fan controllers... potentiometers?

Dough1397

Senior member
Nov 3, 2004
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so say i was bored and wanted to try to make a fan controller (just vary the speed of the fan) could i use a pontentionmeter? 3 pins on a standard fan, one black, one red, one something else (tells rpm?)

how would i do this, i know a potentiometer has 3 inputs, one for power input, one for output, and one more to defien max amout of power.... where would i attach teh last one too? split the black of the fan into two? one for input and one for the max power lead?
 
Aug 27, 2002
10,043
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or you could just get a 50Ohm 3W rheostat...and a pot is just a rheostat with a divisible center point. resistance from the center point is variably adjacent the other side. if side 1's resistance increases, side 2's resistance decreases equally.