Tutorial: Adding multiple LEDs to a basic case fan.
- Thread starter Tealc
- Start date
Thanks for your comments Dreadi, vti_786, sunjoo2012, Jamiman.
@schizo220168 - Seems that 240 ohm isn't as readily available as some other resistances and you can only get 10 off sets on the bay. They'll be fine but you might be better off going for the 270 ohm here or the 220 ohm here. Neither link is something that OCuk sells so I don't think it will be a problem.
I'd probably go for the 220 ohm as they'll be a tad brighter
@schizo220168 - Seems that 240 ohm isn't as readily available as some other resistances and you can only get 10 off sets on the bay. They'll be fine but you might be better off going for the 270 ohm here or the 220 ohm here. Neither link is something that OCuk sells so I don't think it will be a problem.
I'd probably go for the 220 ohm as they'll be a tad brighter
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Good stuff.
Those LEDs should only take a few days (a week tops)if you got the ones from the listing I sent you, I've had a few deliveries from those guys and they've generally been quick. They usually take up to 14 days if you get them from HK or China though.
Those LEDs should only take a few days (a week tops)if you got the ones from the listing I sent you, I've had a few deliveries from those guys and they've generally been quick. They usually take up to 14 days if you get them from HK or China though.
Hmm I've had LEDs from Hong Kong quicker than a week. If he says he has sent them then I'd sure he has, I never had any problems with that seller. I'm sure I had some from them the very next day after ordering.
@JoeFX69 - Thanks, I know it still amazes me how good they look.
I've been meaning to take a video of them and get them up on youtube but never seem to get around to it, they look even more awesome in the flesh I can tell you. The wife says my computer look likes it on fire with all the orange colour bleeding out of every hole.
@JoeFX69 - Thanks, I know it still amazes me how good they look.
I've been meaning to take a video of them and get them up on youtube but never seem to get around to it, they look even more awesome in the flesh I can tell you. The wife says my computer look likes it on fire with all the orange colour bleeding out of every hole.
It's a learning process. The first fan for me was a tad fiddly but then I had been fiddling with LEDs for a little while when I attempted it and already had gained a little soldering skill from my previous job.
Looking forward to your result.
Looking forward to your result.
Yes the LEDs are meant to be a certain way around.
I thought you were going with 8 LEDs per fan so I am wondering why you wired 3 up.
If you look at a LED you will see one leg is longer than the other. The long leg is normally the positive side and the short leg is the negative. A current must flow from the positive wire through the positive leg, through the LED and out to the negative leg and then onto the next LED or negative wire.
I can't do a picture right now as Mrs Teal'c is busy on my super fast gaming rig shopping on Argos.
If you wire just one LED incorrectly the whole line won't work as a diode stops current flowing in the reverse direction.
Maybe I need to revisit the tutorial to ensure polarity is mentioned.
I thought you were going with 8 LEDs per fan so I am wondering why you wired 3 up.
If you look at a LED you will see one leg is longer than the other. The long leg is normally the positive side and the short leg is the negative. A current must flow from the positive wire through the positive leg, through the LED and out to the negative leg and then onto the next LED or negative wire.
I can't do a picture right now as Mrs Teal'c is busy on my super fast gaming rig shopping on Argos.
If you wire just one LED incorrectly the whole line won't work as a diode stops current flowing in the reverse direction.
Maybe I need to revisit the tutorial to ensure polarity is mentioned.
Interesting placements of those LEDs.
How did you wire it up?
You can't have wired them all in series as they wouldn't light up.
Did you wire it up so you have 4 wires coming off your resistor going to 2 LEDs each? The reason I ask is because that type of wiring is not recommended for low watt resistors like the 1/4 watt ones. You are in essence loading a full 1 Watt onto a 1/4 watt resistor and it'll fail pretty quickly. Don't believe me? Power up your LEDs and put your finger on the resistor. Does it get really hot?
This is what I wrote in Post#2 of the tutorial
I'd hate for you to go glueing all this up and then have to rework it after a few hours of use due to this error.
Electronics is a funny thing you know.
Pardon me for saying though but they don't seem all that bright, or is it just me?
White should give good illumination yet they seem to be less bright than my Orange ones which produce generally less illiumination.
How did you wire it up?
You can't have wired them all in series as they wouldn't light up.
