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Terrarium Fan

I have a fluorescent fixture with 4 bulbs over my 10 gallon terrarium. There is a hole on the top, so I have a Radio Shack cooling fan on top of the fixture aimed down thru the hole to create some airflow. The fan, of course, blows full strength all the time, but I would like to be able to alter the speed so it's not blowing quite so much. Does anyone know a good way to do this? Would a fader/slider switch (used for home lighting) do the trick? Or would the fan overheat if not running with the proper current?
 
If you could hook it up to an adapter, you could control the amout of electricity going to the fan.

-Ben
 
Or you could connect it to a Potentiometer or replacement volume knob for an amplifier.  Its basicly a variable resister.  It will do the same thing Ben is recomenting, but it will have a knob like a volume knob instead of stepped voltages like the AC addapter would have.  You just connect it in the positive wire.  Most have like three connections on them, but you only need the center and one of the side connections, and then you just need to figure out what direcion increases and what direction lowers the fan speed.  You can get them at radio shack in the section at the back of the store where the drawers are, and they should also be able to better inform you how to connect it too.

Here is a link tothe items at radioshack.
http://www.radioshack.com/family....ometers
 
Thanks, guys.
 
go to a electronics surplus store and purchase a rectifier.
Ask them how to hook it up to a fan and a power adaptor.
IMG]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r62/hive_man/carnivores/3053.jpg[/IMG]
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this works well and you can adjust the voltage setting on the adaptor to make the fan run faster or slower.
Example run a 5volt fan at 6volts or 4 volts
 
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