Tutorial: Adding multiple LEDs to a basic case fan.

[Tealc]

Soldering iron obviously. Don't get a £5 eBay cheapo unit though.

Side cutters would be handy.

Solder. If you can get lead/tin then get that as the lead free stuff needs a higher temperature and doesn't feel the same.

That's it really for just swapping LEDs. It's just a snip and solder job really.

If you want to get into more LED modding then some wire and heat shrink. I usually grab 7/0.2 BS4808 or some 24AWG equipment wire. 2.4 or 3.2 black polyolefin heatshrink. And LEDs.

 

[Tealc]

You will need the same size LEDs as the ones in your fans. The ones I've seen have been 5mm standard lens. The ones I use in multiple fans like the ones featured here and in my 18LED sequenced fan were 3mm standard lens.

Flat top, straw hat, square and rectangular are other shapes which may or may not work with fans are also available in many colours.

What colour were you thinking of changing to and from?

 

[Tealc]

Kizyoo - watch out for those uv LEDs as they appear blue/purple. It would interesting to see how they react with orange blades uv reactive though.

Kd - the flat top LEDs have a much wider cone of light than standard lens types. I forget exact figures but it's something like 150 degrees vs 20 degrees. The effect of this is that the flat led will light an area better than rounded. Good for perhaps led lighting in a case but perhaps not do good for fans. I've never really tried them on fans but I probably should have. Flats also appear dimmer because the light they produce is shared over a much larger area.

You just need to use some hot glue or something to hold the led in place.

Not sure if it's wise to mess with mains cables but 3183Y 2.5mm is the type that would be suitable.

Or did you mean an extension with IEC female to IEC male on it?

 

[Tealc]

We used to use screw to fit IECs at work. Both male and female, so provided you can source them it should be a easy enough task. We used to use ferrules on the wires but I think they worked ok with bare wires or tinned wires.

 

[Tealc]

Just re-read your point 2 KD and yes the sticking out of LEDs from the outer casing is an issue when you have restrictive space with which to mount the fan in your case. It's particularly a problem at the centre point where the material is the thinnest. One solution to this is to not mount LEDs all the way around as in this image.

Even with 3mm LEDs the casing is quite large and the leads take up space. You can get large square SMD LEDs such as 5050 size which could possibly be glued into a round hole and provide a decent effect. If the SMD is mounted sub flush then only the forward light is seen.

5050 SMD LEDs are available on some of the LED strips and can be removed for other uses.

Here's someone else's video where they have mounted some LED tape to the outside of a translucent fan.

Quite how one would get this to work with a opaque fan though. I did consider making a slot in a frame and sticking a tape around the outside but never got any further than the considering stage.

 

[Tealc]

I meant to say rgb

Ah now it makes sense.

No mate I didn't get around to it in the end. Controlling RGB LEDs in a good way is quite cumbersome with basic electronics and takes a fair bit of room with all the 555s and transistors.

I did think of cheating and use a RGB controller that I got with a LED strip that could have done the job nicely but it still would have meant at least 4 wires per LED and I just couldn't find 3mm RGB LEDs.

Still I do think that this project is something I may look at in more depth when it gets a bit warmer. Maybe something based around automatic RGB LEDs which change colour at predetermined rates. Might look nice. Or a triple 555 circuit perhaps or similar through a CD4010 hex schmitt trigger I was looking at that would cycle through PWM duty cycles automatically for me. All LEDs would change at the same time. Even more awesome would be if each LED changed colour at different times in a circle, like my madness project. That would be totally awesome but hard to achieve without a good few components.

I did put RGB LEDs in my keyboard though to replace the Orange LEDs I'd put in there (was originally blue LED).

Thanks for reminding me though. I've been looking for some sort of electronics project to go along with an improved audio amplifier I'm going to build in the Spring.

 

[Tealc]

some of the leds are out of shape but its not bad for a first attempt.

If I may be a little critical here you've not lined up one of the LEDs correctly. The top left one seems to be out of position is relation to the rest. I like how you've lined them up with the fan frame but that top left one seems like it should be a bit more to the clockwise.

this will be in a push/pull configuration with a shinobi xl case thats why the leds are facing upward.

It's harder on the other side of the fan because the blades are slightly offset. Never tried one on that side to be honest.

Have you got them pointing at the fan blades at all? It almost looks like you've got them pointing right out of the fan into the airstream.

Just had a look back at my original images and even without special orientation the LED effect falling on the blades is pretty nice on the other side of the fan, especially at night.

Anyhow is it normal for circuit to be slightly warm?

The resistors do get a little warm as they have to dump 0.1W of energy as heat, this is of course assuming you have 4 LEDs per resistor like my original schematic.

The LEDs themselves only get slightly warm. If they are hot then you might be running too much current through them.

oh and leds lookj sort of orange (they are yellow to match fan) in daylight is that cause of the resistors? (100 ohm's i think)

Some Yellow LEDs do appear slightly orange. Quite often they are described as yellow-amber because the wavelengths are quite similar. I bought a LED strip that was supposed to be orange and it turned out yellow/amber.

Good job though. It's not for the faint of heart these LED fan mods. Bet it'll look great in the dark.

 

[Tealc]

It can get a bit tricky to keep the led lens away from the fan. What I did to help this was angle the LED legs slightly so the LED sat naturally away from the fan blades and just used the hot glue to tweak the position and make sure It remains clear.

 

[Tealc]

It's been a while since Bitfenix were kind enough to send me some Spectre white fans for review and I had been meaning to mod them with some LEDs since getitng them.

Well I finally got around to it, or at least the first one, yesterday.

So basically the same thing but I used 2 x 330 ohm resistors instead of 100 ohm as I was allowing too much current through the LEDs before.

So much neater than some of the other ones.

Added a bit of orange ribbon to the edge rather than black tape.

I like the way the orange absorbs more light at the edges.

And a comparison against a Xilence fan.

I decided this time to go with straight mounted LEDs rather than angling them a bit as before. I'm undecided which I prefer. Light penetration to the centre is reduced on the Bitfenix due to the quantity and shape of the fan blades. The colour of the LEDs is now more Orange as they are now nearer the 20mA suggested current.

And a short video.

 

[Tealc]

I have thought about it but it's pretty labour intensive. A Labour of love.

 

[Tealc]

I remember my first was a slow job too. It didn't help that I kept putting the occasional led in backwards. I learnt that before glueing up I should give the LEDs a quick 12v test to make sure.

I can do one roughly now in around an hour and a bit, and that's with my unsteady hands. Tidy takes a bit longer though.

It gets easier mate

Still need to do my spectres. Should get round to it but I keep messing with the PWM converter trying to improve it yet further.