Did you wire it up so you have 4 wires coming off your resistor going to 2 LEDs each? The reason I ask is because that type of wiring is not recommended for low watt resistors like the 1/4 watt ones. You are in essence loading a full 1 Watt onto a 1/4 watt resistor and it'll fail pretty quickly. Don't believe me? Power up your LEDs and put your finger on the resistor. Does it get really hot?
This is what I wrote in Post#2 of the tutorial
I didn't know this before embarking on my fiddling with LEDs journey either.
I'd hate for you to go glueing all this up and then have to rework it after a few hours of use due to this error.
Electronics is a funny thing you know.
Pardon me for saying though but they don't seem all that bright, or is it just me?
White should give good illumination yet they seem to be less bright than my Orange ones which produce generally less illiumination.
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Yes you have to be slightly wary of where the LED lenses reach to. That's why I put a dab of hot glue on them once I'm happy with their location.
You'd expect them to be pretty bright at 10,000 mcd. I do know that ebay sellers tend to be a little enthusiastic with their values but still. I've got a couple of white LEDs kicking about here so will have a look and see how bright they are compared with my Orange. Maybe they don't throw light as well as coloured ones.
Yes I think having them doubled up in a corner should provide a good effect. The fan surface seems slightly reflective too which should improve the effect. I found that my red fan looks so much better than my black fan when reflecting the light they receive. I've got some spray lacquer here which I've been meaning to test out on my black fan.
You'd expect them to be pretty bright at 10,000 mcd. I do know that ebay sellers tend to be a little enthusiastic with their values but still. I've got a couple of white LEDs kicking about here so will have a look and see how bright they are compared with my Orange. Maybe they don't throw light as well as coloured ones.
Yes I think having them doubled up in a corner should provide a good effect. The fan surface seems slightly reflective too which should improve the effect. I found that my red fan looks so much better than my black fan when reflecting the light they receive. I've got some spray lacquer here which I've been meaning to test out on my black fan.
Yes just look at this difference.
Top fan is red with 16 LEDs and the bottom fan is Black with 12 LEDs. Ok so the top has more LEDs but they just seem to give more light per LED despite me using a similar resistor value (150 for 3 vs 100 for 4). The whole effect of the light seems to come from the LED light reflecting or at least warming the material of the fan spinning beneath. Shining the LEDs on a stopped fan just looks bad.
Both fans are more or less the same material reflectiveness. It just seems that black absorbs more light than the red.
You've got me thinking now what White would look like.
I may spray my 80cm fan I did the other day just to see, if I can get the fan blades off that is.
Top fan is red with 16 LEDs and the bottom fan is Black with 12 LEDs. Ok so the top has more LEDs but they just seem to give more light per LED despite me using a similar resistor value (150 for 3 vs 100 for 4). The whole effect of the light seems to come from the LED light reflecting or at least warming the material of the fan spinning beneath. Shining the LEDs on a stopped fan just looks bad.
Both fans are more or less the same material reflectiveness. It just seems that black absorbs more light than the red.
You've got me thinking now what White would look like.
I may spray my 80cm fan I did the other day just to see, if I can get the fan blades off that is.
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I'm not offering it as a service but if I were it'd be quite expensive. It's a very manual and time consuming operation. Parts alone would be £2-£3 and they take about 90 minutes. I probably could do them for £10 each if return postage was covered. I didn't take on this project to make money. I did it to make pretty.
I'd probably go with 16 or 20 to be honest, depending on colour. I've done 12 on a 8cm and a 12cm fan and it looked better on the 8cm fan. The Enermax Apollish (which the idea came from) has 18 LEDs on the fans I believe.
I'm about to do another 16 LED Xilence fan but would be interested to see how a 14cm fan would look with 20 as I'm getting a Thermalright TY-140 on a Thermalright Shaman which may need modding to reduce the ugliness of the fan.
What colour were you thinking? I found Orange didn't work brilliantly with black, well not as good as it did with Red anyway. White maybe? Blue? Green? The circuit may get tricky with some of the colours as you'd need to split.
How well the colour will get reflected or absorbed will depend on the material of the fan. The Yate Loons that OcUK stock seem to reflect a nice bit of light for a basic black fan so you might get a good effect on them.
You can often grab a multi colour set of LEDs off eBay with 20 off LEDs of each major colour for a few quid if you fancy trying out a few different colours. Drill a single hole in an appropriate place and stick each LED through in turn. This is how I decided the mod was worth doing.
