Arctic Alpine 11 plus discrepancy.

NorthernHize

NorthernHize

Well-Known Member
I got my LEDs mounted to my heatsinks, without breaking a bit or tap I might add. I always like to test things so I Hooked the fans up in parallel and attached them to my adjustable power supply to see how many amps they would draw, and was a little confused. The box says at 12v the fan requires 0.24A however all three of them consumed 0.57A it doesn't add up. I am familiar how voltage and amps work in parallel and series circuits. Anybody care to offer an explanation?
 

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NorthernHize

NorthernHize

Well-Known Member
Oh trust me I'm not worried, it's great that it draws less. In this case however isn't the load already calculated, and how would the load change. Maybe as the fan got dirty and somehow created some resistance, but that could only be nominal.
 
NorthernHize

NorthernHize

Well-Known Member
I thought the same thing at startup there an initial spike in draw. However that's a good point that it would be a maximum and not a constant. It's probably more relevant for a power supply in a computer anyway.
 
9

95'ZR1

Active Member
In that picture is that a meter or a power supply that shows what it's putting out and you can control the voltage?
 
Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
I just re built one of my lights that uses artic coolers. I never tested the fan before so don't have anything but observation to go off here but...
The fans were quiet and always seems slow to me, but my case and heatsink temps were dandy, so never questioned it...also was my first time with artics. I just yesterday rebuilt the light...re-did some soldering of a loose connection on one fan...and now I have much more air movement on all my fans.
I think that when stripping the artic wires it is easy to take a few strands off...since there isn't many strands in those little wres to start, there isn't many to spare. And that plus the sketchy soldering made a shitty circuit and I wasn't getting full power.

Sounds like you have a different problem than I did...but is worth double checking all the connections anyways.
 
NorthernHize

NorthernHize

Well-Known Member
Abiqua said:
Load changes because of many parameters: heat, components, circuitry.

Efficiency is going to skew that #.
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You bring up very valid points. But isn't the fan the only component? And the circuitry I assume has already been taken into account by the manufacturer, weather proprietary or not. So I could see as the temp in my grow area increases that would increase the load, a bit.
 
NorthernHize

NorthernHize

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
I just re built one of my lights that uses artic coolers. I never tested the fan before so don't have anything but observation to go off here but...
The fans were quiet and always seems slow to me, but my case and heatsink temps were dandy, so never questioned it...also was my first time with artics. I just yesterday rebuilt the light...re-did some soldering of a loose connection on one fan...and now I have much more air movement on all my fans.
I think that when stripping the artic wires it is easy to take a few strands off...since there isn't many strands in those little wres to start, there isn't many to spare. And that plus the sketchy soldering made a shitty circuit and I wasn't getting full power.

Sounds like you have a different problem than I did...but is worth double checking all the connections anyways.
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Your dam right there aren't to many strands! I had to cut one of them twice and rest strip the insulation so that all the strands were intact. My fan speeds are all about the same I checked with a rpm meter that I have. My temps are perfect as well. I guess what I a missing is that a minimum amp draw at this point is unknown, and most likely is what I am operating at.
 
Abiqua

Abiqua

Well-Known Member
NorthernHize said:
You bring up very valid points. But isn't the fan the only component? And the circuitry I assume has already been taken into account by the manufacturer, weather proprietary or not. So I could see as the temp in my grow area increases that would increase the load, a bit.
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Yes, but the power supplies will vary...I bet if you could calculate efficiency of the circuit and subtract the v drop, and it probably would be inline with specs....:peace:

Agan, this all seems normal, what isn't normal is when your 12v fan is drawing 15v's in a unregulated power supply.....
 
Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
I have a note pad I write stuff down in and I just saw under my notes on the alpines I have .18a written down. Can't find a link in my files to where it would be from, but ill keep looking. I'm out of town right now otherwise I would just go test them.
 
NorthernHize

NorthernHize

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
I have a note pad I write stuff down in and I just saw under my notes on the alpines I have .18a written down. Can't find a link in my files to where it would be from, but ill keep looking. I'm out of town right now otherwise I would just go test them.
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.18 amps is right there with what myself and Supra tested ours at. Like I said I'm not paranoid or worried but at the figures I came up with it was like only have 2 fans running at the suggested amp draw.
 
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