Modding Thermaltake Riings

[Bishop149]

This is a little project log / report about my playing around with these fans

I recently got three of the 140mm red LED versions and wanted to modify them so the wiring of the lighting was independent of the running of the fans themselves.
For my finished build I essentially want to be able to turn all the lighting on and off whilst everything else runs unaffected.

Initially I thought this would be pretty easy, a quick glance at the wiring made it pretty obvious which wires ran the LEDs and how they could be disconnected from the rest.
I thought it was a little odd however that there were clearly 2 LEDs each seemingly connected with their own wires rather than both being hooked in parallel, but hey. First thing I needed to establish was the voltage running through those wires, carefully shaved away the insulation from one of the two pairs and applied a voltmeter. Result: 2v, pretty standard red LED voltage then.

I assumed the resistor was probably upstream of where I tested (which seemed pretty close to the actually LED) and decided my mod would simply attach the LEDs in parallel using one resistor for both. Using the calculator below and a current of 25mA, I worked out that a 220 Ohm resistor should do the job.
http://www.hebeiltd.com.cn/?p=zz.led.resistor.calculator

Wired it all up, plugged it into a 12v fan header and. . . . . . . . the modded version was noticeably quite a bit dimmer than the unmodded.

Aw crap! Ok, looks like I screwed up. Perhaps the built in resistor is downstream of where I measured the voltage and I'm doubling up on the resistance. Only one way to find out. . . . time to break the fan open.
Did so and nope, no downstream resistor, my 220 Ohm is the only one in the circuit. Wierd!

Ok this is were the real mod starts.
I happened to have a bunch of super bright red 3mm LEDs left over from a previous project, that run on 1.85v. Seeing as I've already dismantled the fan lets swap them in they should definitely be bright enough in this circuit.

Below is the result:

Left: Unmodded "red" Thermaltake Riing 140
Middle: My original mod, reduced brightness fairly clear
Right: Replaced LEDs

So replacing the LEDs has restored the brightness. . . . but hang on a second, my new ones are a damn sight redder than the thermaltake ones. . . . in fact side by side the original looks positively orange!

Here's another picture:

Front: Unmodded
Back: LEDs replaced

The colours in the pictures hasn't come out especially well (iphone camera) but the difference between the two is clear. The real colours are basically Unmodded = Red/Orange, Modded = Red

Well this just won't do. . . . . guess I'm changing all the LEDs! Next post will outline how to do it step by step.

 

[Bishop149]

Ok, so to do this you have to open up the fans.
The main housing is in two halves held together with 2 clips in each corner, picture below.

There isn't really a way that I found of getting them apart other than push in the clip as best you can + brute force.
With each fan I opened up I managed to break less of these clips, but in my best effort I still probably broke 4/8 of them. Putting it back together firmly will require glue!

Ok once its open this is what the LED assembly looks like:

Two 3mm LEDs recessed in the clear plastic that makes up the "riing" each wired up individually, Grey wire to anode, Black to Cathode.
Once popped out and the wires disentangled from the others here they are:

Now lets replace them!
The LEDs I had where these
The space you have to work with is pretty limited, I trimmed the anode (longer leg) damn close to the bulb of the LED and soldered on a wire, see below (top, unmodified LED):
These are shown just after soldering. Given how packed in everything will be I also heat-shrinked around the anode / wire join, theres a good chance they might short on something if you don't!

The new LEDs should be fitted into the same space in the same kind of orientation as the old ones. as shown in the picture below. To do this I put each LED in position and bent the cathode in such a way that it came out the hole for the wires and kinda held the LED in position. I did this for both LEDs and then twisted the cathodes together whilst holding the bulbs where held in place with a bit of electrical tape.

Next I stripped the ends of the two red wires connected to the LEDs, twisted them together with an third wire and soldered together, then heat shrinked round the join, essentially connecting the LEDs in parallel, then I soldered on a 220 Ohm resistor, end result pictured below.

Then I soldered a black wire onto the exposed and twisted cathodes and heat shrinked up all the exposed metal (resistor, cathode ends etc).
So what about the old LED's? Well I just cut them off and heatshrinked up the ends. I cut them at the point where the remaining wires could still be tucked under the restraining clip for the wires.

Well that's all the basic wiring done, so time to clip the other half of the fan back together. . . . but I broke half the clips didn't I, break out the Araldite!
I basically glued as shown below and put a nice heavy weight on top of the fan to hold it together until the glue set.

Finally I cable braided the wiring and wired it up at the loose end to 3-pin female fan plug. If your gonna do a lot of rewiring 12v connections get a shed ton of these.

Final result, now has 2 three pin fan headers rather than one. The original powering the fan, the new one powering the lighting.

Light on / fan off

Light on / fan on

And in the dark

I dunno what is up with the colours in the photo, trust me its red. . . not pink!

All done!