Modding: Tips, Guides and Tutorials

[davido_labido]

Well, this is following on from a post i made quite some time ago in all honesty.

The powers to be wont let us have an area for modding, guides tutorials or anything like that, so i thought id make this post.

if anyone has a guide, a mod, a tutorial or anything like that, post it here, i will link it like the ones below and then it will be nice and easy to navigate

Guides:


Akasa Proslim Sata Cable Cutting and Sleeving Guide

How to take apart a sata power cable

How to wire a LED strip using molex or fan headers

RGB LED Case Mod Tutorial

How to change the LED colours in fans

How to add LEDs to a fan

How to change a fan in a power supply

How to take apart EVGA SLI bridges

How to assemble a Parvum ITX

Cable Sewing Guide

Hardline Bending Guide

How to hide motherboard LEDs

Sleeving with davido_labido youtube tutorial videos

 

[davido_labido]

well, ive been asked a couple of times for this, most recenetly i saw someone ask for a guide today, so thought id make a quick one!

Be gentle with me, im not a professional photographer, and i dont write guides for a living either, but if i miss anything, or you need clarification on anything just ask.

What you will need:

a craft knife or a VERY fine screwdriver if you dont have a knife available.

i have one of these, only a couple of quid and work like a charm.



a pair of SHARP scissors ( i use singer ones, i find them to make really nice cuts)

and of course an akasa proslim sata cable!.



Grab the cable out of the bag; you can see why they are called pro slims!

the only bit you need to worry about, is this bit.... the end.



Either end will work, it doesnt matter which one you want to work on.


Turn the cable onto its side like so.....



as you can see, there is a small join in the connector here... (ive pulled this one apart a little so you can see it easier)



put the craft knife into this little join, and GENTLY pry it apart. its only a little bit that comes out, and you will need to do both sides.

Once you have done both sides, you will have something like this,



once you get it to this stage, DONT just pull back on the cable. you will break the teath that puncture the cable and it will ruin it.

what you need to do is lift it towards the metal clip on the sata connector, so your going straight up.

once its off, it will look like this:



Turn it over (i turn both the clip and the cable over so that i know which way around the cable goes back in after i cut it)



You can see where the connnector punctures the cable, its a pretty clever idea!!

Pull the clip off the end of the cable. make sure you either mark which side needs to go back into the clip, or make sure you dont turn the cable around at all when you cut it, you need to make sure it goes back into the clip the same way it comes out.




Just cut the cable using a pair of scissors, wire cutters seem to crush the cables more, which is why i opt for scissors.



push the cable back into the connector clip



and then push it all back onto the connector. you might need some pliers to do this last bit, MAKE SURE THAT THE CONNECTOR AND THE CLIP ARE FLUSH!!!!

Then once you have finished, it will look something like this:



one thing to note, if your sleeving these cables, you dont need sata sleeve, normal "small" (4mm) sleeve will stretch over it after you take off the connector end. it looks a lot better imo. Unfortunately 550 paracord doesn't fit over them though =(

these cables can be found on ocuk Here

 

[davido_labido]

yeah, il find something else to do a guide on tomorrow. i had this saved from a while back so was easy to dig out.


if amyone has any guides tips or tricks etcc, just post it here and i will edit the first post.

if you want to know anything, post up too!! maybe someone is in the know and would be able to help!!

 

[davido_labido]

Very nice work. Do you use the Akasa Proslim Aata Cables simply because they're the only cables you've found that come apart like that? I was wondering if there are any other cables that use a similar design?

yeh, its the main reason i use these cables, that and the smaller sleeve fits on them, so theres no need to buy sata sleeve as well as standard sleeve, so it saves a few quid too.

i haven't found any other leads that come apart so easily.

I'd like to see a good one on lighting, soldering LED strips, controls and wiring switches etc. I know I did my own LED strips but I had a lot of reading on the internet first.

im sure i know just the guy to do that!!! il emai him now and see if he will take some time out to show us! i would like some more info on that myself and i know he helps eople out a lot

 

[davido_labido]

Ah that's a shame as Blue doesn't go at all with my build colours. I'd really like some red ones. I've got a load of spare cables, so might have a search through those and see if there's any that come apart

if you want red, id get the black ones that they do and sleeve them mate its the beauty of these, you can have them any colour you want

 

[davido_labido]

Very nice tutorial David, didn't realise this was possible with sata cables due to all the internal wires.

Shame about the paracord though, love the look of paracorded cables.

------------

Don't have that parts lying around to take photo/make a tutorial.

But another good tip for cables is the sata power cables that come on a strip. You can pry off the little cap that sits on-top of the cable. Inside are teeth that cut into the cable to create the connection.

Remove the caps and the plug it's self and you can shorten the length of the power cable and the distance between the sata power plugs. To attach them to the new position simply press the cable into the teeth.

Your most certainly correct, i will take some photos later of these teath and show how to do them if i get chance i think i have some sata power leads to sleeve anyway

 

[davido_labido]

Thanks Tealc!! excellent posts

There ya go Colin!

If anyone has any specific questions about leds/resistors/electric goodies, feel free to ask questions, and hopefully Tealc will be able to answer them, maybe even with a little guide to help you along!

 

[davido_labido]

Il try do something this weekend if I can =)

Also thanks to whoever stickied this!

 

[davido_labido]

funnily enough, i do! i can do that tonight no problem

 

[davido_labido]

i didnt get round to it tonight as i was dying some sleeving, but i will do it over the weekend

 

[davido_labido]

added a guide on how to assemble a parvum ITX case!

 

[davido_labido]

This is very helpful. How do you shorten LED strips to a custom length?

if its an RGB strip like on that guide, you will need to cut the wire so it goes though the cut line where it says " + R G B" which is every 3 LEDS.

then its just a case of wiring it up, which if you have a standard cable (or the cable i usually get anyways) its black wire to the + black wire to the B, green wire to the G and red wire to the R.

i would wait for Tealc to confirm this though or tell me im talking complete rubbish though as im not 100% sure and i know he will be.

 

[davido_labido]

This is very helpful. How do you shorten LED strips to a custom length?

if its an RGB strip like on that guide, you will need to cut the wire so it goes though the cut line where it says " + R G B" which is every 3 LEDS.

then its just a case of wiring it up, which if you have a standard cable (or the cable i usually get anyways) its black wire to the + black wire to the B, green wire to the G and red wire to the R.

i would wait for Tealc to confirm this though or tell me im talking complete rubbish though as im not 100% sure and i know he will be.

 

[davido_labido]

I did a similar mod to the LED mod, however it is the one from this thread (mine used a block RGB controller though). Perhaps add the OP post to the thread?

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18575513

done!

 

[davido_labido]

Ooou excellent little tip! Il add that to the OP =D

 

[davido_labido]

Did you sort the vector file Colin? If not let me know and il get my sexy boys onto it.

 

[davido_labido]

Sleeving with davido_labido!

Well, I thought I would record some videos to show how I sleeve, there will be a few more videos coming, but the first one is here already!

Part 1 - Tools!