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Hard Drive activity neon

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Overload

Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2000
Hard Drive Activity Neon


I have had this idea of controlling a neon light by the hard drives activity for a while and finally got around to doing it. This was actually very easy to do. The main thing that is needed to do this is either a solid state relay or a suitable transistor or MOSFET. I used a solid state relay with a 3-24 Volt input and 60 volt output. A relay is the simpler but more expensive way to do this where a transistor can be found for less than a dollar but will require proper biasing.

Obviously the way you want to do this is by connecting the relay to the HD LED connector on the motherboard. I disconnected the led and measured the voltage at the connector to be 5 volt. Connect this to the input of the relay and connect the neon in series with a 12 volt rail and the output of the relay and vuala, a hard drive activity neon.

Note: you can not connect both the led and your relay or it won’t work, at least it didn’t for me. Apparently the led drains all of the current and doesn’t allow the relay to switch.

Warning: If you computer is in your bedroom this could cause Sleeplessness headaches and seizures :p
 
whoa so does ur neon blink around everytime ur hard drive is processing?
 
NoKtEm said:
whoa so does ur neon blink around everytime ur hard drive is processing?

yep, just like the led on the front of the case used to
 
SpaceRangerJoe said:
definately groovy man. seems like it might get a little bothersome, but still neat.

thanks, I dont have a digital camera or i would post some pics. A picture wouldn't do very well at capturing the effect anyway.
 
Thats cool I remember my friend had an old noisy HD so he put it in the case with the sound sensor on his neon near it and it went with the HD. It was cool but then again it picked up other noised like music. I like you idea, pretty cool.
 
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