Fan Controller Mod?

[Mysterium]

So, had an idea while hanging out wth my cousin. Both of us have fan controllers with 4 dials, and aren't using all of them. And both of us have LEDs on the controllers. Which are cool, but I really like to have the freedom of turning off any lights in/on my case.

So, question is, has anyone heard of a mod out there where someone has re-wired the dial on a fan controller to control that fan controller's LEDs? I figure that since I've got a spare dial, there's got to be a way to run just the current for the lights through it. Probably take a fair hand with the solder, or at least hacking a 3-pin wire. But I didn't want to start poking around if anyone had heard of that sort of thing? Google, pimprig, OCC, linear's page have given me nothing . . .

[Beemer]

I have heard of one (I think by vantec) that contolled fans and a couple cold cathodes. Not what your talking about exactly, but I think it could be done.

[siq]

If you can't find one research it and make it ;P. Then you can sell it

[KryoNexus]

ummm, you'll are making this more difficult than it is.

if the fan controller uses rheostats, then just wire the light up to it in the same manner that you would a fan. it won't fade the light (well it won't if it's an LED or a cathode, as both have a set voltage to turn on at and aren't fadable like incadesent(sp??) bulbs), but instead it will just turn it on at a specific point. just watch your ohm load through them though. see how many watts your rheostat is capable of holding and keep it around that. (you can actually overload this a bit if you can keep the rheostat cool)

this should work for any fan controller, regardless of whether it uses rheostats or simple on/off switches.

however, if you fan controller has 7V/12V hookups (a three way switch), then you would want to put a resistor on the led's to handle 12V

if you are hooking up cathodes, the invertor will take care of making sure the correct voltage is going through to the lights. if you are using LED's, you will need to attach resistors to them.

hope this helps out, if not ask questions and i'll let you know

[Mysterium]

Nah, I'm trying to figure out how to wire up not just any light, but the light on the fan controller itself. It's a Vantec 3.5 bay NXP-205, 4 rheostats. And I'm wondering if anyone's figured out just where to break the circuit on the board to run the power from the supply, thru the rheostat, and then to the LEDs around the knobs.

[KryoNexus]

ahh, i see, the ones that make the ring around the knob....

are the LED's built into the PCB itself behind the plastic, or are they legitiment standalone LED's?

[Mysterium]

Hmm, not sure. I'll have to get in there and check it out. They're not standalone on the face of the controller, but I don't think that's the question. I'll have to see if they're in the ring, or if they just shine on it.

[undergroundtech]

They're standard 3mm soldered into the PCB.

[KryoNexus]

They're standard 3mm soldered into the PCB.

piece of cake then, desolder them from the pcb, run some wire to them and connect it to a switch. holding them in place can be accomplished with a little hot glue :-)

[Mysterium]

Sweet. I'll look into that. If I can get a digital camera from my friend, I might make a guide for it?

[KryoNexus]

yeh, making a guide would be awesome. if you get it all together, with lots of pictures, i might publish it for you as a guest writer :-). just post your progress in the "modding guides" section. that way, we can critique it, etc.

[eipuiz]

Sounds like someones is up for braging rights. Nothing like an orignal idea

[r0ar]

you could just use a rotery switch