Activity LED Mod

[jaylow]

Does anyone know of a kit or something that uses the hard drive activity light to drive a series of more than one LED or perhaps a cathode light... I want my case to freakin light like crazy when my IDE activty light usually goes on... I mean... I want to light my case... but I don't want it to just be "lit up" if you know what I mean... I want the whole world to know that my computer is processing... does anyone know if something like this exists?

Thanks!

 

[Crashman]

Wow, and then if you reduced your RAM to 1/2 you'd REALLY have a powerfull looking computer, smart thinking!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[jaylow]

Hehe! OK Guy!

 

[Crashman]

By the way, reducing your RAM would increase hard drive activity. And if you want to add LOTS of lights, all you need is a relay that uses 3v switching voltage. No, I don't know where you'd find one.

Of course you could probably do it with a simple transistor.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Ned_Flanders]

hope your not epileptic

_______________________
Whos round is it? Down that beer quick, smash my glass down, fall over the table - all rowdy and pissed

 

[mopeygoth]

I am sure you´d be able to do something with that connection on the motherboard, you should ask in an electronics-store or so

after all.. plus and minus is all we need, right?!

Abit IS7 - P4E3.0@3.45- i865PE - 1024mb dual ddr400 - Leadtek 6800 128mb@380/850 - 600W dualfan(front/rear) PowerTek Psu - maxtor 4K080H4 & 6Y120P0 - samsung sm-352b

 

[jim552]

Hey, cut the guy some slack!

This is just an extension of some the case mods that are already taking place.

I haven't seen anything that does what you are seeking so my personal advice regarding this would be as follows:

As not hard drives have headers available that output the drive activity, tapping into the led would be problematic at best. While soldering directly where the LED already are is possible, it would need to be redone whenever the hard drive is changed, and if done wrong the hard drive can be killed!

I think the best solutions would be to tap into the hard drive LED from the motherboard, us an optical sensor to see the actual hard drive LED go on and create a pulse based on that, or make a little program that monitors activity in Windows and sends data to the parallel port that can be used for your lighting system.

Tapping into the hard drive acitvity light from the motherboard shouldn't be so difficult. There is already a two pin header to connect to so the signal can be routed to a little patch board to amplify the signal and then use it to power additional lights.

If you know someone who does little projects I am sure they can build a little board that has a light sensor that can be tuned to the brightness of the led so that it can sense when it is on and then provide power to some other lamp. (The tuning part is a resister, but finding a light sensor that work specifically with an LED may be a bit of trial an error. I have NEVER used a light sensor to sense anything other than sunlight, or normal lamp light.)

The final solution would be to make a little board that plugs into the parallel port of your computer. (After all, what do you use that for anymore anyway?)

Try this page
<A HREF="http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/csppleds.asplink" target="_new">Parallel Port LED Control</A>

NOTE: The ASP portion doesn't let this link show up right away. Click on the "I/O Ports Uncensored"... link and you're good to go.

Make a little board, make a little program, and you're good to go!

I hope that helps,
Jim F