View Full Version : Lights on pins
Ironcat
10-05-2006, 10:22 AM
Okay, I found the little thing with all the pins and it is labeled, HD, pwr, spkr, etc... I can see where to plug in my LEDS.
My questions are...
1: Can I just plug any LED I want onto those pins? Ex. If I plan on doing headlights on the front of my case can I just splice 2 white LEDS onto the pwr plug?
2: Do they make/sell more "pinboards" if I wanted to run 47 LEDS or whatever?
3: When you people put in lighting tubes and neon or whatnot, do you run those off the little pins too or do I need to splice into the power cable or what?
4: Would Christmas light bulbs be an effective lighting tool? I was thinking just wire the LED cord into a plug and change out as easy as swapping a burnt out icicle bulb.
silverdemon
10-05-2006, 03:58 PM
if you are running more leds, splice a molex and get your power from your power suply directly.
I think one led might work on your mobo-connection, but certainly 47 will not work
christmas lighting can be cool, it's just the way you put the light in/on the case that makes it look good or bad...
(I am no electronics expert... but I think most of what I said is true...)
ajmilton
10-05-2006, 04:03 PM
aren't christmas lights generally set up to take power from the wall? AC instead of DC and all that. different voltages and amperages and such too.
silverdemon
10-05-2006, 04:15 PM
I think I have seen some that had an adapter... I believe they work at 12V so if that's true there should be no problem...
Airbozo
10-05-2006, 05:19 PM
Yes some xmas lights work on 12v. I have some halloween lights now that run on 12v using a wall adapter.
EDIT: ...and I use this to make em dance... http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=C4530
CanaBalistic
10-05-2006, 08:21 PM
Another thing worth mentioning is that thoes pin headers are for displaying HDD activity and such. Any lights you hook up to it will blink according to system load.
Splice into a molex connector or get a molex adapter.
Cevinzol
10-05-2006, 08:27 PM
the HDD jumper will flash durring activity.
the PWR jumper should be steady so plugging 2 lights into it should work fine as headlights. That should be the max though, if you use 47 you have to pull the power from the PSU directly and not the M/B.
Ironcat
10-05-2006, 09:04 PM
47 was an inflated example but I do plan on having 6 to 8 at least... Any suggestions on my "molex" or just best price on ebay?
Ok, I have found the answer for this.
Now on a molex, If I am not mistaken there are 4 wires. There is a red witch is about 5 volts. A yellow that I belive is 12 volts, and 2 black wires witch are Ground.
You need to cut th emolex in half. You need the Yellow wire, and a Black wire.
Now, since the yellow wire is 12 volts, it will fry a LED. An LED is 3volts for a normal LED. so you need 4 LEDS per yellow + black wire. (12/3=4).
So if you wanted 47 LEDS you would have to get around 12 Yellow+Black wire molexes.
klingelton
10-11-2006, 05:18 PM
hmm, wouldn't some sort of resistor play a part in that circuit too, you know to prevent any unwanted accidents...
well ofcourse. Either 1 12volt resister or 4 3volt resistors per molex.
Cevinzol
10-12-2006, 06:40 AM
ok, lets stop posting ignorance for a second, there is no such thing as a 12 volt or 3 volt resistor.
resistors are rated in ohms and there are many places where you can google up the actually math to get the numbers right instead of guessing. You need to know whether you are making a series or parallel circut. I'm not going to look up the specifics but do not listen to a 3-poster shooting from the hip.
Edjumakate yurself rite 'chere:
wikipedia.org- Electronics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronics)
cuz reeding iz fun-da-mental
Yes don't listlen to me.
Just go to Radioshack and buy a 3 volt or 12 volt resistor.
klingelton
10-13-2006, 07:25 AM
resistors are rated in ohms and there are many places where you can google up the actually math to get the numbers right instead of guessing. You need to know whether you are making a series or parallel circut. I'm not going to look up the specifics but do not listen to a 3-poster shooting from the hip.
^^ what he said, i was just trying to prevent some unwanted house fires!
gaz_the_chav
10-13-2006, 08:35 AM
ok, lets stop posting ignorance for a second, there is no such thing as a 12 volt or 3 volt resistor.
resistors are rated in ohms and there are many places where you can google up the actually math to get the numbers right instead of guessing. You need to know whether you are making a series or parallel circut. I'm not going to look up the specifics but do not listen to a 3-poster shooting from the hip.
Edjumakate yurself rite 'chere:
wikipedia.org- Electronics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronics)
cuz reeding iz fun-da-mental
I'm not disagreing with you but alot of sites say that the resistor is a 12v or 5v resister.
-gaz:bunny:
fragged
10-13-2006, 09:00 AM
One called also be creative an use a Serial Port LED arrangement (say 5 LED's all wired to a serial port) and have them all look perty and flash... if your interested, www.hackaday.com and look up Winamp serial controls, they are essentually the same thing, just a bit of driver hacking etc
as for me i'm getting an Antec P180 Silver (You know, the case that looks like a refridgerator) this week so i've got no reason to mod :banana: :banana: :banana:
Razors Edge
10-13-2006, 03:28 PM
Fear includes a good point.
gaz_the_chav
10-15-2006, 07:32 AM
Cheers for that fragged you really helped me out aswell lol!
Been looking for that for ages!
-gaz
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