Incubator Wiring

[heavenjumper]

I recently bought a homemade cabinet incubator made from a soda cooler. It started out working great, but then I realized I couldn't adjust anything on the control module and the temperature kept spiking during warm days. I got an Inkbird ITC-1000 to replace the old one, but the wiring setup is completely different. The fans that are installed have a heating element built in and they each(there are 2 fans) have 4 wires.

The wires coming from the fans are red, blue, and 2 brown. Those run into a connector plug, on the other side of the connector the wires become white, black, red, and blue(respectively).

I believe 2 wires control the fans and 2 wires control the heating elements, but I can't figure out how it needs to be wired for the fans to be functional again. I'm going I've explained this so that it makes sense and somebody can help me get this incubator working again. Any help is appreciated.

 

[jwcarlson]

The fans are likely 5 or 12 VDC. This is a guess, but I would assume the fan wires are the red and blue. The white and black are likely 120 VAC for the heater, which is what you'll be able to power from the ITC-1000.
You won't be able to power the fan from the 120 VAC without adding another power supply. I've gone to USB power fans in my cobbled together incubators as they're cheap and easy to power (cell phone charger). You can cut an end off of an old phone charging cable and power up the fans (can add multiple to each cable if needed).

What incubator is the heating element/fan assembly from? They may have a manual or website that explains the power situation.

 

[jwcarlson]

Forgot to add that if you have the old controller that still powers up. You can cut the wiring harness (while everything is unplugged) and then plug the controller in, you could measure the voltage on the wires with a multimeter if you have one.

 

[heavenjumper]

The fans are likely 5 or 12 VDC. This is a guess, but I would assume the fan wires are the red and blue. The white and black are likely 120 VAC for the heater, which is what you'll be able to power from the ITC-1000.
You won't be able to power the fan from the 120 VAC without adding another power supply. I've gone to USB power fans in my cobbled together incubators as they're cheap and easy to power (cell phone charger). You can cut an end off of an old phone charging cable and power up the fans (can add multiple to each cable if needed).

What incubator is the heating element/fan assembly from? They may have a manual or website that explains the power situation.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what they came out of a they were installed before I bought it. The fans were working before I started changing the thermostat control, but the wiring throughout is kind of a nightmare. Would I be better off just replacing the fans and heating element as separate pieces? I'm beginning to think that might be easier, plus then I will know the source for future info.