter so you will make yours). My mother-tongue is not English but French, so excuse the words i might use or not use. Also their are some tools i couldn't translate the name, but when pics are up I'm sure you will know

ENJOY!!

Buy:

-Circle Connectors ($1.99 at ace hardware)
-Plumbing 1 inch end tubes ($.99 for two at ace hardware)
-Electric Tape ($1.99 ace hardware)
-Control switch ($1.45 walmart)

Get From Home:

-How ever many fans you want (i have 5)
-1 AC/DC Adapter from old phone charger, radio...
-Soldering equipement (optional)
-Plywood board
-Shoe rack
Hot Glue Gun (or regular glue)
-Electric Saw
-Electric Drill
-Hammer
-Ruler
-Sharpie

STEP 1:

First take your the measurements of your laptop, add two inches in length and width. Now get a piece of plywood (or any material) i choose plywood because it is easy to cut trough. Then apply your measurements to the board and cut it to the specifications.

STEP 2:

Take your fans, and unplug the plastic connector at the end. Now cut the white or yellow cable off. Now take a knife and pluck the top end rubber off (1/2 inch) is a good length. Repeat step to all your fans.

STEP 3:

Take the measurements of all your fans, if you have all the same, obviously times the number of fans. Now figure where you want your fans to be, if you have a specific layout in mind, apply it. I would suggest if you have a bigger fan, place in in the middle, with the smaller ones around. You can also place them where your laptop gets the hottest, you can draw approximatively on a piece of paper where those locations so you can remember where to put them. Now, center your fans with the ruler, and draw 4 points around your fans. Connect the dots .

STEP 4:

Now that you have your fans schematics laid out, you can cut those out with the electric saw or screw driver. Follow the outline of the fan shape and cut it out. I suggest leaving a 1/4 corner on all four sides so you can have more grip when putting glue.

STEP 5:

Find an old ac/dc adapter with less than with about 12 Volts (its on the tag) and strip the end of both wires. Solder the connector to the red wire and do the same for the black wire. Note, if you don't have a soldering device, you can just tie the wires around the connectors and use a pair of dykes to squeeze the connector and the wire together tightly. Wrap the plastic grip of the connector to the wire with electric tape for a tight fit.

STEP 6:

Take all your fan's red wire and combine them together by making them into one big wire. Do the same for the black wire. Now, attach a connector to each of the wires, just like in step 5 and wrap the plastic grip of the connector to the wire with electric tape for a tight fit.

STEP 7:

Cut two wires about 3 inches of one red wire and a black wire. Strip both ends off (for both). Now you will attach the red wire to the red connector by soldering it or twisting it around the connector. Do this for both. For the black wire ,please connect it to the black connector . Now Take the red wire from the AC/DC adapter and connect the end of the recently soldered red wire and solder it to the AC/DC adapter's red wire. Do the same for the black wire. Wrap the ends in electrical tape as well the middle wires so they are sturdier.

STEP 8:

Somewhere before the ac/dc connector. Solder two separate wires (black and red) to their respective partners ( black - black) (red - red) Strip the end of both wires, and connect your control switch to it. Depending on the switch it could be a light switch with increase gradually or just a switch, you will have to make a place for the adapter to fit. If you have long wires, you can make a separate control which is cool.

STEP 10:

Glue your fans side up with the hot glue gun, make sure that the cables don't get stuck in each other's fans. Glue the fan's red and black connector to the board solidly. Tape your wires that are dangling down on the board as well.

STEP 11:

Glue the plumbing end tubes open side up. so that you can have some feet to move your pad around. Make sure you have enough clearance from the surface, add height accordingly.

STEP 12:

Cut an ikea shoe rack that your parents have in the shoe closet. Cut it specifically to the dimensions of your laptop. Glue it on top the board, where the surface is plane duh!

FINAL STEP 13:

Have the switch on low or off. Plug your ac/dc adapter in the outlet and let it rip. Look for any signs of instability, in which case shut it down or unplug it. Now let it run for about 5 minutes to make sure everything is working. Now you can put your laptop on it and let it be icy cold

Hope you enjoyed the Tutorial and it can be useful for some people.



PS: Follow this tutorial at your own risk. Use safety equipment when needed and work in well ventilated area.

Thanks for reading!

F!nn



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As Promised Here are the Pictures!
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Here are the screenshots of the change in temperature before and after using my super cooling pad.

Before:


After:



There are some nice temperature drops, as for the airport card, i can't figure that one out.

I also made two videos to show the power of the cooling pad. I also think i might have inverted the two upper fans because they were sucking the bottom part of the paper down lol

 

Radio Shack was selling USB fans with speed control a while ago. I bought three of them. I just plug it into a USB port and place the fan underneath the laptop. I use wooden spools or glass jars to raise the MBP higher so that there's room underneath.

 

Sounds like a great mod dude (but couldn't you include pics? :/)

 

Sounds like a great job! I would like to see some temperature changes too . As Tolkannn said, could you post some pics of your cooler?

 

Cool mod F!nn can't wait to see pictures when you post them..I do believe he said he would post pictures soon..

Lynn

 

I really hope so, I want to see this baby!

 

I really do too! I need some ideas for when I play COD: WaW, because that game will fry my MB.

 

Sounds neat, but lets see some Pictures!!

 

Hey Guys, I am going to post some pictures in about two hours, im stuck in this gnarly web design 150 for some bit more

I wont keep you waiting too long

 

pics are in!

 

Thanks for the pictures! I think that's a great idea, and a great job also! I might just try making one of those myself.

 

No Problem, glad you liked it

 

Good pictures thanks for posting them
I'll build one when I get my MBP.
Lynn

 

You are really creative man!

 

You might want to make sure the total current usage from all the fans is less than the max provided by the DC adapter. Drawing more current than the adapter can provide can lead to overheating.

 

It's been on for 15 hours full throttle because i was exporting some movies.

So, i'm guessing it passed the Quality Control

Thanks!

 

holy sh!t awesome.

+1 internet for f!nn