Enigma Project Part III - Case Lighting

I found myself a very cool product which is going to take my project from ordinary to extra… er. something. Check out how a little quarter sized circuit and a lot of wiring has netted me a pretty cool addition to this case mod.

This is just the beginning for this little chip. After finding this site (pulsevu.sickmods.net) my crew and I already have a short list of mods to attempt with this piece. As a little teaser to this post here is a video of our first in case test.

Thats all I’m giving for now (I know so cruel), but I want to wait to finish this part first. Check back soon for details photos of the mod and tips on how I made this work and things you need to watch out for when trying it!

Instructions

Planning out your lighting is very important, especially if using a pulsevu chip. I killed my first attempt within the hour due to a simple oversight on my part. Take note of the amount of amps the pulsevu chip can handle. My number was within the estimate but I forgot my led’s are 30mA instead of the 20mA they used as their example. Also for the cost, getting the PulseVu 2x has a much higher amp rating so for the extra $2US you should just as well go that route.

Now run a test setup on a breadboard to make sure everything works as needed. Here is a list of where to run each wire. I used just a spare PSU for testing and simulated the buttons by manually touching the required wires.

From the 24 (or 20)pin ATX Cable

• 5V+ VSB (purple wire) pin 9 to + on the PulseVu and to the positive side of your led’s
• Any common (black wire) to the - on the PulseVu
• Any 5V (red wire) to the PO on the PulseVu
• SW wires to this diagram; This is the trickiest part so if you need help drop me a msg and I’ll help you through it
• Negative side of your led’s to the VU on the PulseVu
• The CO contact is for extended power which you probably won’t need and the rest are of no use in a PC setup

From the AC’97 Front Panel

• The pinouts for AC’97 was in my motherboard manual but if you don’t have them, you can just google for a diagram

The reason I went with AC’97 is because when in use it doesn’t shut of the rear audio. HD Audio would auto sense the port and then terminate the rear plug to my speakers (and I really didn’t want to plug them in to the front port).

Once you have your led’s layed out go to modding the case to hold them. I drilled 13 3mm holes down each side of the base of my case for the underglow. Also in the front grill, between the slots, I drilled another 4 3mm holes. I ran the led’s in a series using one resistor for each set, and then to a mini toggle switch beside the front grill so I could control the underglow and backlit logo individually. For resistors use this calculator to determine what you need.

Laying the led’s in place under the side panel track proved difficult but with a tiny screwdriver to guide them in to place I managed to get them in. To hold all the led’s in their holes I just put a dab of hot glue. Since I couldn’t put heatshrink on each of the bare contacts for the led’s, this also proved beneficial as the glue covered the bare contacts.

Finally I noticed I wasn’t getting ample power down the single wire to the chip and all the led’s so I had to run a secondary one. If you have a lot of led’s run one wire from their power and a seperate one for the PulseVu chip.

Things to Do

1. Plan out your lighting; number of led’s, and locations of each.
2. Ensure you have ample power requirements to run each of these; Check your VSB amp rating on the PSU and make sure your pulsevu can handle the load.
3. Also ensure your wiring is rated at an appropriate amperage as well and sperate them out if needed.

I finally got my front bezel back from the machine shop here and I must say they did a very good job. 4 led’s were used to backlight this portion but they are very directed in their light so I needed something to diffuse their light. After some reasearch online into frosted acrylic I just went to my local hardware store and picked up a sheet of clear acrylic of the appropriate thickness (I perfect width to sit flush within the front door). After you cut your peice out, give it a very good circular sanding using a medium grit sand paper (I used 120). Just sand to your desired effect and glue it in place. Viola! The light is now much more evenly dispursed through the logo.

I finished wiring all the last cables in place, tiestraped them to the back panel, and taped or heatshrunk the bare portions. Here is the final effect.

Go Back to Part II

Check out Part IV