Wiring Advice

Alrighty... I'm trying to wire up some CPU fans to serve as cooling fans for inside my Stormtrooper helmet. Now, I've never done any wiring before. The guy at radio shack said I could use Insulated-Crimp Quick Disconnects to connect the battery and fan wires together instead of soldering or just twisting the wires together. I've got all this stuff home and I have no idea what to do with it.

I don't understand how these quick disconnects work, I did a Google search but I didn't find anything helpful. How the heck do these Quick disconnects work? The wire seems too small for it, it's much thinner than the opening on the disconnect. Do I need to strip the wire and fold it in? What tools do I need? Or do I stick the wire in and then use pliers to flatten the quick connect thing onto the wire? Or do I just sandwich the wires between the male and female disconnects? I'm so confused.

If it helps at all here are the parts I'm working with:
[image=http://www.dawnanthes.com/images/parts.jpg]

Any Help that anyone could offer would be most appreciated.

 

you don't need them at all. just solder the 9V piece to the switch and the fan to the other side. just test which connections are used for on and off before doing the actual soldering

i would get that black plastic tubing (can't remember the name) to put all the wires in as well.

 

i can help!!!!!.
whover told you to use those must not have known you had a switch.that is the wrong kind of switch though.radio shack sells a little "slide"switch.they are made for smaller electrical projects like the one your working on.you can use it but its size is a hinderance.the switches are smaller and cost $3 for 2.the only reason you would need the disconnects is if you didnt have the switch.you could wire everything and simply unplug one of the plugs and cut off the circuit.
with that said lets get to the wiring.you need to grab a simple soldering iron.they are very inexpensive and you will use it for years to come.spend $10 and get one.you will spend more time goofing around with black electrical tape and twisting wires and sometimes those jiggle loose.soldering is really simple just try it out.

to hook up the wires is easy.(im going to pretend you dont know anything about this).the fan should have a black wire and a red wire.the battery connecter has a red wire and black wire.if you just twisted the black wires together and the red wires together it would work.plug a battery in and try it.

if the switch you have has 2 small conections on it then you could take the 2 red wires apart and hook each one of them to 1 of the small connectors on the switch.leave the black wires connected.plug in your battery and flip the switch.it should turn on.flip the switch back and it should turn off.easy,very easy.now since you will have to mount the battery farther away than it is now you are going to have to buy some wiring.to keep it simple purchase some red and black wiring from radio shack.you can buy a very small wire .look how small those wires are on the 9volt connector.buy the red/black so you can keep it color coordinated.

radio shack also makes a silver 9volt battery holder.i would grab 1($1)and you can actually use hot glue to hold it to plastic(you do have a hot glue gun dont you?)if not $2 at a craft store.ive even seen them at the dollar store before.you need one,go get it ,ill wait.

ok ,back?
now you are going to need to use some little dabs of hot glue to hold the wiring in place.so first i would see where you are going to mount the fan.that fan cannot be mounted on a flat surface.it has to have air come through it so it will have to be mounted on its side.hot glue will hold this in place.dont glue it yet.now see where you want to mount the battery.you will run batteries out so it needs to be accessible.now where are you going to mount that switch.perhaps low along the neck so you can reach up and turn it off/on.again hot glue works great for this.
first i would seperate a long piece of red wire from the black.maybe 2 feet or more.it need to be long enough to run from the switch to the battery and to the fan.i would solder 2 red wires onto the switch.now hot glue the switch in place.be sure it "down" so you can turn it on with you finger while wearing it.make sure no glue gets inside the switch.when it cools it will stop the switch from moving.i would also go ahead and glue the battery holder in place.now lay the 1 red wire down along the inside of the helmet till it gets to where you want the battery.dont glue it yet.now lay the other red wire along and over to the fan.have you got enough wire?got a nice path for the wire to run?ok if youre happy you can solder the red wire from the switch to the red wire on the fan.now solder the other red wire to the 9volt battery connector.once this done wrap the points of contact with black electrical tape.nice and tight not too much.ok now take a piece of black wire and cut a long piece.you should a long piece from where you cut the red wire.ok solder it to the black wire on the 9volt connector.lay the wire around the helmet until it gets over to the fan.it doesnt go anywhere near the switch.it runs straight to the fan.now cut it to the correct length and solder it to the black fan wire.tape both connections.you can now plug in a battery and try it.make sure it turn on and off ok. if it works grab a drink and jump up and down.
alright.now you can glue t

 

Thank you! That make much more sense!

 

I have a nifty setup in my helmet. It may not work for you due to the fan shape, but you never know.

I have two "squirrel cage" fans in my helmet. They blow a concentrated stream of air in one direction. They are shaped like a paddle wheel, or a hamster wheel, instead of a prepellar shape. The air blows out the side. I started with a separate piece of plastic that I heated and bent to the shape of my helmet. I attached everything on this and then velcro it inside the back of my helmet. The air blows out the sides of the fan around the side of the helmet to my face and does an excellent job of defogging the lenses.

I wired them like this:

+B1- > +B2- > +B3- > SW > +F1- > +F2- > (+B1-)

It's basically a loop. I connect the negative wire from the first battery (B1) to the positive wire of the second battery (B2). Then I do the same from B2 to B3. B3 connects to the on/off switch (SW), which connects to the positive wire from Fan 1 (F1). The negative of F1 connects to the positive of F2, and then the circle is completed by connecting the negative wire of F2 to the positive of B1.

All connections are twisted, lightly soldered, and then painted with some liquid electric tape (a little messy to apply but it stays better than tape once dry).

My 3 9-volts just gave out this weekend after about 10 hours of constant use. This lasted me from February, through SWCII, until this past weekend.

I like having the system on the separate piece of plastic so I can easily remove them for repairs or changes if needed.

Scott