<u>Fan Mod:</u>
As many owners of the NEP and other Current USA lights know, the fans that come with these units do not perform as expected. I recently had one of my fans go out on my 48" NEP and my first thought was I would just buy an OEM replacement part. The ones I did find were $20+ and I didn't know how much longer the other fan would last. Since I love DIY and knew I could find a better DC fan than what was in these units I began looking.
The original fans in the NEP and other Current fixtures are the AC XFan RAD8025B2 series. These units take up 13W, run at 2400 RPM, have a noise level of 30 dB, and only have 22 CFM of cooling power. Knowing this, I then went out and started looking for a new replacement DC fan. I ended up with the Silenx Ixtrema Pro series fan. These units are 1.08W, 1600RPM, 14 dB, and push 32 CFM. These are far superior to the original fans.
Picture of the replacement fans:
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Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Time: 2 hours or less (should be less now that I explain the wiring of the fans)
Experience level: Moderate
Tools:
Phillips head screw driver
Needle nose pliers
Wire ties (various sizes)
Wire strippers
Heat shrink tubing
Soldering iron (might can get away with twist connectors)
Volt meter
Hot glue gun (not needed, but will explain what I used this for)
Equipment:
12V power supply (old laptop power supply) - I used a 120V AC to 12V DC 4A converter that I had from work. You can use any old laptop power supply.
Fans - Silenex 80mm Ixtrema Pro series fans (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835191008">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835191008</a>)
[B]NOTE:[/B] Before disassembly, determine which switch turns on the 2 lamps and which turns on the other 4. You will need this later, so label the 2 lamp switch with a piece of tape or pencil.
[B]
Disassembly:[/B]
To start with, you need to disconnect your unit and lay it out in an area where you can get to all sides. You need to remove the acrylic shield and the center brace. Once these are removed, remove the bulbs. That was the easy parts. :D
Start the disassembly by removing 4 screws at each end of the reflector. [B]NOTE:[/B] The reflector is extremely flimsy, so be careful handling this.
Here is what the unit should look like with all of this removed:
[IMG]http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l313/nwsheppard/55Gallon/Fan%20Mod/no_shield.jpg alt="" />
The next thing you need to do is to remove the plastic side vent that the fans reside on. This is done by removing 6 screws. Once this is completed, you will be able to maneuver the side around to get to all the nuts holding the fans in place. Once these are free, you can cut the wires attached to them (since we are not using them anymore). I cut them off about 2 inches from the fans so I could use the wires later to trace out my connections.
Next you will have to take the grills off the old fans and place them onto the new fans, making sure that you place them on the new fans in such a way they are pulling air out of the unit. You will see directional arrows on the new fans, just make sure that you place the grill on the side pointing away from the arrow. This *should* be the side without the sticker.
These fan units come with a 3 pin to 4 ping converter. You want to plug this converter into the fan, because if you don't they will not work. (I learned this the hard way) Once these are connected, you will want to cut the wires just above the 4 pin connector (leaving 2 bare wires).
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This is what the fans should look like when you are done.
Since these units utilize all clear wires instead of the red, yellow, and black, we need to determine which wire is hot and which is the ground. If you are looking at the two wires you just cut, follow them to the 3 pin connector. The one in the middle is the ground wire, while the one on the outside is the hot wire. I marked my ground with a black sharpie so I wouldn't have to keep looking back.
You now need to mount the fans back into the unit, with the grills on the inside in case you forgot. I suggest using the rubber mounts that came with the fans because putting the screws and nuts back onto them was a pain. Plus you have even less noise from using them since they are a vibration dampener. Once the fans are mounted back into place, you can screw in the side fin panel.
We now need to locate a suitable location for the 12V power supply. I chose do place mine on the other side of the balast and wire tie them into the blue and red wires. These wired offered enough stability so that the 12V power supply stayed in place. With the unit wire tied in place, I then cut the wires to length and stripped the ends.
