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SunbeamTech Light-Bus & Laser LEDs Review

Modding/Small Mods by SidneyWong @ 2005-02-02

When the loud noise of your water cooling radiator fan rig or high performance heatsink fan bothers you a lot, the fan controller (rheostat) will come to the rescue. When your modded case does not have enough lighting or too much lighting, Sunbeamtech has the Light-Bus for you. In fact, this Light-Bus serves a dual purpose duty in controlling the fans and light intensity plus more.

Turn on the LightBus

Let there be light :

This is the easy part. I connected the Light Bus on the bench (more likely on the floor) with three 80 mm fans with which two are LED lighted, and a CCFL from Sunbeamtech.

Take a look:

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Now comes the difficult part. It is unfair to show light effect with words. I'm afraid that is what I could offer you.

ST Mode - the fading in and out both on the front panel blue LEDs and the device connected (light of course and don't do it with fans) is pretty cool.

Alt1 and Alt2 will rotate the lightings on and off.

HDD and Sound will be tested in a minute.

Well, you would have to take my words for it. It is pretty neat.

Let's have the front panel here again just in case you forget the "buttons" or "controls".

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Following action would be the result on my lack of knowledge in the operation of the Light Bus.

I rotated the knob counter clockwise expecting the fan would slow down and the LED light to dim. No such luck, they did not response to my command after several tries. I read the manual once again, which is nothing to brag about because it doesn’t say much and the diagram is almost unreadable. So, I said to myself “tough luck, the unit is defective”.

I wrote to Sunbeam and they responded within hours. The answer did not solve the problem. After playing with the "controls" again later on the day, I found out the unit was in good working order. In order to control the fan, the "ON" button must be pushed one more time, otherwise the ST and Alt1/Alt2 modes override the rheostat functionality.

With this minor issue resolved, I took out my trusted Sears Digital Meter to measure the voltage.

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While other fan controllers have a minimum ~6/7 to 12 volt range, this Light-Bus has a voltage of 0 to 12 volt range; meaning each control knob can be used as on/off switch. Exception to this would be LED lights which takes very little current to light up.

Next onto installation, the fun part ->

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