weak power supply for stir plate?

[Setesh]

OK, here you go:



Look at the plug you cut off your fan. Orient the connector in the same way this one is, with the little ridges pointed towards you. The wire on the left is negative, the middle wire is positive, the wire on the right is the tachometer/sense wire and should have no connection in your setup, just ignore it completely. Now you know what color is what. Hook up the wire that is the same color as the wire on the left in the plug to negative and the wire that is the same color as the wire in the middle of that plug to positive. Your fan should now function correctly.

 

[STL_Lucas]

Thanks I'll let you know as soon as I try this out tonight! I just got an email that my stir bar delivered so hopefully it works and I can test it out! Thanks again for the help.

 

[STL_Lucas]

That did the trick. The stir plate is up and running and after using the black wire and removing the yellow wire from the equation it's running much faster and holds a vortex in the flask. Last question is, is there any danger letting this thing run when I'm not home with any wires touching or anything happening. After running for a couple hours there is a white powdery like film coating the inside of the project box and the fan and I'm not sure why. It looks like some of my super glue from putting a small piece of pvc on my fan may have sprayed around the box a little but any ideas what could cause this coating in the box? I'm going to let it run overnight and check on it again in the morning just wondering what kind of risk there is with this type of a project. Thanks everyone for your help with this!

 

[Setesh]

That did the trick. The stir plate is up and running and after using the black wire and removing the yellow wire from the equation it's running much faster and holds a vortex in the flask. Last question is, is there any danger letting this thing run when I'm not home with any wires touching or anything happening.

Nice! I'm glad that worked out! You should be fine with the safety aspect as long as you hooked everything up correctly and in a sound manner. You are dealing with 12VDC at .5A so you don't have a lot of power to cause issues here. That said, there is always a danger of electronics melting down and causing fires. An electrician is who you should seek for answers about the safety of anything electrical you have made before trusting it with your or your families lives. Soldering connections and using wire nuts wrapped in electrical tape instead of just twisting wires together and wrapping in tape are good first steps in making sound connections. Always build strain relief into your system as well. Make sure the cable is securely attached to the project box and not just attached to the components. You want any tugs on the cable to tug on the box, not the component connections. Again, you should get an electrician's opinion on anything you have created before using it.

The white stuff is probably dried cyanoacrylate (super glue). Whenever it dries it vaporizes, then the vapor settles on things nearby. You can place the glued components in front of a fan next time and the fan will carry the vapor away instead of it being deposited locally. Rubbing alcohol can remove it. A few months ago I glued the halves of a hamster ball together as it kept falling apart (yes, I left the door portion unglued). I had forgotten about the vapor problem. My daughter brought it in to me the next day and we could see all of the finger prints left on the inside of the ball since the vapor deposits brought them out. This technique is used by forensic scientists to get finger prints off of surfaces and was pretty neat to see in action.

 

[STL_Lucas]

The white stuff is probably dried cyanoacrylate (super glue). Whenever it dries it vaporizes, then the vapor settles on things nearby. You can place the glued components in front of a fan next time and the fan will carry the vapor away instead of it being deposited locally. Rubbing alcohol can remove it. A few months ago I glued the halves of a hamster ball together as it kept falling apart (yes, I left the door portion unglued). I had forgotten about the vapor problem. My daughter brought it in to me the next day and we could see all of the finger prints left on the inside of the ball since the vapor deposits brought them out. This technique is used by forensic scientists to get finger prints off of surfaces and was pretty neat to see in action.

This is exactly what I think it is. I could see my finger prints and all. Thanks for clearing this up and thank you for all your help. I really appreciate all of the feedback and thank you all again for taking the time to respond.

 

[Setesh]

Thanks for clearing this up and thank you for all your help. I really appreciate all of the feedback and thank you all again for taking the time to respond.

You are more than welcome. Building/rigging things for brewing is one of the things I find most fun about it. There is a feeling of satisfaction you get from making something yourself that just can't be had any other way. It makes the beer you produce that much more 'yours' than if everything was purchased from the store. At least that's how I feel about it.