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Note: If you look closely, I hot glued the power plug into the power brick. This is a thing we do when we build computers so that the plug will not come out. If I need to remove the power cord for any reason, hot glue does not permanently bond with it and is easily removable.
Now with the wires stripped on the power AC power plug, we can begin by connecting them. Now, this is where the very first step comes into play. We need to trace out the connections on the switch that turns on the 2 lamps. This should be the "Orange" connectors. (These colors vary on different size units). We want to find the two fan wires connected to the orange power connectors. These fan wires will be connected to white wires, but if you look at the group of wires one will be black and the other white. Cut off the tip of the white wire that connects to these 2 fan wires. Strip back a bit of the insulation on the wires, exposing a solid wire. Now we need to take the AC power cord and connect them to the appropriate color group. Take the white from the power cord solder it to the white wire of the white group of cables, making sure to thread your heat shrink tube on the wire before you do this. Next take the black wire from the AC cord and solder it to the white wire of the black group of wires. You will now have the green wire left over from the AC power cord. I took this wire and put a loop connector on the end and place it with the other ground wires screwed into the unit. Here is a picture, after I had soldered, heat shrink, and wire tied the wires. (It was 1:30am when I was doing this part, so I forgot to take the picture of the pre-soldered wires)
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Now that we have the AC power cord wired to the switch, we need to get the fans connected to the DC side of the power brick. Start by stripping the DC wire, being careful not to cut through the stranded wires on the outside of the center wire. (I utilized a power brick with the output in a circular pattern, not all are like this. These units have insulation, wire, insulation, wire in them. The first outside wire is the ground and the inside wire is the hot wire. I verified by using a volt meter.) Now that they are stripped, strip the tips of the fan wires. Connect the two ground fan wires together and then solder them to the ground of the DC wire. Do the same for the Hot wires.
Now you should test the fans to make sure they work. If everything was connected correctly you should see them turning. Now wire tie everything nice and neat to finish up. This is what it should look like when you are done.
alt="" />
As many owners of the NEP and other Current USA lights know, the fans that come with these units do not perform as expected. I recently had one of my fans go out on my 48" NEP and my first thought was I would just buy an OEM replacement part. The ones I did find were $20+ and I didn't know how much longer the other fan would last. Since I love DIY and knew I could find a better DC fan than what was in these units I began looking.
The original fans in the NEP and other Current fixtures are the AC XFan RAD8025B2 series. These units take up 13W, run at 2400 RPM, have a noise level of 30 dB, and only have 22 CFM of cooling power. Knowing this, I then went out and started looking for a new replacement DC fan. I ended up with the Silenx Ixtrema Pro series fan. These units are 1.08W, 1600RPM, 14 dB, and push 32 CFM. These are far superior to the original fans.
Picture of the replacement fans:
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Time: 2 hours or less (should be less now that I explain the wiring of the fans)
Experience level: Moderate
Tools:
Phillips head screw driver
Needle nose pliers
Wire ties (various sizes)
Wire strippers
Heat shrink tubing
Soldering iron (might can get away with twist connectors)
Volt meter
Hot glue gun (not needed, but will explain what I used this for)
Equipment:
12V power supply (old laptop power supply) - I used a 120V AC to 12V DC 4A converter that I had from work. You can use any old laptop power supply.
Fans - Silenex 80mm Ixtrema Pro series fans (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835191008">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835191008</a>)
[B]NOTE:[/B] Before disassembly, determine which switch turns on the 2 lamps and which turns on the other 4. You will need this later, so label the 2 lamp switch with a piece of tape or pencil.
[B]
Disassembly:[/B]
To start with, you need to disconnect your unit and lay it out in an area where you can get to all sides. You need to remove the acrylic shield and the center brace. Once these are removed, remove the bulbs. That was the easy parts. :D
Start the disassembly by removing 4 screws at each end of the reflector. [B]NOTE:[/B] The reflector is extremely flimsy, so be careful handling this.
