Scratch Build – In Progress Project Dmx Lighting Overkill worked out some minor details

Many thanks love your builds!! Got first lot of my lights on the way hopefully not to long till next update. cheers
EDIT: My reservoir mount unfortunately was not a success there is way to much flex resulting in the res sagging. Wondering what would be best to try adding gussets braces or doubling the thickness of the acrylic I liked the thinner acrylic looks more sleek but may have to bite the bullet and go thicker

 

My first attempt at the res mount was an epic fail not only was there way to much flex I managed to break one of the joins apart it was not strong at all. So glad I found that out now and not when it was full of water. Back to the drawing board on that may look at aluminium instead.

 

Hey all looking for opinions on my new reservoir mount here is a couple of shots from sketchup.
Front view



Side view


Rear view



Any thoughts and ideas welcome.

 

Hey all well seeing as I have had no negative feedback on the res mount I have drawn up the final sketch for the cnc
Cutter. Looking for advice on heatshrink sizing. I want to sleeve my led strips with heatshrink and wondering what size to get. The strips are 10 mm wide by about 2 mm the led is thicker but i plan to cut around each led. Being a flat ribbon rather than round and also flexible i need heatshrink the will pull down firm but I dont want it to pull so tight it distorts the strip. Is there some kind of guide I can use for choosing the heatshrink? Other than the odd piece
Of heatshrink i have no experience with the stuff. Any help appreciated. Still waiting on my led strips from china so no more progress updates yet. Thanks in advance.

 

Sorry bluc, missed the update looks really neat idea for the res mounts, I really like how it all morphs together nicely making excellent use of the space, quite ingenious.

Not sure about the heat shrink, but hopefully someone will pop in to say.

 

Thanks waynio now to try and work out my heatshrink size.

 

Hey bluc, most heatshrink will shrink to approximately 40-50% of its original size, specially the bigger sizes, of course not heating as much will limit the amount of "shrink" but that may be difficult to do uniformly..

Quickly did some test pieces of 14mm tube, it shrunk down to 8mm with max heat.

 

Many thanks then maybe 16mm will be the go since strips are 10mm. Thanks again.

 

Anybody have any ideas how to control rgb colour changing leds by pwm motherboard header?

 

should be possible, you would need to connect up a multi-meter to the header and then set the different levels at the desired voltages. if you have software that allows you to control your fans in the OS you can adjust the slider (normally just a % slider) slowly up and see how it steps the voltage.

Then just set a profile with steps (%) for each colour..

on a cautionary note be careful how many LED's you connect to each header, make sure you dont exceed the wattage allowed per channel on the header or your gonna pop your mobo the same way you would a fan controller if you connect to many fans

 

Thanks for the info and pointing me in the right direction. Does pwm work by changing voltage or by digital signal? Would I be better of using a 3 pin fan header? It will only be max of 2 single rgb diodes on the cover of my ssd mount /small backlight text feature plate that automatically changes colour with the motherboard temp. Thanks again.

 

basically it changes the voltage supplied to the fan, the problem may be that the minimum voltage that the header will supply will be around 4 volts (most controllers vary from 4v - 12v so the fan always spins even on lowest setting), that may be to high for the LED (most red LED's are around 1.2V, blue generally from 3.2V etc) but testing with a multi-meter will give you the exacts of your mobo.

You will just need a 2 pin (positive & negative) for LED's the 3rd cable is for fans that can report back its RPM to the bios

If your mobo can supply the right voltage then it should work off the pc temperature and change accordingly.. As a last resort you may want to put a resistor inline with the LED to drop the voltage to where you need it to be (if mobo supply is to high) but since the supply will be variable due to changing temps that may be tricky to work out.

Will be interested to see if this works out good luck bud

 

And just to throw a cat amongst the pidgeons a rgb led has 4 legs instead of 2 could be tricky off to do some googling this should do the trick http://m.aliexpress.com/item/318268267.html it will power 2 3w rgb leds if I read correctly. So will load it up with a circuit of leds

 

Just a tiny update the stuff I ordered is finally starting to trickle in hope to have something decent to show you guys and gals in a few more weeks. Here is a shot of my first lot of led strip light. As a comparison I took the shot next to my mobile phone. The strip light is a 5m roll and has a cover over it to make it water proof. And came with a ir remote but it wont be used as I am going to control the lights via dmx.

 

Hey all has been a while. Small update just to let you know the project is not dead. I was not happy with my dmx drivers so I had to order some other ones which has set me back a while by both time and money. Today I got a parcel fans fans and more fans!! Will spend next couple weeks working out how I want to light them up and getting it done and sleeved. Cheers All for now more updates soon.

 

Just a little sidenote regarding those Xigmatek fans. I got them myself a while ago and they are quite loud. I couldn't stand them running at anything more than 70% RPM. They look nice and all, but the quality isn't good. The frame easily bends, which was one of the main reasons why they are so loud at higher RPMs. I verified this by strengthening the frame (glued acrylic stripes on to the sides), which reduced noise/vibration considerably.

TLDR; if you aren't dead set on those fans and you can still return them. I'd suggest getting different ones. I know they are cheap and all, but sadly enough not only in price ...

 

Thanks for the tip will fire some up and see what I think. Noise does not bother me and as I will have 4 seperate loops I doubt I will have to run them at max anyway. But again thanks for the heads up

 

Hey all still plugging away at my project Have worked out and drawn the final pieces I need cut and have worked out a lot of the cable routing. here is a couple of sketchup pics of my ideas. Getting close to having everything worked out. Still getting together cash to get more stuff I need. Will be a while but at least I have everything worked out on paper.







Have also purchased a couple of modsmart kobra sleeving kits. From the two kits I should have enough of needed sizes to sleeve all visable wiring.

 

Hey all just a quick note, the project is still alive but no more updates till next year early. Cheers hope all have a great Christmas

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