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Fan at specific wattage only

Michael Redwine

Jul 11, 2014
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Jul 11, 2014
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Hello,

Forgive me if I use the wrong terminology, but I'm posting here because I'm having a hard time finding the answers I seek elsewhere, and I'm a chemistry geek, not an electronics geek. ;) Anyway, here is what I am trying to do:

I have a PS4, and it is in a cabinet. It gets nice and toasty. I want to set up a dual case fan. I could attach it to USB, but that is less than ideal because the PS4, even in sleep mode, puts out enough USB power to power the fans. This is not ideal. Plus, I don't like having cords hanging out the front unnecessarily.

SO, what I would like to do is to have some sort of pass-through so I could plug the fans into the back through the main power supply. IE, the power cord from the wall -> fan -> PS4 (I hope that makes sense). However, I would like the fan to turn off when the PS4 is put into sleep mode.

And this is where I come to you guys. The following url, (http://tinyurl.com/mavv7q3), is a link to a webpage that shows the power consumption of the PS4 during normal usage and sleep mode. According to this webpage, I would like my fan to stop when my PS4 is drawing less than 20 watts, and turn on when it is drawing more than 20 watts (these numbers are just an estimation... they can be whatever is appropriate to achieve my goal).

So... how can I do this? I assume a circuit board of some sort, with stuff. Yeah, I know, I'm a newbie, clueless, whatever. I'm pretty smart, and I can figure things out if explained... I just don't have the knowledge to figure it out myself.

Anyway, if anybody is able and willing to help, and has a bit of patience (I'm very analytical the way my brain works, and I may have to ask from pretty detailed questions for my own warm fuzzy), I'd be extremely grateful.

Hell, if a component already exists that does something like this that can just use a bit of modification, that'd b great too.

Thanks!

Michael
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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There are power boards with functionality like this. You plug one device into a master socket. When it draws sufficient power the slave sockets are powered up.
 

Michael Redwine

Jul 11, 2014
4
Joined
Jul 11, 2014
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Thanks for your response, steve. I've attached a drawing that is my interpretation of what you wrote. Does this look accurate? And if so, what would I look for on the interwebs? What would this power board with this functionality be called?
 

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Michael Redwine

Jul 11, 2014
4
Joined
Jul 11, 2014
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So I think I found out what you are talking about. http://catalog.bitsltd.us/catalog/SMART/SCG3.html. Something like this. My remaining question would be, then, how can I know this would work for my needs? Again, referring to the chart in the website above, the PS4 uses 8.8 watts during standby mode. The link in this reply states this:

.35 Watt idle current in stand-by mode*
*Does not include current draw of items in the 'Control' and 'Constantly Hot' outlets.

I'm not really sure what this means, and I'm not sure if this really applies to my need. If you could look at the bitsltd page above and give me some advice, I'd be really appreciative. Thanks again!

Micheal
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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That is exactly what you want. It has a "Continuously adjustable switching threshold" so you can adjust it so the slave outlet only turns on when the PS4 is active.

You plug a USB adapter etc into the slave outlet and use that to power the fan.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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PS4 plugs into control outlet.
 
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