Oh yes, more dumb questions Whats the proper name for Neon string? I saw some for sale on e-bay the other day, and I whent off to look at other prices, and when I came back, I couldent find it - and it was the cheapest! gah! Where oh where can I buy male and female four-pin (big) molex connectors to make my own molex leads and adapters? (UK linkie if possible please ) I was looking at thermaltake graphics card fans, 'cos I want one for a project I've got in mind, when I noticed they have three wires.. Can they be run off two wires, or do they have to have all three connected? Is it possible to run the above mentioned fan and say 10 or so led's of a 5v power supply? Is it worth buying one of those GCSE starter-type kits which contains a load of resistors and capacitors etc - stuff that is virtually impossible to buy over here, or should I just order what I know I need, and not bother trying to kill myself by building random circuits?! Tim
Well, regarding the fans with 3 wires, the third wire (usually yellow or blue) is the speed sensing wire that connects to the motherboard to give information on the speed of the fan. It does not need to be connected for the fan to operate.
Right i think its called neon wire i just call it neon string. Ebay good place to go best try looking in the car section or the pc hardware bit norm a BIN thing going. Molex plugs (4pin cd and hdd connecters) are found at Maplins Fans can be run off 2 wires for the power and as rich_bytes said there third one is to sence the speed of the fan and norm used on the mobo headers not sure about the GCSE packs i bought an LED one and it had all types of leds i bought it on impulse mainly but if you think you can use all the stuff then go for it i now i've used mine
add another question to that lot! Are inverters for neon wire (yes, that did find it!) easy to come by? Can I use an invertor for a cold cathode, or is an entirely different one needed? - Just thought I might buy thirty foot of the stuff, I know I can use all that, but would need more than the one inverter supplied.. I couldent find the molex connectors on maplins - and I can't find them in my catalog either - wil try farnells in a second though Tim
Its quite difficult to find somewhere that sells inverters on their own, they usually only come included with cold cathodes or neon wire so it may take a bit of searching. Also the inverters for cold cathodes are different to the ones used on neon string so they are not interchangeable.
You might want to try baybus.co.uk for the molex connectors. Oclocker is a member here and if you mention Bit-tech i think he will post a few to you much cheaper than Maplin.
technically isn't it called eL wire or string electroluminacnent when a current is applied it lights up, same thing as thouse things on indigo watches... but try eL string
Molex connectors can be found at maplins with the product code: JW64U and JW65V. There in the "drive power connectors" section, and they also sell the floppy drive connectors... And, yes, it would be possible to run the LEDS and the fan off the 5v rail, but the LEDS will be VERY dim, or not lightup, so jsut use the 12v rail!
A quick eBay search for "neon wire" came back with a page full of results, so I'd imagine that's a pretty good guess as to what it's known as on eBay. Also, if you're planning to build a bunch of circuits, do yourself a favor and just go ahead and get a large box with a bunch of tiny drawers and labels for your resistors/caps/transistors/etc. That's the way we have it in my EE lab, and it makes everything so much easier. Gordon
