Thermostat for 12v cooling fan

Post by **HumHead** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 9:40 pm

In the name of keeping a maximum of interior space, I am currently planning on hiding a bunch of electronics (radios, strobe supplies, inverter, etc.) in the void spaces behind the cargo area side panels of my Explorer.

While the equipment will have a very light duty cycle, I don't want heat buildup to become a problem, so I was considering adding some forced ventilation.

Does anyone have any suggestions (model and source) for a thermostat that could be used to switch a 12V cooling fan?

Thanks!!

Post by **alex** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 9:55 pm

Justin,

You might want to poke around your local computer store - some of them have custom thermostat controlled fans and such you can buy.

I would start there.

-Alex

motorolamonster911 · Post by **motorolamonster911** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 7:27 pm

If it was me and I was trying to find a cheep-0 temperature control I would get ahold of a basic HVAC 2 or 3 wire thermostat. Just set the thermostat to a setting and when it reaches it should give you a C/NC/NO output.

When we first put our microwave system in we put 2 in each tower shelter, 1 for Hi-Temp alarms and the other for Lo-Temp alarms. We just grabbed the NO output off the thermostat and fed it to the Netboss. It worked perfect. I might have an old one laying around, if so I will take a pic and post it here!

motorolamonster911 · Post by **motorolamonster911** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 7:33 pm

It was a really old version of one of these :

http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=product ... 1-79-40020

Post by **HumHead** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 9:01 pm

Thanks to all for the suggestions!

I did some digging through the Newark catalog, and found that Bud makes a small adjustable thermostatic switch for running cooling fans in racks, and it looks like just the ticket for this application.

http://rocky.digikey.com/WebLib/Bud%20I ... 0TS-22.pdf

They are around $25 each but, all things considered, it seems like reasonably cheap insurance.

There are also a bunch of fixed value devices for $5-10 that are designed to monitor heat sink temperatures, but for the few extra dollars, I think I'll opt for adjustability.