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Tenacious Dyl · Apr 9, 2006, 01:40 AM

I just whipped together a quick, completely non-damaging my G5. I have wanted, for a while, to add some "accent" lighting to my G5, and just haven't had the guts or the time. Today I changed this!

I had an extra 12" Blue Neon 12V Lamp laying around, it was meant to be put in a car, but never was. (Got it for a couple bucks in an automotive section) The power was via a 12V Cigarette lighter plug. I simply snipped off the plug. Next, I took the female end of a little computer fan connector, and chopped that off the fan. (An example pic of connector for those confused: http://www.tadara.com.au/images/k-case-fan-3pin.jpg) It was 2 pin by the way.

Simply enough, I yanked out the prod-connectors inside the female plastic connecter that used to be the fan's. Then I stripped the ends of the Neon wires, and soldered them to the prods, and then put the prods right back inside their plastic fan connector housing.

Next, I opened up my G5, and disconnected the only Molex connector in it (On the back of the Superdrive) and plugged in a Molex splitter. The splitter I used was like this one: http://www.mexbro.dsl.pipex.com/bit/SDGLEDFAQ13.jpg

I connected all the molex ports appropriately, and tucked the mess away behind the super-drive, so as not to disturb the aesthetics or air flow of the top section of the G5 tower. Now I just had that little male 2-pin fan cable to deal with. I ran him across the bottom of the top of the case of the G5. With a little gentle force, he fit under the plastic barrier between the Superdrive's "Chamber" and the Harddrive's "Chamber". Once it was in the hard-drive's "Chamber" there was only about 3-4 cm left of length, he made it about halfway between the plastic-fan barrier, and the back edge of the case.

Next, I ran the neon's female connector inside one of the slits on my NV Silencer PCI Slot. See here for picture: http://www.ocia.net/reviews/nvs52/img/rear.jpg I ran it out the little square cut hole furthest away from my G5's ports. Once inside the case, I ran the female connector straigt up (Through a little hole near the metal barrier between the upper and lower chambers of the case. The hole is right next to the latch to open the G5 case.) I connected it to the male fan cable. Then, just as a precaution, I carefully used a small piece (3-4 cm) of electrical tape, and taped the connected connectors together, and then with another small piece, to the metal "floor" of the hard-drive chamber, to prevent vibration noise.

I then closed up the G5's case, and rotated it 90 degrees, so the back of the case was facing me. Using two small *plastic* screws, and the small screw holes at the top and bottom of the neon tube I simply screwed the neon into the many holes on the back of the G5 case. To prevent restricting airflow, I secured it as far away from the ports as possible. Sadly, when I need to open the case from now on, I need to take out the top screw, to let the neon rotate to the side, so I can access the latch.

Once this was all done, I booted up the G5. The neon came on instantly, with no flicker, no dimming, etc. Perfect color / brightness, and completely steady glow. It creates a nice, not too loud or obnoxious glow under my desk, and my G5 is the "corner" of the room, so it has a really nice feel to it. When I turn off all other lights in the room, the neon is in such a good position, that all three "chambers" of the G5 glow blue, but very subtly. This is nice, as because of the metal, horizontal, barriers inside the G5, any neon placement in the G5 (without drilling or removing things) results in only a lame section appearing to be lit from the front.

If I ever want to remove the neon, it takes a couple seconds to unscrew it. It has left ZERO damage or "modification" to my G5, and I can replace it, or add something else later, as I added on that fan connector, I can swap whenever I like. Pictures are below.

The fan cable (red), off the molex splitter going under barrier, into hard drive chamber.

A closer view of the connection, and the neon cable running down the hard drive chamber, and into the PCI area, and out the cooler slot.

A view of the neon cable coming out the cooler slot in the back. Note how subtle it is, it doesn't affect airflow at all!

Dark shot from far away. Note it is much brighter than to the eye. Camera was sensative!

Dark shot of the corner, under desk. Note neon all the way on the edge of the back. Airflow is great!

Dark shot showing head-on G5. Notice the full-glow inside the case too! This is slightly more visible to the naked eye. Camera did the opposite of what it did in other shots :-/

What do you all think?

harrisjamieh · Apr 9, 2006, 11:51 AM

personally, I think its tacky, but thats just me...

Tuoder · Apr 9, 2006, 10:06 PM

I have been a huge fan of neons. I would like to see a picture with ambient light, though.

Tenacious Dyl · Apr 9, 2006, 10:10 PM

Tuoder: You mean with just my room's lights on?

Tuoder · Apr 9, 2006, 10:13 PM

Yeah, that is what I mean. I just wonder what the neons look like in a more normal light. I have a CRT iMac, so this kinda gave me the idea to put a light under the clear plastic. It would be seriously getto-chic.

