Custom 5.25" drive bay cover

[Cagedconnerman]

Does anyone know if u can make a custom cover for a 5.25" drive bay? I'm thinking of having some switches with alot of blinking lights on it. The electonics i can do easily, but how do i actually make the piece to mount them on?

[XcOM]

try using the old drive cover that came off of your case in the first place.

[tybrenis]

Yes,

Most people just use a drive plate that pops out of your case when you install a CD rom drive or something of the sort. You could paint it and make it look nice, or you could trace it on something like acrylic and make one out of that.

[Cagedconnerman]

alright, maybe i can't do the wiring :) i can solder all of the LED's together and i can get the switches lined up in series correctly, but when it comes to connecting to power i'm totally lost :( i'm running about 30 LED's, so i dont really know what resistor(s) (if any) to use. Also, how the heck do i connect this to the molex connector?

[xmastree]

Somebody whistling my tune?
30 LEDs, huh? all blinking or just some of them? By far the easiest way would be to use flashing LEDs and hope that they flash at slightly different frequencies. At power on they would all come on together, but pretty soon they would be out of sync giving a nice random effect.

[Cagedconnerman]

hmm, never seen any of those, i'll look at some other places. But how would i give power to this? just solder some wires onto a molex connector?

[Omega]

Well, you would want to wire it all correctly. If you have 4 3v led's you want to wire them in circuit then put it on the 12v draw. That much i know.

[Cagedconnerman]

but, do i just like solder them onto a molex connector? or is there something special i need to do to hook it up to power (i'm 13, so i've got very limited cash, otherwise i would just keep experimenting until it works)

[xmastree]

If you have 4 3v led's you want to wire them in circuit then put it on the 12v draw. That much i know.
That's plain wrong. I suggest you take a look at my LED post (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2669).

The OP wants flashing LEDs, so I sugested using ones with built-in flashing circuitry, which will be designed to run directly off 5V. They will be easy to wire in parallel and hook up to the 5V supply.

http://www.elexp.com/opt_6bid.htm

[Cagedconnerman]

awesomeness, thanks for the link. but still... how the heck do i connect to a molex? just solder the resistor i'll use onto the pin?

[xmastree]

If you're using flashing LEDs, they won't need a resistor as they'll be designed to run directly off 5V (probably, but check it).

As for connecting, there are many ways depending on what conenctors are available.

One simple but effective way is to strip about 1 inch of the wire, poke it into the back of the molex (along with the other wires) so that it comes out the other end, fold the end over, inside the plug, then plug that molex back into your disk drive.

The end result looks neat, and there's no soldering involved so you don't need to worry about spoiling any warranty you may have on the PSU.

I've done that with cooling fans many times, although the purists will cringe at the prospect

http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/thumbs/4297molexwires.jpg (http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/4297molexwires.jpg)

Those small red and black wires are for a fan. Doesn't look bad at all really, does it? :rolleyes:

I suggest using flashing LEDs since they'll probably flash at slightly different frequencies. If you were to look at just one, you would see it's flashing regularly, but thirty of them together will look quite random.

[Cagedconnerman]

oh, wow, i thought it would have been way harder, but ur explanation on LEDs and currents/volages is a bit blurry to me (sorry, as i said, i'm prolly the youngest person on these forums) so if i just connect all 30 of these leds together would i still only need the 5v draw?

[xmastree]

So long as you use the flashing ones designed to run off 5V then you'll be fine. If you want to use regular LEDs you'll need some resistors in there, but they won't fash.

[Cagedconnerman]

u guys rock so hard, as soon as i get these led's in i'm gonna put up some pictures

[xmastree]

u guys rock so hard, as soon as i get these led's in i'm gonna put up some pictures
If you're mounting 30 of them in a 5.25 cover, presumably that'll be three rows of five? Be sure to drill the holes exactly in line or it will look awful.

[Cagedconnerman]

i just remembered yesterday i need the 5.25"s for my water cooling stuff, so it'll all go on dual 3.5"s, plus i sorta messed up a little on the 5.25"s, so it's all good