LED string for a 230mm fan?

EniGmA1981

EniGmA1981

EniGmA1981

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Hey guys - while cleaning my case fans yesterday I noticed that the 230mm fan in the side of my HAF932 has the holes for mounting LED's... now, without custom-building a suitable string to fit the fan, where might I get the LED wiring string from to pop some lighting in this fan?

I'd been toying with the idea of getting another 230mm megaflow like in the front (clear with LEDs) but as this one is pre-made for lighting, could save myself a few quid I thought :)

I did hit google for this, but my google-fu was weak and I found a grand total of... **** all! :(

Any help appreciated :)

Thanks in advance...
 
Are we talking just the 4 LEDs, one in each corner as it were?

I don't think you can buy this sort of thing to just plug in as every LED fan I've ever seen has the LED wiring integrated into the fan itself.

It could just be that whoever makes the fan uses the same mould for the fan body to reduce tooling costs and then they fit whichever fan electronics they need for that model, or something.

2 bits of wire, 4 LEDs, profit. Easy and fun job for a Thursday.
 
If you look at "Bitfenix Spectre 230mm Red LED fan" on a certain competitor's site (it's an anagram of 'cans' lol) that is exactly the fan/LE setup I'm talking about...

A quick email to Bitfenix customer support reveals that it was indeed their fan design that was licensed to various manufacturers but somewhere down the line someone else popped up and claimed the design so they had to stop making it and therefore the LED wiring is bought by them from a sub-contractor of a sub-contractor (waffle, waffle, waffle...)

So basically, they can't help me - and as my wiring/soldering skills suck harder than a Henry, I won't be attempting that myself as I'd probably wind up with the fan spinning sideways on a whole new axis or something strange lol

Tealc, you're the LED king, could you draft me up a how-to for rigging that up? Just sort of outline what I'd need... Hopefully with some simple step-by-step instructions, I'll be able to work it out :)

(still haven't changed the LEDs in the top of the case yet either as the soldering iron scares me LOL)
 
What are you looking to use for colour? Was it Red LEDs you were using?

..looks in Documents folder for previous wiring diagrams..

4stringLEDs.jpg


So the above is a simple independent wiring diagram for a string of 4 LEDs that work in series. The 'RES' box is where a resistor goes to drop the voltage provided to each LED.

If you are looking at Red LEDs then you'd need something like a 200 ohm resistor.

As for dimensions of the wiring I have no idea. What I'd do is pop the LEDs into the holes and add the wiring afterwards. The LEDs are polarised so will need to be pointing the same way around the circuit. You can see from the image avoce that the long leg of the first LED is connected to the +12v wire and the short leg of the last LED is connected to the ground.

Maybe this will help. I'm far too nice for my own good you know.

LED_around_fan.jpg


Failing that I could do it for you. Bring your fan around :)
 
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i planned on doing something similar to this once, does look fairly simple tbh
i mean we wired led's to stuff in engineering at school how hard can it be :P

admitidly i put my idea on hold as new case came with led fans.. may do it at one point for spare fan i have to stick on side of case, gcard runs rather hot :(
 
While it does look fairly simples, I do like the 'you do it for me' idea :D

I think that would be easier than convincing my other half that I need to buy a soldering iron so I can put a few MORE lights in my computer...

As it stands now, I've put the clear/lit fan from the front in the side panel (which looks great) and the black fan in the front and zip-tied one of my LED strips behind it - brighter than the lit fan was and as the case is semi side-on on my desk you can't see the LED strip (which is just a red dotted arch behind the fan, looking quite pants as you can see)

IMG_20110423_065051.jpg
IMG_20110423_064948.jpg
 
Drop me a message in trust/email if you still have the address, and we'll sort something out Enigma.
 
Yeah, I've seen all his how-to logs :) and his work is first class :)

If I already had a soldering iron I would have a go myself, but the girlfriend already thinks I'm a bit sad by wanting lights in my fans in the first place lol - if I told her I needed to drop £20-30 on a soldering iron to do the job I think I'd be looking for a flat lol
 
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