Cold Cathode Desk Lighting?

H

hungryduck

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 29, 2005
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Hello everyone,
I wanted to do some nifty blue/white desklighting with some cold cathode computer case lights....but how would I go about powering them? I know I could use an old PSU or something, but I was wondering if there was a way that didn't involve a bunch of wires and a bare PSU lying on the carpet? Any ideas? How could I power some of these lights from a standard power outlet? Has anyone done this before?
Thanks!
 
The molexes that power your internals should be providing ~12v power. Look at the markings on your cold cathode's box and/or transformer, and figure out how many milliamps of current the device draws. Then buy an AC adapter ("power brick") from Ratshack or another electronics vendor that provides at least that much current. Chop off the molex and wire the positive and negative (red and black) wires from the cold cathode's transformer either directly to the power brick (chop off the power brick's plug and wire-nut or solder the connections) or to an appropriately-sized plug that the power brick's plug attaches to.

I haven't done this, but in theory it should work. Good luck!
 
That really depends on what you want to build. I'd say that's more an aesthetic question than technical. If you're looking for an even light, like that from a flourescent tube, a cold cathode is the way to go. If you don't mind the discrete light sources in the setup you linked to, you can use that.. electrically speaking, so long as you feed them the voltage and current they want, they will be happy.
 
Just to tack onto this thread, if you wanted multiple CCFLs wired up in parallel, (or even in series), how would you calculate that? I'm sure it's an easy formula, but....
 
MasterOfTheHat said:
Just to tack onto this thread, if you wanted multiple CCFLs wired up in parallel, (or even in series), how would you calculate that? I'm sure it's an easy formula, but....
Click to expand...

Do it in parallel. Your power brick needs to be able to supply enough current for ALL of them.

For example, if each of the CCFL inverters need 150mA, and you have 4 of them, then your wall wart needs to provide at least 600mA (probably want to leave some headroom too).
 
personally i would just go buy one of those string light things from a place like spencers
 
ive concidered doing something similar, what i came up with for an idea is to take a router and cut away the underneath part of my desk (where my keyboard sits under) and then put a cold cathode in the groove i routed out. I havent actually done this but it seems viable, I wouldnt use LED's cause of the dark spots created. id rather have a continous light.
 
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