Dimmable? LED case lighting.

reiyushin · 19 Nov 2013 at 07:57

Hi gents I recently purchased a nice looking LED strip and my god it is brighter than the sun!

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-056-BX&groupid=701&catid=1428&subcat=1430

I don't need anywhere near the brightness, is there a way to attack it to a fan controller? It connects via molex and my fan controller only has 3pin connectors, would an adaptor work?

jonnyp1993 · 19 Nov 2013 at 14:20

it should do, i have 2 LED strips attached to my fan controller via 3pin, and it works perfect

reiyushin · 19 Nov 2013 at 16:28

Did you use an adaptor or what leds do you have?

Thanks

Tealc · 19 Nov 2013 at 16:33

One of the cables below will work. The voltage sweet spot will be fairly high, probably between 9v and 12v as usually these strips are made up of 3 little LEDs in series repeated along the length of the strip. If you drive them too low you may get flickering so watch out for that.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-012-AK&groupid=1929&catid=153

Schizo · 19 Nov 2013 at 16:49

The link you gave us,is that the led's you have ?

By the looks of things its already got a 3 pin to connect it to your fan controller,just give it a try

jonnyp1993 · 19 Nov 2013 at 17:33

reiyushin said:
Did you use an adaptor or what leds do you have?

Thanks

mine is pretty much the same as yours, but mine has a 3pin on the end.

the only adaptor i have ise is a splitter cable so i can plug both my LED strips into just one slot of the fan controller.

panyan · 19 Nov 2013 at 17:36

Tealc said:
The voltage sweet spot will be fairly high, probably between 9v and 12v as usually these strips are made up of 3 little LEDs in series repeated along the length of the strip.

Yep, your exactly right (no surprise there!

)

Mine activate at ~8.75V and i set mine at around 10V for the best effect

Unicorn · 19 Nov 2013 at 19:02

My home made ones activate at 9v and are pretty dim at 9v all the way up to 12v lighting up my interior. fan controller works it

sounds like ur idea will be fine

reiyushin · 20 Nov 2013 at 09:57

Awesome, now to track down that cable

Divine Pain · 20 Nov 2013 at 18:24

Are you any good with modding/cabling? I've seen someone mod the bitfenix led strips with a fan controller and he could set brightness depending on voltage. No idea how easy this would be though, just a suggestion :/

spoffle · 20 Nov 2013 at 18:34

For anyone who hasn't got any yet, get a 5m strip of RGB LEDs from eBay for about £15-£20, they come with a controller that lets you make any colour you want and various intensities of them.

You can cut them down (they have breaks every 3 LEDs) and buy additional controllers for more lights for a few pounds as well.

They also run off 12V so can be hooked up to your PSU with a little bit of work.

I got a set a little while back and they're really good, I'm not using mine for case lighting, I have them under my desk and set to warm white light for now.

I'm going to be getting some more controllers and chopping my 5m down to light up my case though.

Unicorn · 22 Nov 2013 at 23:19

spoffle said:
For anyone who hasn't got any yet, get a 5m strip of RGB LEDs from eBay for about £15-£20, they come with a controller that lets you make any colour you want and various intensities of them.

You can cut them down (they have breaks every 3 LEDs) and buy additional controllers for more lights for a few pounds as well.

They also run off 12V so can be hooked up to your PSU with a little bit of work.

I got a set a little while back and they're really good, I'm not using mine for case lighting, I have them under my desk and set to warm white light for now.

I'm going to be getting some more controllers and chopping my 5m down to light up my case though.

I made a tutorial for this

Bart_Hunt · 22 Nov 2013 at 23:32

I have 2 cold cathodes, 12" long each and paid 9£ for them including delivery.
Better choice in my opinion and cheaper.