Hey guys... I've seen a few cases that have some sort of hub on the back side of the mobo tray (where all the cabling gets routed)... Mostly on cases featured over at million dollar pc... Here is an example of what I'm talking about: My questions: 1. Is such a hub available for purchase? I figure this one has been customized, but maybe there are some 3 and 4 pin hubs out there that can be modified a bit to achieve that look? 2. If not available for purchase, how complicated would it be to make one? I haven't really done much with electronics since highschool, but if it was just a matter of soldering a few connetors, resistors and some (condensers?... is that the word for the cilinders on the top and bottom edges of the thing?... Sorry... I learned electronics in Spanish and those were called "condensadores" back then) I'm sure I could manage with parts from the rat shack... I'd just need a bit of help on where to find a schematic or something like that. Any help would be greatly appreciated... Cheers Sebastian
I know... I've only seen them in a few of the computers featured on the million dollar pc site... My guess is they are custom made... It shouldn't be too difficult to make something like that (provided one knows what one is doing)... I found this little piece here: Linky. I guess 900mA @ 12V would be a max output of 10.8 W per channel.... that should be more than enough power a couple fans on each channel and some lights as well. Maybe someone knows about a better option...
The lowest profile one I could find was this: http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=11970 but I think you would need to mod it as it is still a big large to go behind the tray. There are many choices available if you don't need a low profile one e.g.... http://www.ebuyer.com/product/138706 http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/home.php?cat=1894
the closet thing you can get really is a T balancer which not only can you plug fans in you can control your fans and a lot of them have many features, however they are quite expensive if you want one which controls many fans but they are probably the best fan controller you can get
OH GOD AHHHHHHHHHHH SO COOL YET GOD DAMMIT DOESN'T WORK WITH FAN CONTROLLER. Unless it is a fan controller. Then I would want at least two.
@ Fingers --> I've seen those and although they would do the job, I'd guess that fitting one of them on the back of the mobo tray would be a PITA... This one: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...Power_Distribution_Box_PD10.html?tl=c34s95b10 Is low profile enough and I guess it would work with some modifications. @ bagman --> I doubt that thing is a T-Balancer (too small), but yeah one of those would do the job and more... just a bit of overkill and expensive, but it would do it. Edit: Hah... I found the project log for the actual mod with that little box... It's a LED Distributor BTW... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=4252674&postcount=50 Scroll down a bit you'll see it on the second picture! I guess I can just ask Xien16 about it on his log Will let you guys know if I find anything else.
Me wanna!! But you can't deny it's for those fussy buggers who care how their mothboard's ass looks like
Oh wow those pictures are wayy too artsy partsy to get any information out of, but from what I see it's definitely DIY. Looks like bread board, sandwiched with some acryl and aluminum mesh for looks. It probably blinks/fades the leds, right? If you only want a fan hub, it would be piss easy to make as you only need to get the right connectors and solder them on in the SMD-style, so they stick over the edge of the PCB. After that just paint/somehow hide the PCB underneath and it's done. That said, though. If you want to be able to control the fans, instead of just having the cabling tidy, it'll require some more skills and extra thought.
@ Jipa Yep that is definitely DIY... It does have a piece of acrylick sandwiched between the PCB and what seems to be a carbon fiber sticker... the acrylic lights up pink and the whole thing is there to just distribute power to the leds inside the case and some sort of lighting under the mobo... the whole build looks amazing. I'm sure that this being a pure pass-through for power it would be quite simple to make, the one thing that throws me off is the capacitors on the sides of the thing... I don't see why they would be needed if that thing were just a pass-through for power. Unless he wanted to clean the voltage before passing it through to the LEDs? I wouldn't really want to build my own fan controller (why bother when there are so many good ones out there).... Maybe I'd just make a little box with 6 inputs and 18 outputs and feed the inputs from a high wattage controller like a Lamptron FC2... I could then place the box behind the mobo tray and route cables to all fans inside from there. I'd still like to be able to see a schematic of that little thing on that build as the capacitors have me scratching my head. EDIT Got a response from Xien16 over at XS.... So it was definitely DIY. He was nice enough to provide schematic too!!!
Oh wow that's nice of him. Though I must say that ain't a schematic, it's the PCB design I really like the idea/design, might make something similar to my rubbish case project when/if I ever continue building it.
LOL.... Yeah... not schematic, but enough to be able to figure out what he did... The one thing I don't recognize is the big one in the center of the drawing with the 1 - 2 - 3 on it... I'd guess it is some kind of switch?
Eye spy with my little eye... a PNP transistor with a resistor on its Base, six capacitors (2 of which aren't shown on the PCB layout), three LEDs without a current limiting resistor and seven male fan headers. Honestly I fail to see why this was designed the way it is, at all. I'd have a female molex connector, six male fan headers wired in parallel and the LEDs with a small current limiting resistor and a regular switch - the currents aren't high enough to warrant the transistor, in my opinion. I don't see the point of the capacitors at all. And using a male header to supply power is silly - it should be female. I might not use fan headers, though since they're designed for... fans... and this isn't meant to have fans plugged into it. Regular 0.1" male headers might be a bit better (they're used for the power/HDD LEDs after all), but a small polarised connector (Molex have 1000s of different styles) would be ideal. BD140-16 PNP transistor. Sort of a switch, yes.
@cpnPedro... I sent Xian16 a PM last nite... this was his reply to the PM So I guess he's able to control what the box powers from within BIOS... Maybe that's part of the reason for all the stuff in there.
I sent a second PM to Xien16 over at XS asking about the capacitors on the box and this was his reply regarding that: Check out the other box he made for his other MDPC featured PC... This guy makes some sweet mods
