I have looked at Zap`s guide on how to make independent H.D.D leds and I got a idea, would you able to hook those Cold Cathodes to the same ground and make them flash like the leds?? It would look like some kind of thunder was in the case.
I would suggest that you wire the part where the LED is suppose to be to an optoisolator since drawing energy from the IDE cable to the CCFL's inverter might have some malicious effects on your motherboard. If you think your motherboard can handle this and you don't need the 12v full power - go for it. So you could do something like this: IDE >> Conductor 39 >> Optoisolator in series with a resistor (if not built in)>> Either tie in directly to the 12v line or if opto can't support it, loop it through the 5v supply to form a switch with a power transistor >> CCFL inverter Hope that helps.
That was not what i thought about, If I do this I was planning to use a 12 Volt wire and the 39 pin as ground, woulden´t that work?
I hope you and your friends/family aren't epileptic. Cause that much light flashing on and off is bound to send someone into a fit! I think that it would get annoying to have the light flashing like that all the time. Also, something you may not have thought of...I think some cathodes (especially when they start getting older) need a couple of seconds to warm up a bit. So the harddrive pulsing might not really flash the way you want it to. But I agree that it would be a cool effect. If you do it you know you'll have to post a small movie of it in action.
i made wats it mcall its hdd activty where i have red leds for active and blue ccfl for idle they dont exactly oppose each other usually they mix between the red and the blue, point is the caps in inverter need to discahrge in this case rather quickly i think thats y.... maybe get a pulse effect rather then so many lights
Well if you were to do that, then wouldn't the current rating of the wire matter? Not to mention the fluctuations that the inverters would put on the hardrive itself. The ground connections you are talking about would be tap that are nearer to the hardrive itself than to the powersupply, so depending on your powersupply - it could either compensate or skew data being written on your hardrive. Since I don't exactly know how your hardrive would deal with this, I was suggesting an alternative that would be much safer. Actually, it would depend on how many CCFLs you have, but anyway... go for it.
Ouch! This things you have written,scared me ! I think I will back off, it sounds like it is too many "unanswered "questions about this. If someone else like to try this , then feel free to do it. I will not be mad at you , only at myself when I see that it worked and stupid little me just backed off.
Its only 10:33pm and yet i have not understood anything written here . [apology]sorry, it might be the fact that my brain is off since i just had.........um .....nevermind[/apology]
That would work without the risk of damaging your HDD/MoBo because the optoISOLATOR will isolate the circuits = no need for you to worry! So as long as the CCFLs don't take time to warm up it would work. Or if you came up with some other 12v thing to use...
LOL, no... it optically isolates the source from whatever else by using an led and phototransistor. I would recommend taking this route! Basically when the led lights up the phototransistor allows the flow of current from collector to emitter (given that the C is at a higher potensial than the E) but there would be slight voltage drop between the two, approx 0.7v but shouldn't be a problem!
