Can you put a car neon in your PC?

[johnjailbait]

I went to advanced auto and saw a 20inch black light and i was like wow that would be awsome in my case. So i bought it and cut the cigarete adapter off of it and rigged a 4 pin on it only using the black and yellow wire since the yellow wire is 12v and thats what the light requires. I tested the light in a car and it worked fine but i cant get it to work in my case. I know the wire's are getting 12v but the light is not coming on. Anyone know how to fix this or can it be done.

Thanks

 

[fyter]

Since both systems use 12 volt power, it should work. I think that you are going to find that the cigarette adapter also contains a transformer that converts 12 volts to several thousand or more. Try disecting the adapter and connect that to a 4-pin molex. I think it should work.

 

[FlyGuy]

It may be 12V but it's not coming on because it doesn't have the right amperage.

 

[johnjailbait]

Do you really thing the amps is the problem here i mean damn i have one hell of a power supply. I need to get this working. Im wondering if i can buy the internal cigaret adapters for your computer and see if that will work if not maybe replace the transistor on the light. not sure tho if anyone knows for sure please let me know

Thanks

 

[fyter]

No, the average cold cathode car light only draws about 500mA. A 500 Watt power supply will give about 17A per rail. I don't think that would be the problem. As I said before, the cigarette adapter may contain the transformer for your particular model. There are some with the transformer built-in to the tube, and that should already be working fine as long as the DC polarity isn't backwards and your plug isn't loose or mis-wired (and don't use -12V).

 

[johnjailbait]

The neon does fit in my case dude. The light is a 20inch OPTX Black light. I dont think that a cig adapter is going to help it. There are some components on the light like a transister capaciter and such but dont think its getting the amps it needs tho the voltage it is getting is fine. It worked in a car but not in the computer. I guess im just screwed on it

 

[FlyGuy]

A transformer supplies the right amperage and voltage. The power supply may be putting out 17A on the 12V rail but if the light only needs 500mA then it's not going to work.

And they do make cold cathodes and such specifically for PCs.

 

[johnjailbait]

i know they make them for the pc but they dontlast long and this light is alot bigger and sturdier. It also has a life time warrenty and lights up well justcant get it to work with a pc

 

[fyter]

The tubes last quite a while, but the tranformers do tend to go bad. I have three of them in my case right now. I've had car stereo equipment running on a PC power supply before, so it would seem like it would work, but perhaps not. If you do get it working, you might want to wire a switch into an accessible location. It can get annoying having it on sometimes. My computer is in the same room that I sleep, and compiling code or rendering video overnight is tough. I made a switchboard/fan controller for the last case I built, and I could put it into "stealth" mode at night, but I ran out of hard-drive space and was too lazy/out-of-time to build another, so I'm stuck with these lights being on all the time.