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I need a red light G5 accessory...

M

MegaSignal

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 20, 2003
304
0
Call me crazy.

I am looking for an accessory/bobble/add-on that does this:

A small red-LED light that would project its light toward the two main inlet CPU fans thereby illuminating them for easy (and dramatic) visibility through the front grill for all passers-by to see. As these fans will typically run at a low rpm (looks like less than 200rpm to me) when the system is idling along, the "cool" effect would certainly be there; and even more so when the fans rev up during some processor-intensive tasks, and then spool back down again afterward.

Ideally, it would be a battery operated self-contained unit, sensing when the computer was switched on. It would simply be placed on the "floor" in front of these fans, not blocking anything important. I suppose a manual switch wouldn't be so bad, but a pain to switch on/off. I'd rather not see it hooked into the power system of the computer if at all possible, for obvious reasons.

Certainly not a very important issue, just a "cool" one.

Anyone ever see anything like this?
 
G

Gee

macrumors 65816
Feb 27, 2004
1,023
0
London, UK
There's loads of things like this for making modifications to PCs. Saw little LED lights that you can hook up inside a cumputer (they seemed to be powered thruogh the comp - possibly via a spare HD connector?) the other week in a shop in London, which probably isn't much use to you, but I bet if you do a search on PC mod kits you'd find somewhere online...

Personally, don't think it could make your G5 look any cooler than it does already though ;-)
 
E

EminenceGrise

macrumors member
Jun 23, 2004
86
0
MegaSignal said:
Ideally, it would be a battery operated self-contained unit, sensing when the computer was switched on. It would simply be placed on the "floor" in front of these fans, not blocking anything important. I suppose a manual switch wouldn't be so bad, but a pain to switch on/off. I'd rather not see it hooked into the power system of the computer if at all possible, for obvious reasons.
Click to expand...

Why? For it to come on when you turn on the computer, it's going to have to be connected to the computer somehow, unless you use some fancy (read: expensive) motion sensor. A simple Molex Y-connector for power would work fine and be easy enough to remove if needed, and an LED isn't going to draw enough power to affect anything. The hardest part is placing the LED (no matter what the power source), since there isn't a lot of room to work with as far as adding "non-standard" components.

A google search for "case modding lights" should turn up a number of places that have lights similar to what you are looking for (almost all require a power connection, though many come pre-wired to a pass-through type cable).
 
Mord

Mord

macrumors G4
Aug 24, 2003
10,091
23
UK
if i had a g5 to screw around with i'd love to replace all of the fans with red led ones. i'd just have to find the exact cfm and db ratings from the fans to try and keep it from overheating or sounding like a jet engine.
 
mac4drew

mac4drew

macrumors regular
Mar 4, 2003
143
0
California
Hector said:
if i had a g5 to screw around with i'd love to replace all of the fans with red led ones. i'd just have to find the exact cfm and db ratings from the fans to try and keep it from overheating or sounding like a jet engine.
Click to expand...

It's actually a little more complicated than that... the fan apparatus is custom built, it's actually pretty ingenious, it's built so that you can pull it right out for easy access to the motherboard. I'm pretty sure you can't buy new fans that will work in that slot.

But what might work is putting another fan in front of the standard fans and not plugging in the power. Some LED fans power their light through the spinning of the fan. When the fan spins, the light goes on... so if the standard fans are powerful enough to spin the other fan, it should light up pretty well. I don't know what effect it will have upon the cooling system in the computer, but my guess is there will be little to no effect, at the most the fans would just automatically increase power to cool it down more. Anyway you can get one of these fans for less than $10, it seems like the best solution so far.
 
T

TheT

macrumors 6502
Jan 5, 2002
485
0
Germany
I've seen a customers G5 with one of those USB-Christmastrees inside... you know, those that switch colours every once in a while. He connected it to a normal USB-Port on the back and just ran the cable inside... looked pretty cool, but I wouldn't do something like that to a pretty G5... :)
 
Mord

Mord

macrumors G4
Aug 24, 2003
10,091
23
UK
mac4drew said:
It's actually a little more complicated than that... the fan apparatus is custom built, it's actually pretty ingenious, it's built so that you can pull it right out for easy access to the motherboard. I'm pretty sure you can't buy new fans that will work in that slot.

But what might work is putting another fan in front of the standard fans and not plugging in the power. Some LED fans power their light through the spinning of the fan. When the fan spins, the light goes on... so if the standard fans are powerful enough to spin the other fan, it should light up pretty well. I don't know what effect it will have upon the cooling system in the computer, but my guess is there will be little to no effect, at the most the fans would just automatically increase power to cool it down more. Anyway you can get one of these fans for less than $10, it seems like the best solution so far.
Click to expand...

it would ramp up the fans speed as stuff would overheat, dont do it.

just get some red led's and put them around the place connected to a sata power connector.
 
M

MegaSignal

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 20, 2003
304
0
Thanks

I'll keep brainstorming and see if I come up with anything - we've been cleaning up around the office where I work as a field service technician and some of the junk I found has some possibilities.

My goal is to have a small device, about double the size of a compact flash card, encased in plastic with a nice rubber foot. Even if the G5 was moved around, it wouldn't be large enough to necessarily damage anything. So far I've collected a nice LED assembly from a tiny LED flashlight, some watch batteries, and best of all, some old proximity detectors that some of our equipment used to use for air-movement sensing: it looks like nothing more than a transistor and was used in a heat-critical area on one of our high-speed film scanners. The illumination of this system required a 250W ELH lamp in a very small area; if the fan failed for any reason, this little device would simply open the circuit and shut down the lamp's power supply.
 
Mord

Mord

macrumors G4
Aug 24, 2003
10,091
23
UK
all my macs are case modded, and i'm perfectly comftable with my sexuality thank you very much.

i have a ibook that regularly changes colour and a g4 cube that has been modded to be clear and glow blue, it looks so cool.
 
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