Thanks for the suggestions. The power supply is completely seperate from the thermostat, so in the worst case scenereo the fans would stop and I wouldn't be able to turn the lights on. I don't know why I didn't immediately think to use a supply tester after reading your first post. I saw one yesterday when I was buying the lights for $17. Since I already cut all the wires, I'm going to leave it. If it fails, I'll catch it since the controller won't be lit up, and I'll switch it out and use a tester to draw the minimum load from all rails. And yes, I made a jumper to "hot wire" the supply since I didn't have any plans to use a dedicated PC just to run power to the controller. I didn't add a switch, because I never plan on turning the main fan off while I have the unit running.

Quote Originally Posted by JeffJ View Post
well they are designed to be in a PC that uses all the rails effectivly. the motherboard its self will uese atleats 25W from al 3 rails. im assuming you have jumpped the sense wire (green) to ground (black) to power the unit up. or even better if you have put a switch on it.

grounding out the 3.3 and 5v rail would probably cause an overload in the unit and pop the fuse.

the worst that can happen is it will do a smoke show. but its mor liely to just die one day.


what i was going to suggest is use a 25W powersypplu load tester on it they usually cost about $20 and the master harnes plugs into it. this will also switch the power supplu on and you can use its rear switch to turn it on and off. this tester puts a 25-30W load on all 3 rails. and you cna run this effectivly forever provided it does not over heat the tester (so mount it externally)

one i use at work http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=246

you dont need to plug in a plug to each of the testing outlets only the master harness should need to be plugged in.

but to be fair. i could be paranoid and you may be able to run it no issues the way it stands. what i would od is run it as is leave it on for say a week and if its still running. just keep my suggestion in the back of your mind if it turns out you need it. my paranoia is based from info from my mentor as well as making a PC power supply into a 12V source for an amp in a cobbled up home stereo. which failed on me.

id hate to see it fail on you and loose some babies!