glitter for visual flow indicator?

Posidon42 · Mar 12, 2004

First of all, I did some searching and I pretty much already know what you all are going to say, but I am going to post this anyway.

THIS IS NOT FOR THE MAIN COOLING LOOP. This experiment will be used for external beautification as part of my next mod only. So what I want to do is to put visual flow indicator, like glitter, into the water cooling system. the pump will only be connected to itself and some tubing as I am going to use a small pump for this, and it is just for looks.

Are there any water pumps out there that would not have issues with this? I figured the Mags might work well since there are no gears and not many places for stuff to get stuck but I thought I would ask you all first.

Also, I wasn't sure if this should be in this forum or the alternative modding section, so mods please move this if you see the need. Thanks.

Cathar · Mar 12, 2004

Posidon42 said:
Are there any water pumps out there that would not have issues with this?

A peristaltic pump is about the only thing that comes to mind...for long term and low maintenance use.

Many mag-drive pumps can handle it okay I guess. The Laing D4 (Danger Den 12V pump) design would handle impurities better than most due to its "ball on a spindle" mounting of the impeller.

Diaphragm pumps can handle random crap fairly well.

cack01 · Mar 12, 2004

Posidon42 said:
external beautification

^^ made me laugh

I think you will be fine. I do not know how glitter acts in water so you may just want to test it out in a bowl or something. The last thing you need is for all the glitter to clump together.

I would also try to get the weakest pump possible b/c your flow rate is going to be very fast if you are only going to have a loop with no restrictions.

Posidon42 · Mar 12, 2004

yeah, that is pretty much what I was thinking as far as the pump goes. I am going for an tubing-wrapped-around-my-case kind of look with some integrated lights and maybe a bit of UV dye. I haven't decided yet. I just wanted something that would look snazzy. Cause you know we are all secretly in love with computerized bling bling

JFettig · Mar 12, 2004

I know someone tried it a while back and his pump died fast or something happened to it for the negetive effect.

Jon

Cathar · Mar 12, 2004

Is there anybody that makes magnetic screw pumps, cheap?

As in an screw-impeller that will sit inside some tubing, and then gets held in place and rotated by a magnetic-drive body that surrounds the tubing.

I know that these types of pumps do exist, but I've never known of anyone that sells them, except for chemical supplies which are pretty expensive.

rogerdugans · Mar 12, 2004

A screw or diaphragm seem like the best suited, if you can find one cheap.....
Any of the "standard" pumps we use would be worn out fairly quickly by glitter, as it is a pretty hard impurity, relatively speaking.

The cheap/easiest option might be to just go with a regular but cheap (under $25) pump and not use it except when impressing others.

It won't last too long but with infrequent use might satisfy..........

Cathar · Mar 12, 2004

Basically you want this type of pump:

The red/greed thing is just your tubing. The pump uses the peristaltic action to push water along. There is no contact between the particles and the pump.

Contra · Mar 12, 2004

use gold slauger
(hope i spelled right)
that would be funny!

Posidon42 · Mar 12, 2004

heh, that would be cool, but then I would have to mod a "break in case of alcoholic emergency" section to the case as well. That would be hilarious.

But as for the clogging issue, I guess I just don't understand where stuff would pool to allow it to clog. Especially the mag series pumps where the entire impeller is floating in the housing and the only rotating part is the impeller itself. But I do have a spare lying around, maybe I should just try it for a while and see what happens.

Also, is the issue that maybe the glitter particles are too large? I used to work for a chemical company and they had micro scintillating particles used in the HPLC. Basically if I can get some 'micro glitter' I think this should be ok.

Your thoughts?

Big_Baller · Mar 12, 2004

Hrm that pump that cathar discribed in the gif would also be good for temps, as it wouldn't actually be putting any extra heat into your system since it dosen't have any contact with the water directly...how much heat does the average pump put in the water? Interesting.

I have also wondered about putting things in the water. What is a peristaltic pump? Pics?

What about submersible pumps? I would bet that they are able to handle moderate ammounts of junk in the water. I'll ask my bro.

ghettocomp · Oct 9, 2004

Cathar said:
Basically you want this type of pump:

The red/greed thing is just your tubing. The pump uses the peristaltic action to push water along. There is no contact between the particles and the pump.

At the Hospital where I work we use this type of pump, but at the cost of replacement of the tubing each day, the ridgid silicone although good is not made for continuous flexing. another factor is noise, these things are loud

ghettocomp · Oct 9, 2004

Posidon42 said:
First of all, I did some searching and I pretty much already know what you all are going to say, but I am going to post this anyway.

THIS IS NOT FOR THE MAIN COOLING LOOP. This experiment will be used for external beautification as part of my next mod only. So what I want to do is to put visual flow indicator, like glitter, into the water cooling system. the pump will only be connected to itself and some tubing as I am going to use a small pump for this, and it is just for looks.

Are there any water pumps out there that would not have issues with this? I figured the Mags might work well since there are no gears and not many places for stuff to get stuck but I thought I would ask you all first.

Also, I wasn't sure if this should be in this forum or the alternative modding section, so mods please move this if you see the need. Thanks.

try this stuff, I am currently working on a window mod with it, and it looks promising.

Edit- Get the flow down low enough, with turbulence from somewhere it should look fairly cool

CPUonNO2 · Oct 9, 2004

Is this for aesthetic purposes only? If there is no cooling involved, why not use something like rheoscopic fluid? Could probably run that through a more "standard" variety of pump.

Archer36 · Oct 9, 2004

What would be interesting is somehow UV Dye the Glitter Particles, but not the water, so you would see glowing things flowing in the water!

ChuckS · Oct 9, 2004

Hmmm, a snow globe look for the PC. Never seen that in the gallery pics...

greenman100 · Oct 10, 2004

not gonna be good for the bearings in the pump

Borisw37 · Oct 10, 2004

how about heat convection flow, put a heater (resistor) at the bottom of the loop, that will heat up the water slightly, cause it to rise to the top of the loop, and then circulate back down. No moving parts.

CPUonNO2 · Oct 12, 2004

Borisw37 said:
how about heat convection flow, put a heater (resistor) at the bottom of the loop, that will heat up the water slightly, cause it to rise to the top of the loop, and then circulate back down. No moving parts.

Well, I think the last place you want more heat is near your computer. Unless of course the heat generated to create the convection currents is less than the heat output of an additional pump.

Borisw37 · Oct 13, 2004

ok, then route the tubing so that the bottom part goes over a hard-drive or a video-card, a natural source of heat, unless you already have a waterblock and/or heatsink there.

glitter for visual flow indicator?

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