Filament-based, nixie tube-esq PC lighting?

[PapaCrazy]

I saw this in the news recently:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2012/07/17/lamptron-fc10-fan-controller-preview/1

Does anyone know if there is there any kind of filament-based lighting for PC internals that have a similarly natural amber glow to this lamptron controller? I have a headphone tube amp and its seated next to the computer. I thought it would be cool if they could both have the same kind of old school, amber lighting going on. Never done PC lighting before but I have a window and am anxious to try this idea.

 

[proton007]

Heat is an issue in filament based lighting. Maybe you can go for a similar orange color toned cold cathode.

 

[InvalidError]

Nixie tubes are not filament lamps, they are neon/argon gas lamps. They have a mesh anode and multiple wire cathodes. Applying a high voltage to a given cathode ionizes the gas around the wire which makes it glow following whatever the cathode's shape is.

The tiny neon lights in power bars, night lights, pilot lights, etc. work on the same principle. Nixies produce relatively little heat, a lot less than a filament equivalent would for an equivalent amount of light.

 

[PapaCrazy]

Heat is an issue in filament based lighting. Maybe you can go for a similar orange color toned cold cathode.

I was a little worried about the heat issue too. But it would only be for music playing, not gaming or anything intensive. The cold cathodes don't seem to have the effect I'm going for though. The nixie tubes and vacuum tubes put out a magical, candle-like glow which looks kind of romantic (excuse the terminology, but its the best way I can describe it). I might have to get more creative about this though, and maybe check out tinted fiber optic lighting or something.

Nixie tubes are not filament lamps, they are neon/argon gas lamps. They have a mesh anode and multiple wire cathodes. Applying a high voltage to a given cathode ionizes the gas around the wire which makes it glow following whatever the cathode's shape is.

The tiny neon lights in power bars, night lights, pilot lights, etc. work on the same principle. Nixies produce relatively little heat, a lot less than a filament equivalent would for an equivalent amount of light.

Is there a way to get a simple neon/argon gas lamp independently and wire it up to a molex plug w/ an on/off switch? Or is the voltage requirement/heat output still too high for a PC?

 

[InvalidError]

Is there a way to get a simple neon/argon gas lamp independently and wire it up to a molex plug w/ an on/off switch? Or is the voltage requirement/heat output still too high for a PC?

The heat output if you operate low-power neon lights at low power to extend their lifespan is quite small. The nigh-light types have a 100k ohms ballast resistor in series with the tube which limits power to well under 50mW. In terms of efficiency, the amount of light produced per mW is horrible compared with LEDs.

As for voltage, it takes ~80V to ionize neon gas around the electrodes of a small lamp. I don't remember seeing one of those larger than around 1", likely because maintaining electrode parallelism across a long tube would add complexity and such lamps are not really practical for lighting purposes due to their rather low light output even when overdriven.

 

[PapaCrazy]

It seems the negatives for these lamps outweigh the positives, in addition to them being hard to find on a consumer-oriented site like Amazon or New Egg. Not necessarily the heat, but the energy requirements worry me as well, since the lights would go on molex. I have a single molex cable in the case, and that cable only powers the ssd and the sound card. I don't think I'd want to add too much extra power draw to it, and it would be kind of stupid for me to sacrifice audio quality to aesthetics, especially since I planned for the lights to accompany music listening. I'll have to keep my eye out for something that looks similar, but is more efficient. Thanks for the great information, though.

 

[PapaCrazy]

Best answer selected by PapaCrazy.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey