~~Anyone Know (or built already) what LEDs to use to make my own "trilight" fans?~~

[EXman]

I have a 120mm fan that is on the side of my plexi side panel and I'd like to make it glow bright like the rest of my case. Click my sig below for my 3 neon case. Yes the dead spot is the Delta 120mm blowhole fan. I want to drill some holes and put 3 blue LEDS in there to make that sucker glow. Anyone try this? I like the Antec 80mm trilight fans but they only come in 80mm

 

[OulOat]

You mean like this?

 

[EXman]

ya that is dope!




I looked on newegg site couldn't find link to that fan is it 120mm?

 

[OulOat]

It's a regular 80mm Panaflo. 29 bucks though

 

[EXman]

too bad it is 80mm...

 

[drx9175l]

I tried building my own back when buying them was near impossible and very expensive. I used 3mm LEDs and clips to hold them in place. First I removed the fanblades of an 80mm Panaflo. I then drilled 4 holes in the corners and mounted the LEDs facing inward. A little work with a flat file made sure the blades wouldn't come in contact with the lights. Then I soldered up the power wires and reassembled the fan. It works well, but being my first attempt the results were a bit rough. I don't have any pictures to show you because the LEDs I used weren't bright enough for my digicam to pick up. My fan is mounted on the inside of a metal case panel and all the mistakes are well hidden. Yours will be on plexi and openly displayed.

You mentioned the Antec Tri-Light fan. I believe they use surface mount LEDs on a thin strip wrapped around a clear fan. Trying to recreate this is going to be extremely difficult. Soldering surface mount components by hand is not easy. Good luck to anyone willing to try.

I looked at the picture of your case and am willing to make a few quick suggestions. Replace the Delta 120mm with an Enermax clear blade unit. It should allow more light from the cold cathodes to shine through hopefully getting rid of that nasty dark spot in the center of your window. I have also seen good results where people have wrapped EL wire around a clear 80mm fan. I'm not sure if this option is available to you because I've never seen a completely clear 120mm fan. Seriously consider spending some time doing cable management. It looks like you spent a great deal of effort building this system, it's just hard to tell through the spaghetti.

 

[EXman]

DRX

Ya I got 7 fans in my case not including the PSU so wires are hard to hide. But yes it actually looks a lil better now I cleaned it up a bit. Ya I was thinking of using el wire along the inside of the fan rim but that is a lil expensive way to do it. Clear fan is a good idea too... Now to find a high revvving clear fan. Since I have a rheobus I change my fan speed with my usage of the machine. The Delta at its highest speed isn't to bad and the 131CFM sure does put alot of cool air into the box.

 

[EXman]

up

 

[EXman]

noone else has done this?

 

[OulOat]

They are cheap enough to buy.

 

[EXman]

They are cheap enough to buy.

I have found only 1 place (pcmods) that sells 120mm lighted fans and they are $45 bucks for 1 fan. That my friend is not cheap.

 

[OulOat]

My bad, I thought you were talking about 80mm. Your best course then would be to do what drx did, except if you get a the clear enermax fan it should be easier to illuminate. Wiring and stuff shouldn't be a problem, just get some thin (20+ gauge) wires and use some clear scotch tape to tape the wires against the fan. Epoxy should work great for the leds. If however you want to attempt something like what pcmods or newegg has, you would need to find a custom light tube to transmit the light. The actual construction isn't that hard, it's basically copying the pics on newegg. The light tube is the hardest part, if you find one let us know.

 

[EXman]

OulOat

ahh... Ya I think I will get a 80mm for my alpha HS. I looked at getting a 120mm to 80 funnel for the alpha but I measured and I do not have room to fit the 120mm fan on it and clear the rear fans. I currently have a clear SVC blue led (blinking) fan on the HS and I do not like it at all. I guess I will look into getting a clearish 120mm fan and mod that some how. after thinking about it el wire is starting to sound good...

 

[OulOat]

Well, the enermaxs only have clear fan blades and I haven't seen any other clear 120 fans. So if you decide to go the el wire route, make sure the wire is thin enough to go on the inside of the fan chasis, otherwise you wouldn't see jack

 

[EXman]

 

[EXman]

up

 

[EXman]

up

 

[EXman]

?

 

[EXman]

 

[THUGSROOK]

im kinda in the same boat here....

what id like to find is some lighted fan grilles in 120mm and 80mm.

check my thread here so i dont have to retype it all

 

[Zap]

The only lit fan grills I've seen have been 80mm Thermaltake CoolMod units. I've wrappend EL cable around a clear fan (with a clear fan chassis) and it wasn't very bright. Ultrabright LEDs are much much brigher that that. The EL cable is bright enough so that you can see the cable, but it isn't bright enough to light up anything else (at least the stuff I used). The Enermax fan with clear blades is a good idea. That may make the fan area less of a dead spot without additional lighting. Perhaps you should try it sans LEDs at first.

 

[erikistired]

here.

 

[Zap]

Now those are cool fans at a decent price. Yet another example of the resourcefulness of the guys here. Excellent! EXman, are you reading this thread still?

 

[erikistired]

i pm'd him just in case he isn't.

 

[mrman3k]

Antec now sells 120mm fans that have LED's in them. I would highly recommend getting that instead of trying to rig something up.