Here is what the unit should look like with all of this removed:
[IMG]http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l313/nwsheppard/55Gallon/Fan%20Mod/no_shield.jpg alt="" />
The next thing you need to do is to remove the plastic side vent that the fans reside on. This is done by removing 6 screws. Once this is completed, you will be able to maneuver the side around to get to all the nuts holding the fans in place. Once these are free, you can cut the wires attached to them (since we are not using them anymore). I cut them off about 2 inches from the fans so I could use the wires later to trace out my connections.
Next you will have to take the grills off the old fans and place them onto the new fans, making sure that you place them on the new fans in such a way they are pulling air out of the unit. You will see directional arrows on the new fans, just make sure that you place the grill on the side pointing away from the arrow. This *should* be the side without the sticker.
These fan units come with a 3 pin to 4 ping converter. You want to plug this converter into the fan, because if you don't they will not work. (I learned this the hard way) Once these are connected, you will want to cut the wires just above the 4 pin connector (leaving 2 bare wires).
This is what the fans should look like when you are done.
Since these units utilize all clear wires instead of the red, yellow, and black, we need to determine which wire is hot and which is the ground. If you are looking at the two wires you just cut, follow them to the 3 pin connector. The one in the middle is the ground wire, while the one on the outside is the hot wire. I marked my ground with a black sharpie so I wouldn't have to keep looking back.
You now need to mount the fans back into the unit, with the grills on the inside in case you forgot. I suggest using the rubber mounts that came with the fans because putting the screws and nuts back onto them was a pain. Plus you have even less noise from using them since they are a vibration dampener. Once the fans are mounted back into place, you can screw in the side fin panel.
We now need to locate a suitable location for the 12V power supply. I chose do place mine on the other side of the balast and wire tie them into the blue and red wires. These wired offered enough stability so that the 12V power supply stayed in place. With the unit wire tied in place, I then cut the wires to length and stripped the ends.
Note: If you look closely, I hot glued the power plug into the power brick. This is a thing we do when we build computers so that the plug will not come out. If I need to remove the power cord for any reason, hot glue does not permanently bond with it and is easily removable.
Now with the wires stripped on the power AC power plug, we can begin by connecting them. Now, this is where the very first step comes into play. We need to trace out the connections on the switch that turns on the 2 lamps. This should be the "Orange" connectors. (These colors vary on different size units). We want to find the two fan wires connected to the orange power connectors. These fan wires will be connected to white wires, but if you look at the group of wires one will be black and the other white. Cut off the tip of the white wire that connects to these 2 fan wires. Strip back a bit of the insulation on the wires, exposing a solid wire. Now we need to take the AC power cord and connect them to the appropriate color group. Take the white from the power cord solder it to the white wire of the white group of cables, making sure to thread your heat shrink tube on the wire before you do this. Next take the black wire from the AC cord and solder it to the white wire of the black group of wires. You will now have the green wire left over from the AC power cord. I took this wire and put a loop connector on the end and place it with the other ground wires screwed into the unit. Here is a picture, after I had soldered, heat shrink, and wire tied the wires. (It was 1:30am when I was doing this part, so I forgot to take the picture of the pre-soldered wires)
Now that we have the AC power cord wired to the switch, we need to get the fans connected to the DC side of the power brick. Start by stripping the DC wire, being careful not to cut through the stranded wires on the outside of the center wire. (I utilized a power brick with the output in a circular pattern, not all are like this. These units have insulation, wire, insulation, wire in them. The first outside wire is the ground and the inside wire is the hot wire. I verified by using a volt meter.) Now that they are stripped, strip the tips of the fan wires. Connect the two ground fan wires together and then solder them to the ground of the DC wire. Do the same for the Hot wires.
Now you should test the fans to make sure they work. If everything was connected correctly you should see them turning. Now wire tie everything nice and neat to finish up. This is what it should look like when you are done.