I'm about to do another 16 LED Xilence fan but would be interested to see how a 14cm fan would look with 20 as I'm getting a Thermalright TY-140 on a Thermalright Shaman which may need modding to reduce the ugliness of the fan.
What colour were you thinking? I found Orange didn't work brilliantly with black, well not as good as it did with Red anyway. White maybe? Blue? Green? The circuit may get tricky with some of the colours as you'd need to split.
How well the colour will get reflected or absorbed will depend on the material of the fan. The Yate Loons that OcUK stock seem to reflect a nice bit of light for a basic black fan so you might get a good effect on them.
You can often grab a multi colour set of LEDs off eBay with 20 off LEDs of each major colour for a few quid if you fancy trying out a few different colours. Drill a single hole in an appropriate place and stick each LED through in turn. This is how I decided the mod was worth doing.
Trying to make a Noctua NF-P12 look a bit better ended with this result. My initial thinking was that 16 LEDs on a heatsink fan might be overkill, especially as I don't have window so I tried this method.
In this one you may notice I have extra LEDs on the face of the fan. I wanted to see how this would penentrate a heatsink. I did try and use SMD LEDs but found it very tricky to work with and stick down so went with wide angle 3mm Flat top LEDs.
Made a total mess of the wiring as one of my kids kept nagging me in the shed as I was wiring. I think I got half of them back to front.
I'm already thinking about converting it to a 16 LED fan because they just look awesome. Technically this would be a 24 LED fan then :/
In this one you may notice I have extra LEDs on the face of the fan. I wanted to see how this would penentrate a heatsink. I did try and use SMD LEDs but found it very tricky to work with and stick down so went with wide angle 3mm Flat top LEDs.
Made a total mess of the wiring as one of my kids kept nagging me in the shed as I was wiring. I think I got half of them back to front.
I'm already thinking about converting it to a 16 LED fan because they just look awesome. Technically this would be a 24 LED fan then :/
Decided to 'paint' my now retired modded 12 LED Tri-cool fan with Clear Lacquer paint.
So anyway this is how the fan looked after I modded it last year. The LED light is absorbed by the surface and gives the spotlight effect.
And with the lacquer. I think I put on about 3 coats with no preparation hence the bad finish. The light is now reflected and curves around the curved edge of the fan blade.
This is more the look I initially sought when starting this modification. I'm more than happy with the normal result but I thought this was nice too.
So anyway this is how the fan looked after I modded it last year. The LED light is absorbed by the surface and gives the spotlight effect.
And with the lacquer. I think I put on about 3 coats with no preparation hence the bad finish. The light is now reflected and curves around the curved edge of the fan blade.
This is more the look I initially sought when starting this modification. I'm more than happy with the normal result but I thought this was nice too.
Yes. You could make a 12 LED fan, 15 LED fan, or an 18 LED fan with this choice. 18 does look pretty good.
This is on a semi-transparent fan.
Thanks.
I haven't as I don't have a full transparent one, just a semi-transparent one as above.
Firstly I'm not an expert either and had considerably less knowledge and experience when I did the initial LED mods as I've now started exploring more into the world of electronics.
I went for discrete LEDs and resistors so I could save energy and wiring. A 12v LED with resistor will dissipate the same amount of energy as a string of 4 LEDs with one resistor. A 12v LED will also require a positive and negative wire connection to each and every LED which adds to the cable mess.
In my case I have 4 sets of LEDs each dissipating 20mA@12v which is total energy requirement of 1 watt. 16 LEDs wired singly to single resistors would draw almost 4 Watts.
It's actually quite tricky to wire 18 as it's an odd number per side. What I did to wire 18 was to work out the circumference and then work out the pitch between each LED and use a piece of wire to mark out the fan. Even doing this had errors and I had to manually adjust the last few points to get it to look right. Maybe 20 LEDs would be easier on a 140mm fan. I've never tried 20 as I don't have a 140mm fan I want LEDs on.
If you aren't sure which resistors to buy just post the colour LEDs you are getting.
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Bit too cold to be doing one of these down the shed atm. Besides I think the actual cost involved would be a little much as it'd take a good couple of hours to put together, plus there's postage both ways, material costs etc. Maybe if you ask when it's warmer.