It's Modding Time Again

[ClayMeow]

OMG.....don't quit your day job

nrg...job? HA!

 

[Fueler]

I finished setting up for the "Atlanta Auto Show " early so I stopped by a Fry's Electronics to see if I could find a couple of green led 80mm fans (I'm burned out on blue) before I headed back to FL. They had blue, red and tricolor but no green.....off I went to the electronic parts section to see if I could find some superbrite LED's that I could use to convert my blue fans to green. I found some mini green LED's that were labled as superbrite but they were unlike any superbrites I'd seen before....these were green in color to begin with.....most of the fans I have ever seen have clear LED's that lite up in color. I didn't really think these were going to work but since it was all they had I bought them.

 

I got back home around 1am Saturday morning and after a little sleep got back to work on the case. I had thought that this was going to be a good day but it quickly turned into the most aggravating, frustrating, blood pressure raising day that I have had in a long time. It turned out I was right about the LED's.....apparently my idea and Fry's idea of a superbrite LED are vastly different. These were brite only in the sense that they lit up and you could see them and if you power them at their rated voltage (3V) then they burn green then yellow and finally orange right before they failed (this would take anywhere from 5sec to 5min) I pulled all the LED's out of both 80mm fans....If I can't have green then I don't want them colored at all.

 

For the next hour I fiddled around with different resistors and finally figured out that I could get the LED's to burn green and not fail at a little less than 1.5v (half their rated value) but they were patheticaly weak. If I wanted to lite up anything it would take bunches of them.

 

OK so if I can't lite up the fans with them then I thought maybe I could lite up the "OCC" logo in the fan bracket. The logo's would have to be lit from behind and whatever I came up with to do this couldn't be much thicker than a 1/4" or it would come too close to the CPU fan.

 

I'm going to spare you the details except to say that for the next three to four hours I tried every combination of LED's, acrylic and aluminum blocks and various reflective materials before I came up with something that would work.

 

 

This is a 7/16" thick section of acrylic....the "OCC" logo has been machined into it and then the entire surface was bead blasted to give it a frosted finish. The back of the block is painted a brite gloss yellow (this helped smooth out the color) and the outside edge has relective aluminum tape attached (this helped to bounce the lite from the LED's around enough to get even lighting on all the letters). Stuffed in the bottom is eight LED's (two banks of four LED's in series connected in parallel with a 50ohm resistor on the hot side)

 

Now I needed to some how attach the thing to the back of the fan bracket.....I couldn't just glue it on (it has to be serviceable incase LED's start burning out) it had to be clamped on and the bracket had to be very thin.

 

After another hour or so of tedious machining at the mill (it really wasn't hard...it just took a lot of different cuts to make) I ended up with this.

 

 

Here's the whole assembly.

 

 

And finally the end result....daylight unlit......daylight lit.......night lit

 

 

This pretty much wrapped up one crappy day which was only made worse knowing that I only have one side finished and need to make another one of these.....at least now I know how to make it. B:)

[NCC10281982B]

Fueler, buddy, you are amazing!

[Son of Odin]

Wow that's impressive! Great work.

[Fueler]

Sunday I just couldn't handle another day like I had Saturday so instead of finishing the fan brackets I moved on to something else.

 

The top plate still needed to be finished up.

 

Although I couldn't readily find any green 80mm fans I was able to get a 120mm fan (in green) for the exhaust blow hole.

 

The first thing I needed to do was cut out the wooden plate for the fan.

 

 

Nice fit huh.

 

 

Next I cut a recess around the hole for the aluminum fan grill.

 

 

I made short work of cutting out the grill....here it is assembled.

 

 

Next I'll make the front bezel and then.....maybe.....I'll get back to that other fan bracket. B:)

[hardnrg]

how is the 120mm fan grill attached, or is it awaiting some sort of attachment from the other side?

 

i wasn't sure how well the wood and metal was going to work together, but looks like you're off to a fantastic start

[Fueler]

how is the 120mm fan grill attached, or is it awaiting some sort of attachment from the other side?

 

It's already attached....there are four screws going through the top B:)

 

Here are a couple more pic's just to give you an idea where I am at on this.

 

 

 

I'll have more before long ......I hope

[ClayMeow]

Should have used blue and orange led's . Other than that, looks cool!

[hardnrg]

It's already attached....there are four screws going through the top B:)

not to the fan lol... i can see the four fan screws...

 

i meant, how is the fan grill attached to the wood? or is it just resting on the wood?

[Nemo]

Fueler your inset work is utterly amazing - the flush fit of the grill is awesome. Keep those pics coming!

 

For the rest of you members - make sure you take the opportunity to

[Bosco]

Man that is just a sweet looking case

[Fueler]

not to the fan lol... i can see the four fan screws...

 

i meant, how is the fan grill attached to the wood? or is it just resting on the wood?

 

OK....I was wondering how you could have missed that For right now the grill is just resting in the inset.....It's hard to see in the pics but it is actually sitting about 1/32" below where it would be flush with the surface. When I do the final assembly it will sit on doublesided foam tape....this will bring it flush with the top and give it a little noise dampening B:)