I'm thinking that since I will be running all the same fans on one channel then I could get rid of the yellow wires on two of the fans and keep just one yellow wire to show the rpm of the set of fans. That is if I were to use a fan controller with an rpm sensor.
Are there any decent guides to first time soldering of fan wires?
I'm pretty sure that splicing all three RPM wires together like in the picture beow is where I went wrong, back when I was actually interested in monitoring it on my digital controller. Leaving only one RPM wire will work, and should give you an accurate representation of what all three fans are doing since they are all getting pretty much the same amperage.
I'm not looking to get the rpm sensor working. I'm actually going to use a fan controller without the rpm showing. I am just looking to see what the cleanest way to chain the fans together will be.
I'll let you know how I did my wiring while you're waiting for C. It's quite easy once you actually put the fans on the rad and visualize it. I did this without a guide, and without any prior soldering experience and it worked out just great. Since you want to leave one RPM wire, this example will include that. Sorry, at the time I did not take step by step pictures but I think you will get the drift.
Assuming you have the fans, you'll need:
1. Wire Strippers that go down to 20 gauge.
2. Wire cutters or kitchen shears.
3. Shrink tubing & Lighter - 2 or 3mm and some 1cm tube should do.
4. Solder gun and solder. Optional, you don't really need this, but I'm anal. Practice on some scrap wire b4 you start. It's pretty easy though.
5. Some kind of mat to solder over so you won't burn what's underneath.
- Use the nozzle end of the rad as a reference. The wires on a stock yate loon fan will reach the length of the rad.
- Pull all 9 of the wires tight along the side of the fan bodies like in my picture and cut them all in the same place(save the ends), but make sure to leave a few inches to play with. When you do this, obviously the far fan will have the longest wires, shorter for the mid and shortest for the near fan. Then nip the yellow wire of from the far and middle fans right at the fan body.
- Then bundle the far fan wires and the middle fan wires and slip a shrink tube over them and slide it back as far as it will go. This will hold the wires tight to the fan frames and keep things neat. This is shown in the picture below.
- Then do the shrink tube thing with the 4 bundled wires from the far and mid fans and the 3 wires from the near fan to keep them tight to the side of the fan bodies as is also in the picture below.
- Now you've got a bundle of 7 wires (3 black, 3 red and 1 yellow).
- Strip about 3/4" of insulation of each wire in order of color, and twist the matching colors together into one.
- Slip a 2" piece of shrink tube over each twisted pair as well as the yellow wire and pull it back out of the way. You can just as easily do this on the fan connector side. Then slip a 2" piece of bigger shrink tube over that.
- Now take the fan connector you cut from the near fan, cut to desired length, strip 1" of insulation and twist together with the corresponding color wires on the rad side. Solder each connection, slip the shrink tube over the each soldered connection and heat it. Then the larger shrink tube over the three connections, heat it and you're done.
Finished product:
