4-Switch CCFL baybus with LEDs

Howto by ase @ 2002-04-17

Nowadays, every self-respecting casemodder owns at least one CCFL lamp. For people like me, it can be useful to be able to switch the lights on and of. This is where a baybus comes in handy. Today I'm going to show you how to make your own, and how I made and installed mine.
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The scheme

Step 1: Understanding the scheme

When you've got your material, you should make sure you understand the scheme completely. If you have questions about it, ask it in the forums , or send me a mail.

Step 2: Soldering your components

In my case, I installed all my invertors in front of my case, just below my fanbus.


(click to enlarge)

Some comments about this setup:

Pro:
- Easy accessible and replaceable if needed
- Looks pretty neat with my HD tray mounted in the bottom of my case (an AOpen HQ45)

Contra:
- I needed quite long wires (for instance to the blacklight CCFL at the back of my case), which causes a reduced volume of light.

Oh yeah, for the fans: this case can't be bought in this colour.. it's custom painted and I'm not going to tell you yet which technique we used ;)

For the soldering, I used a standard Solder Iron from Velleman
This is how the back of my baybus looks like


(click to enlarge)

More talented casemodders can make their own PCB, so you CAN get rid of those wires ;)

So for the soldering, you shouldn't have too much problems. Just make sure you don't forget the resistor, and that you don't swap the wires from the power to your inverter. The best way to avoid it is to mark the wires, so you know where's the + pole and where the - pole is.
You really should always double check that you didn't swap the poles, otherwise your inverter dies from the moment you switch him on (trust me, I know about it ;) )


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