Increase cooling pad fan speed using boost converter

[akhil.k.sugathan303]

I want to improve the cooling pad fan speed connected to my laptop usb port. Can I do it by using a voltage boost converter like this?

 

[mortemas]

Possibly, but what are the cooling pad fans rated at? If you input too much voltage to the fans they may be damaged. Also, you need to watch the current drawn from the USB port. USB 2.0 only specifies output of max 500 mA. A single fan might draw 150 mA or more at its rated voltage. How many fans are in that pad? The USB voltage of 5v multiplied by 500 mA (0.5 A) gives you 2.5 watts of power capability. Even if you change the fans to 12v, if they are drawing 0.15 A and there are 2 of them, then that is 12v * 0.15A * 2 fans = 3.6 watts which exceeds the 2.5 watt limit of the USB port! The boost converter you linked to can handle up to 10 watts without a heatsink, but the limitation is in the USB port.

If it is a USB 3.0 port, then you can get 900mA (0.9A) and then it is 4.5 watts of power, but you still have to check the specs of the fans inside the cooling pad to see if they can handle higher voltage and then do the math to figure out total power consumption and make sure you don't adjust the boost converter voltage too high because it can go all the way up to over 30v. The converter is 94 % efficient, so factor that into the math.