what kind of lights can I use in a case?

dxkj

Lifer
Feb 17, 2001
11,772
2
81
okay, quick question... I plan on modding out my case, and I want some red light to shine out of the window Im puting in.... what kind of lights can I use? I'd really rather not spend the 35 on a lighting system, and I want it to be fairly bright, but if it is I probably can't use it on my 300Watt powersupply (already have a 1.1 tbird, abit mobo, 2-45GB IBMS, dvd player, ATI Radeon and 40 watts worth of fans in it....

also, if I have a black light right now, can I just stick it in my case? do we have to worry about certain lights "radiating" something that isnt good for electrical components?


thanks..


PS I'm cutting a quake symbol into the side of the case, putting glass over it, and having the light shine through.... hopefully a red light :)

also, if I wanted to light a quake symbol in the front using red led's how many would it take and where the hell would I find bright enough led's? the front symbol would be about 120 cm's squared and server as part o the exhaust...

 

TonyG

Platinum Member
Feb 12, 2000
2,021
2
81
Have you looked at the lights at a radio shack? They have quite a few 12volt lights. I picked a 12volt halogen light that I have inside of my case. I too have wondered about adding a black light, but seeing as how the run off of 120volt it would be a big pane to wire into my power supply. I would also suggest putting a seperate switch for the lights you are adding so you do not have to have them running all the time.
 

Zebu

Member
Jan 3, 2001
34
0
0
have you thought about using a few super bright LED's, like 3000 mcd red leds, they are cheap and put out a LOT of light, also they produce no heat, a halogen bulb will only add to the heat in your case.

just make sure you have them at the right voltage (use a regulator or some resistors or whatever you see fit) and place them so that the are pointing in different directions.
 

TonyG

Platinum Member
Feb 12, 2000
2,021
2
81
Like Zebu said, look into the use of leds for your light source. I bought a package of leds that run at 2volt. To make these work I had to get a package of resitors to drop the voltage from 12 volts to 2volts. The resistors I used to do this with were the 470-Ohm ones. You actuall need a 500-Ohm resistor but I could not find any of those, but the 470-Ohm work fine.
 

dxkj

Lifer
Feb 17, 2001
11,772
2
81
*points to his previous post asking about leds* how can I tell which ones are bright enough, and where might I find these beauties?

EDITED:
also, can I just daisy chain them? Like if I get 10 BRIGHT led's.. can I use one resistor, and then mount them in some sorta box type thing and daisy chain?

also, if I use a different resistor I can go from 5v down to 2 instead of 12v (use red wire)...
 

Dan

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,080
0
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I went to AutoZone (formerly Chief Auto Parts) and picked up some blue and red flourescent lights. The 5-inch ones were approximately $8; the 12-inch ones are around $13. They're intended to be trim and come in a cheesey "chrome" setting.

Pull the chrome ends off and slip the light off the tray it sits in. What you have is like a round plastic colored bar with a couple of lights in it. I put 4 of the 5-inch red ones behind the side vent and two 12-inch red ones on the bottom of my case below the side vent. I then wired all six of them to one baybus switch. I have two 5-inch blue ones behind the vent holes in front bezel. They are wired to a different baybus switch.