I started a thread some time ago (HERE) asking for advice on how to go about making my own LED case lighting. Forum user Geuben was kind enough to help me out with a few technical details (cheers pal 
) and a few warnings for my own good 
. I wanted to use LEDs and power them from my PCs PSU to save faffing about with batteries. This was a little project for myself to learn something new and keep me occupied, I wasn’t expecting very good results.
So here is my mini build log, forgive me this is the first time I have done a log like this.
Being the intrepid type I persisted despite the warnings... Please note I take no responsibility if you damage your PC/Life/Cat ect should you try something similar! The risk of popping your PSU is very real and there is also a slight chance of a small fire. I have access to lots of dead/outdated PCs and PSUs to test my experiments on.
This is my PC and desk. I have an Antec Mini P180 case which I love for it’s subtlety and internal design. While the design is great, sometimes it does seem a little drab... This is my previous case below (a crappy iCute) and lighting setup (cold cathodes, 2 red and 2 blue):
Pretty cool or pretty ghastly?
Anyway, I wanted to add some white light inside my Mini P180 to illuminate the massive top vent in a subtle way... Not in the boy race type of way! Those days are over
After some searching about I decided to go with these Super Flux brilliant white (opposed to warm white) LEDs because of their massive luminescence.
I bought a pack of 20 of these 5mm SuperFlux LEDs (from that auction site for under a fiver) in case I melted a few, in the end all my soldering work proved good and not a single one was damaged.
Not sure if I am allowed to post a link to an item on that auction site... So I won't. Search for "Superflux LED", the sellers name is "phenoptix" and is most helpful.
I’d chosen the LEDs based on luminescence and shape. Next step is to work out how many of these can be put on one circuit and if a resistor is needed. This site is most useful for calculating LEDs circuits and resistors etc: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz Thanks for the tip again, Geuben!
The specs of these LEDs are as follows: 3.6v max forward voltage, 30mA forward current. I wanted 6 of these in this initial test array so I let the wizard do its thing.
Now I ordered some 47ohm resistors, again from a well known auction site. These were about £1 give or take for 10 delivered
I used some bits of an old terminal block to keep it modular and easier to test.
Now to some soldering! I used a molex to sata converter cable and cut the sata plug off leaving the female molex to connect to the PSU. I wanted to use the power supply of my computer to avoid having to use batteries or even another DC power unit. Considered using a laptop type power brick but it would have been quite untidy and I don't trust leaving those things plugged in unattended for any lenght of time! Also considered using an internal USB card header but that looked too fiddly, not powerful enough and more likley to go bang. Obviously messing with the workings of your PSU carries some dangers. Do so at your peril!
I used wire from old PSUs because they were free.
I used some sections of heatshrink tubing to cover all the solder joints and any bits that may cause a short circuit. This is VERY important!
Before I got carried away with myself I decided that I should so some measuring. Luckily I had a Mini P180 at work (where I was doing this in the downtime between emergancies) so I took the "Big Boy" fan out to play with. What I wanted was the vent to on the top of the case to light up white. What I didn't want however, was glaring LEDs to be visable. I soon realised the best way to achieve this was sticking the LEDs to the underside of the fan, so that they would illuminate the case from above and stay out of sight!
Here is my first test LED array. Yes, that IS masking tape I was a bit inpatient, the final cut had heatshink galore.
To test to see if all had gone well I pick a PC from my parts pile. This old AMD Athlon XP machine had died a mysterious death (no video from the onboard or video card) but it still powered on. Standing well back I hit the power button....
It's alive! Pictures really cannot convey how bright these things are! It actually hurts to look directly at one close up
I left this rig running the rest of the day (about 6 hours) to make sure that nothing popped. The following morning I taped the LEDs to my spare Big Boy fan and low and behold it fitted perfectly
Now I know what I was doing, I set about making a better version with proper insulation. It was much easier second time round and I knocked the whole lot up in about 20 minutes Later on that evening I installed the LED array into my Mini P180 at home.
