Well I just thought I'd mention this in case anyone else should come across this
precise failure mode.
If you've managed to get hacked off through the day, try to get something done to feel like you've achieved at least something only to have the LEDs flicker briefly at you and then realise that you've forgotten the resistors. Not only do they pop really fast but an RGB controller cycles the colours...just to ensure all the colours have popped in really quick succession! *facepalm*
Ah well, snip off the pins, solder on the resistors and crimp on new pins: 1...2...3...out of pins!
So this morning I managed to find a strip of two pins that got lost under the
tidyness that is my desk (and floor and any surface within my field of influence!) and finished the last pin - I say "last" but actually it's merely the proof of concept, there are more to do yet. Nothing. Luckily I'd made the end of the cable a 4-pin Dupont connector (think motherboard front panel connectors) so it was just a case of trimming and splaying a new LED and slotting it in. I did briefly (who am I kidding, it was hours!) look at connectors that are a more similar 1.25mm pitch so the led would just slot straight in without splaying it....but then I realised I'd need pins to go in the shells and probably a different crimper.....and accepted the comprise
....LED sprang to life and things are looking up. More pins now on order as well as some shells - female fan pins are dead easy to de-pin but male fan pins fight back! Interestingly, male fan pins don't officially exist - the female connectors are Molex KK 254 series pins but they go onto board headers and there isn't a male wire-mounted plug from Molex in the series.
Looked at the acrylic bending situation.....and decided my sanity probably wasn't going to take it at the moment. Have ordered some more Barrow fittings which should allow me to fake it with straight acrylic sections joined with 90° female-female fittings decked with EK hardliner fittings. The up-and-over (COU block over the top of the board and down to the rad) I'm going to try to make out of a couple of double-45 snakes, a 90 and some extensions. (Over-)ordered some of those and will post some colourful language when that all goes wrong