Cold Cathode Inverter setup

[FynexFox]

I want to get some Cold cathodes, and I want to mount an On/Off switch in the 3.5 bay, but then the cathodes are confined to that case - I didn't want that, so i had the idea to gut an old floppy drive, bondo over the faceplate, and paint it black, and in the metal housing would be the inverter an wires, and on the abck would be the molex input and the 2 inverted power outputs. As usual it worked out in my mind but as I began to go I realized it wasn't ganna work. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make this, I already considered using the bay faceplate against a project box, but then once again that inverter and all is confined to that one case.

[Omega]

...

Run wires from wherever the inverter is now to the switches. Simple.

[FynexFox]

I know, but I thought itd be cool to have it all in a housing I culd put in different computers and such, since Ill prolly be chaing the case eventually.

[dgrmkrp]

you got a very good idea there :) and one just popped in my mind.. must explore it.. BTW, i played around with an inverter when i placed the CCFL in my keyboard and i found a valuable thing... keep your inverter as close as possible wire-length-wise to the CCFLs. why? i wanted a clean look and i kept the inverter in the case and ran 2 low-impedance (i knew wires would drain some juice..) wires along the keyboard cable.. but to my surprise, the CCFLs would barelly light up.. conclusion: make the wires too long and you loose the required voltage for the CCFLs to ignite and sustain themselves.. don't know if this is useful, but just don't want anyone else doing this mistake and then checking for bad connections (happened with old sunbeam kit and new out of the box dual tube ac ryan kit.. so..) :(

[FynexFox]

Ah, thanks for the heads up. Yeah - I hope I can get my idea underway, itd be 2 rocker switches, 2 rheostats, an inverter, a molex power in, and 2 inverted power outs all in one CD-ROM drive like package, itd have a clean look inside, and could switch from case to case easily, if anyone ahs anymore ideas or ahs done it please let me know.

[tybrenis]

That's a great idea, keep us updated if you do it. Pics!

[modding.fan]

I'm at work, and may be confused on what you're looking for...it happens to me a lot...but...maybe this little dohickey (I love that word) will help you on your way:
https://www.streetglow.com/cgi-local/shop.pl/adcode=/page=pcneon.htm

Hope it helped
Cheers
-MF

[CanaBalistic]

I dont see why you havent done it yet. Put the stuff in an old floppy and you should be good to go right? Whats the hangup?

A sugjestion would be to put connectors on the back of the floppy so you can unplug the floppy inverter or the cathodes.

I bought a dual cathode kit and the inverter has connectors for 4 cathodes so it can be up graded easily. Maybe there would be a way to hook up 2 connectors to the same cathode so you can run the wires longer. Just a thought.

[FynexFox]

Well see that was my idea, but once I gutted the floppy drive, I learned that the top and bottom of the thing are held together by the middle.

Well, I have somehow found an old CD-drvie housing, and the faceplate, so I am going to use that, itll work perfectly. I guess Ill tell you guys what Ima be doing.

When school gets out(this wednesday) Ill go get some bondo, bondo up the front of the faceplate, sand it flat, paint it black, cut the holes for the rockers and rheostats, mount the inverter and get all the wiring done. I dont have a digital camera so ill try an get pictures for you guys somehow(brothers cell phone?). Im pretty noob at modding so please bare with me while I get my thoughs and all together. Thanks everyone.

[Scotty]

Sounds great, would it be possible to just shove the invertors in the drive instead of rewiring it all.

[FynexFox]

It is possible yes, and I will do that, but there will be Rocker switches, rehostats, and an idea friend gave my recently, a LED that shows how dimmed the cathode is. Alos there are a few other things to be wired such as a molex power in, and the invetreed power out connectors for easy hook up.

[FynexFox]

Hey eveyone, I decided to draw up a wiring diagram. This is one of my non-technical diagrams. As usual the yellow wire represents the 12 volt rail. There will be three or four identical setups as this diagram, allowing the control of three or four cathodes. If you don undertsnad anything, or if I made an error, please tell me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/FynexFox/diagram.jpg

[dgrmkrp]

Very nice! Keep it up!

hmm... haven't checked, but i think that u need some minimun voltage drop to make the ccfl glow, like a fan needs to start spinning... don't know what that is, but u should check it out before constructiong the rheostatic assembly.

Some time ago i wanted to build a control panel(have't put that idea aside yet..) and although i think the led idea is nice (from a constructional and debugging point of view), we are talking about controlling a light and having another light tell you that it works.. errrr... it's nice, but 99% redundant because you can see if the light works or not... if u don't see it from the side the controler is mounted, but it is visible from another side, then it's a good think to know the status of the light.. but if u're using ccfls... well, you decide :) i just wanna help :)

[FynexFox]

oh, I know, and I have been debating this feature, but I am also in this from a wiring practice standpoint, so I want to firmiliarize myself with wiring up LEDs wich i havent been able to do yet. Stick around as I am going to be gathering the pieces I need to get this badboy up and running, thanks for yall's continued support.

I just got my Cold Cathodes in the mail today, it sucked, story time.

The ebay thing said it came with a rocker switch, so im like nice, i get it and bam, its got a PCI bracket slider switch, not only that, but it came unwire from the pci bracket switch, so I decided to wire it in direct for the time being, so I go upstairs to get my solder and heatshrink and bam, stub my toe on my stereo equipment, blood got all over the carpet fromm my room, to the hallway, down the strais, through the living room, and accross the linlium floor, so after I got that all cleaned up and my toe bandaged up, i fianlly got the cathode wired up and bam, it works. Weee, what a day.