Well, I want to relocate my Power and HDD LEDs to a place on my case where I can see them. The case in question is the NZXT Khaos. Now, after examining the case thoroughly, I decided to give the LEDs a new placement at the bottom of the Khaos' front bezel. Three slits reside here, with roughly two centimeters of open space behind them. A little consideration later, and I concluded that I'd like to ditch the LEDs completely, and use cold cathodes instead. The three slits: Two question need answers though: 1) I can't find information anywhere which denotes the voltage coming off the front panel headers of my motherboard (EVGA x58 SLI). Are they 5 volts, or 12? 2) I can't find information which denotes the voltage of cold cathodes; in this case, made by Sunbeam. The molex connection leads me to believe they're 12 volts. Would they run at 5 volts if the header turned out not to be 12? Thanks for reading.
As far as I know the header puts out 3.3v for the hdd led and power led. Otherwise it is 5v. The cold cathodes use 12v to run, but they go into the transformer to become some other voltage. You could try getting a multimeter to see what voltage the pins are putting out to the cathode tubes, but then you have amperage and watts to consider too. I would just get two thin plexiglass strips, mount the led's to them, and place them behind the slots.
It's complicated; it's more like a constant current driver, so it feeds whatever the load needs. BUT, only a very small current. You'd be better off using a 5v optoisolator. BUT (another one), CCFLs really don't like being switched onn and off rapidly, and I'd say they wouldn't last more than a week. Oh, and for the record CCFLs use a couple of hundred volts, but the HT inverters run off 12v.
Thank you for the replies, guys. I was really hoping to one-up common LEDs this round, but I guess that'll have to postponed until I can figure out some other option. So, have you seen those Sound Sensor Modules that are made for CCFLs? Do they cause early burn-out? Wonder what bad choices I could make with one of them.
I've used them twice, and had 4 tubes stop working, hence researching the matter further and finding out they don't like being switched on and off a lot. It makes sense really, lights tend to burn out when you turn them on, rather than just randomly (it's probably to do with temperature changes).
If you want the diffuse look of a CCFL, then I would suggest what was mentioned earlier and use some LEDs and some frosted cylindrical acrylic. Should work just fine if you have one on each end, plus they use a lower voltage than cathodes and they last a whole lot longer, as well as being quite happy with intermittent current.
I'm not an electronics pro. But what about buying some 3.3 or 5 volt LED's from Maplins etc daisy chain them along a wire and run them all off a female 2 pin header black plastic connector just like the normal hard drive / reset 2 pin black motherboard connectors? There has to be a photo tutorial on the web on how to join & solder a row of LED's in parallel. But as I said I'm not good at this sort of thing I don't know if the 2 pin motherboard 3.3 volt header will put out enough power to light up say 8 LED's.. Anyone know if this is possible?
