Homemade Lighted Fan Mod

Because of the need to get at the back axis of the fan the only configuration options I can see happening is an:

A. Exhaust Fan that points out
B. Intake Fan that points in

Sorry, the way the mod is designed with the fiber use I can't think of a way around it. Unless they sell pc fans that are reverse rotation.

 

Great job writing the article. You really made it so that even people who are fairly new to this stuff, like myself, can understand it perfectly and follow the instructions and make it work There are a lot of articles on the net that assume you already know how to do half the stuff in them (Which is why I like Bit-Tech as oppose to many other sites ), and thankfully this isn't one of them

 

Awesome to finally see the tutorial on this. The only things that concern me are one, the fact that a clear fan wouldn't be nearly as cool because you can see the circut board, and two, um ... don't you think that this will render a fan completely worthless. You are blowing air onto a circut board, kinda messes with the airflow in the case, and also the air has to go past hot LEDs. I don't know if these are an issue, just something I noticed. I think when I make this I will make a wire frame to hold the LEDs and then run the wires from the LEDs to the board that I will have hidden out of the way. Anyone else think this would work better?

 

Like I said this is my first design and I am looking for improvements. This mod does block some air flow but it is not that bad. I have a case temperature gauge in my computer and it only went up by 1 degree after the mod. As far as a wire holder for the led's with a detached circuit board, it is possible; I am more into the having the whole thing as one though. I am not sure what you meant by "hot leds." The whole point in using LED's is that their heat transmission is very low. It could warm up the air a little but nothing noticeable.

 

Cool. I haven't really done ANY work with electronics and I am just getting started in this modding business. I am a CS major, not an electronics one. I thought I read somewhere that LEDs, especially blue ones, got quite hot. But I could very well be wrong seeing as I have no electrical experience.

I have also seen what is called sideglow cable at Fiber Optic Products and I was wondering if, with a clear fan, you could run the cable sideways along the length of the blades to make a panel of lights instead of just circles. Does anyone know anything about this sideglow stuff?

 

Sideglow Fiber

That is another possibility and a cool one at that. Unfortunately, side glow cable is more expensive. I have never used the stuff so I don't know how much light you have to throw into them to get them to glow all the way down. I am tempted to just order some to play around with when I have the money.

 

That would be really cool. I have all of these cool ideas running through my head of things to do with FO. The idea of bending light must be the holy grail for most modders. I just never knew how cheap the stuff is, I thought I would brake the bank if I ever tried any experiments with it.

 

ive heard that you could change fan spin direction by reversing the polarity of the fan

never tried it though...never had need when you can just flip it around

 

Just a little disappointed I can't use this on a rear exhaust (need it blowing out), but I think I'll give it a whirl for a top blowhole. Great job there, williamsbg03!

 

Very nice variation on the fan light mod and the article was a good read as well. I think I may take up the challenge to build one of these circuits since the 95% of the parts are available at Radio Shack.

 

Only on an AC fan will that work. Most DC fans have protection circuitry.

And then the blade pitch would be all wrong.


All you would do is create noise and ruin a fan.

 

beautiful work, my friend!

this will look great on my 2 120mms on my side panel (when they are finally done, f**king DT teachers, god....)

EDIT: could someone post UK farnell/whoever product codes (pretty please?)

cheers

 

w00t got the light part made and working, used 2 blues and 2 reds. I used 12v line with 560 & 470 ohm resistors. They splash a nice pattern on the wall and ceiling 8) I hope the fiber gets here soon, cant do much else until then.

 

http://www.bit-tech.net/review/82/
I think one of these may just be able to light enough sideglow cable for a fan. If they make white ones you may even be able to put on color filters on the glass cover to make it multicolored like the one in the tutorial is.

 

Different Approach

To be able to use the fan for intake and exhaust this seems to be the best solution yet. http://www.nairn.freeserve.co.uk/mod1.htm

 

It's Working!

Thank You for the wonderful article. I put one of these togeather over the weekend and it's pretty sweet. I do have a couple of questions/observations though. Basically, mine doesn't look nearly as cool as some of the photos I've seen here. This is mostly due to being able to "see" through the fan blade disc while it's spinning. I do get the neat little three circles of light where the fiber is poking through the blades, but I there's so much background lighting from the 4 LEDs that the circuit board and LED array is clearly visible. Like I said, still a nice effect, but I can't help thinking it could be better. I've got this mounted on my blow-hole fan, and the three rings of light effect isn't really visible unless you're looking directly down at it from above. Do you have any suggestions for reducing the ambient back lighting? Would lightly sanding the LEDs down a little bit have any effect for the better?

The fan is 7 blades, 80MM, though I think my problem may stem from the fact that it originally had clear blades. I painted them black, but when held up to bright light, some light does bleed through. I hate the throught of doing this again, but it really was pretty simple so that woudln't be the end of the world. If anyone has any other suggestions they're appreciated.

Thanks Again!
Pol

 

you painted a clear fan black... OMG

 

did I commit heresy?

Well....yeah, I didn't intend to at first, but the first attempt was pretty weak, the lighted cricles created by the fiber were very diffuse and more or less just blended into a jumble of color. It sort of looked like the mod where you put LEDs into the corners of the fan mount. The black really helped define the circles better, but the fan disc itself is still fairly clear while spinning. BTW, I didn't think clear fans were anything too special, the two I bought were the exact same price as the more traditional fans.

Best,
Pol

 

They are special in the UK because you can't get them here

 

Re: It's Working!

Wrap each LED in a bit of black electrical tape to make a light shield for the sides. You ought to get a much more focused beam that way.

I did this to my ultra bright LEDs in my case beze because the power LED was bright enough to show in the lens for my HDD LED.