) and a few warnings for my own good . I wanted to use LEDs and power them from my PCs PSU to save faffing about with batteries. This was a little project for myself to learn something new and keep me occupied, I wasn’t expecting very good results.So here is my mini build log, forgive me this is the first time I have done a log like this.
Being the intrepid type I persisted despite the warnings... Please note I take no responsibility if you damage your PC/Life/Cat ect should you try something similar! The risk of popping your PSU is very real and there is also a slight chance of a small fire. I have access to lots of dead/outdated PCs and PSUs to test my experiments on.
This is my PC and desk. I have an Antec Mini P180 case which I love for it’s subtlety and internal design. While the design is great, sometimes it does seem a little drab... This is my previous case below (a crappy iCute) and lighting setup (cold cathodes, 2 red and 2 blue):
Pretty cool or pretty ghastly?
Anyway, I wanted to add some white light inside my Mini P180 to illuminate the massive top vent in a subtle way... Not in the boy race type of way! Those days are over
After some searching about I decided to go with these Super Flux brilliant white (opposed to warm white) LEDs because of their massive luminescence.
I bought a pack of 20 of these 5mm SuperFlux LEDs (from that auction site for under a fiver) in case I melted a few, in the end all my soldering work proved good and not a single one was damaged.
Not sure if I am allowed to post a link to an item on that auction site... So I won't. Search for "Superflux LED", the sellers name is "phenoptix" and is most helpful.
I’d chosen the LEDs based on luminescence and shape. Next step is to work out how many of these can be put on one circuit and if a resistor is needed. This site is most useful for calculating LEDs circuits and resistors etc: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz Thanks for the tip again, Geuben!
The specs of these LEDs are as follows: 3.6v max forward voltage, 30mA forward current. I wanted 6 of these in this initial test array so I let the wizard do its thing.
Now I ordered some 47ohm resistors, again from a well known auction site. These were about £1 give or take for 10 delivered
I used some bits of an old terminal block to keep it modular and easier to test.Now to some soldering! I used a molex to sata converter cable and cut the sata plug off leaving the female molex to connect to the PSU. I wanted to use the power supply of my computer to avoid having to use batteries or even another DC power unit. Considered using a laptop type power brick but it would have been quite untidy and I don't trust leaving those things plugged in unattended for any lenght of time! Also considered using an internal USB card header but that looked too fiddly, not powerful enough and more likley to go bang. Obviously messing with the workings of your PSU carries some dangers. Do so at your peril!
I used wire from old PSUs because they were free.
I used some sections of heatshrink tubing to cover all the solder joints and any bits that may cause a short circuit. This is VERY important!
Before I got carried away with myself I decided that I should so some measuring. Luckily I had a Mini P180 at work (where I was doing this in the downtime between emergancies
) so I took the "Big Boy" fan out to play with. What I wanted was the vent to on the top of the case to light up white. What I didn't want however, was glaring LEDs to be visable. I soon realised the best way to achieve this was sticking the LEDs to the underside of the fan, so that they would illuminate the case from above and stay out of sight!
Here is my first test LED array. Yes, that IS masking tape
I was a bit inpatient, the final cut had heatshink galore.To test to see if all had gone well I pick a PC from my parts pile. This old AMD Athlon XP machine had died a mysterious death (no video from the onboard or video card) but it still powered on. Standing well back I hit the power button....
It's alive! Pictures really cannot convey how bright these things are! It actually hurts to look directly at one close up
I left this rig running the rest of the day (about 6 hours) to make sure that nothing popped. The following morning I taped the LEDs to my spare Big Boy fan and low and behold it fitted perfectly
Now I know what I was doing, I set about making a better version with proper insulation. It was much easier second time round and I knocked the whole lot up in about 20 minutes Later on that evening I installed the LED array into my Mini P180 at home.
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