Power Products

Understanding Power Supplies

The primary difference with the Power Supplies is very simply the type and number of fan units can power from a power supply.  The most important 'feature' to look at with power supplies is the amperage and in particular, the milliamps (mA) as that indicates the amount of power that the power supply can supply to the fan units.  For individual fan units it is usually very straightforward which power supply mates with a fan unit but it can become a little more complicated when looking to power multiple fan units from one power supply which is very normal to do and often times recommended.  In reality making the determination is very simple math as simply add up the mA for each unit and then select the power supply that supplies that amount of power.  A good rule of thumb is to use a power supply that is capable of supplying greater than needed amperage.  In other words and as an example, if the unit/s you wish to power add to exactly, or even very close to 600mA, it would still be better to use a 1000mA power supply.  Again, this is just a general rule of thumb but wise to follow.  Another issue which is just a minor consideration is that if plan to run fan units on 7 or 9V, this will reduce the required amperage.

Variable Voltage Power Supplies.  CCI utilizes variable voltage power supplies because they offer maximum flexibility and effectiveness for the products.  You can also think of 'variable voltage' as meaning 'variable speed'.  Other manufacturers and to make their products quieter, they simply supply lower voltage power supplies (or step down voltage internally) as fixed power supplies are significantly less expensive than variable voltage units.  This means the fan unit may be silent but what if for example products are installed in a closet where perhaps noise isn't as important but increased airflow is?  For this reason CCI gives the user the option to run the unit a different speeds based on the application.  This is part of what makes CCI products the choice for the professional users.

Regulated vs Unregulated Power Supplies.  The primary difference in these units is that when the units are not under load, an unregulated unit can be over voltage.  What this means is that if you were take a voltage reading on an unregulated unit that is set to 12V, it would read between 15-18V.  A regulated unit would read 12V or very close to it.  Once a load is applied then unregulated units will usually return to more accurate voltage output.  The only unregulated power supply we offer is the 300mA and the only issue encountered with unregulated power supplies is that when using the TC-ALTv2 Temperature Controller, a regulated power supply is required.