Tenacious Dyl · 10:35 PM

A picture, slightly washed out by camera :-/ from my couch in the corner.

The camera's mood swings now make it a little on the dark side...

I hope the extra photos helped some,and good luck with your project!

Edit: My neon is bare, it is outside the case, as the picture in the first post. If you put a neon inside the apple case, realize a lot of light would bounce around in the case, and much less would be spread all over your room / floor. Also note that there are different pieces / layers to the old iMacs, some of the plastic layers are much more "frosted" and would definetely mute the light output greatly. Your computer might light up like a christmas tree, but it would affect its surroundings much less. Also take into account I'm using a 12" neon tube, that is also thicker across than many computer neons and cold cathodes. Mine has at least twice the diameter of a standard cold cathode. You might want to sneak two, 6" neons, or something similar...

Tuoder · Apr 10, 2006, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by Tenacious Dyl

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v131/TenaciousDyl/Apple/DSCN2517.jpg
A picture, slightly washed out by camera :-/ from my couch in the corner.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...e/DSCN2518.jpg
The camera's mood swings now make it a little on the dark side...

I hope the extra photos helped some,and good luck with your project!

Edit: My neon is bare, it is outside the case, as the picture in the first post. If you put a neon inside the apple case, realize a lot of light would bounce around in the case, and much less would be spread all over your room / floor. Also note that there are different pieces / layers to the old iMacs, some of the plastic layers are much more "frosted" and would definetely mute the light output greatly. Your computer might light up like a christmas tree, but it would affect its surroundings much less. Also take into account I'm using a 12" neon tube, that is also thicker across than many computer neons and cold cathodes. Mine has at least twice the diameter of a standard cold cathode. You might want to sneak two, 6" neons, or something similar...

I think that it will work out. My iMac is one of the clearer ones. It is a graphite iMac DV. I was thinking I would put a white light in there, so that the case would filter it out and make it graphite-colored. I will probably leech the power off of the DVD reader via splitter (like you did). I am a little worried about power draw. I don't think that it will really matter, though.

Tenacious Dyl · Apr 10, 2006, 08:41 PM

Power-draw really shouldn't be an issue. Its just a little 12v neon, and unless your processor, graphics, hard-drive, dvd-drive, and the neon are all going as hard as they can... you will still probably be under-ish the capacity of the power supply. Most systems can handle an extra drive, light, fan system, etc.

Dogdays · Apr 28, 2006, 05:32 PM

That is a pretty pathetic mod. I mean it's not even in the case.

giskard · Apr 28, 2006, 11:48 PM

I like the idea. I disagree with el_rob. Pathetic is buying one of those cigerette neon lights for the inside of your car and using the suction cups on the side of the tower.

gmankono · Apr 29, 2006, 12:17 PM

But that's basically what he did. He plugged a molex connector in, ran the wiring outside, and stuck it to the back of his case. It's just sad really.

Tenacious Dyl · Apr 30, 2006, 05:58 PM

Did you read the bloody first sentence of the post? Just curious... it says "I just whipped together a quick, completely non-damaging my G5 Bad grammer, but it makes a point all the same.

I didn't try to say this was fantastic. I didn't use a welding torch, I didn't make my G5 run off of solar power. The point was to install a neon, without ANY damage to the mac. Also, I wanted to be able to very easily remove and re-install it. Most neons are velcro'd, or screwed into places. Zip ties and other garbage abound. Here was an idea that was a simple cable conversion, an adapter, and a neon with two small screws. If I want to take it out, it takes 2 minutes. There isn't velcro left somewhere, or residue from removing it. There aren't screw holes or cuts or damage. And most importantly, its still really solid. I didn't just plug in a neon, and let it sit in the bottom of the case.

It was simply an idea. I know I asked for feedback, and I'm sorry a few of you thought it was lame. I used the thousands of holes in the case to my advantage, showed an easy way to sneak out a cable with no drilling, showed how to easily make it removable, and offered advice in that a simple "automotive neon" and a fan molex cable are all that is needed. There are probably people who have a neon or fan laying around, and didn't realize quite how simple this was.

Maybe if this forum was PACKED full of people doing incredible things to their macs, and I just cluttered up the forum pages with my "sad" mods, then I might understand your negative attitude. I thought this forum was dieing, rarely having more than a couple viewers at a time.

Tuoder · Apr 30, 2006, 06:09 PM

I think the problem is that Macs look pretty sweet out of the box. That makes it hard to improve the appearance. Anyway, I think you'd have to be a bit sure of what you are doing to engage in a mod of a G5 tower that damaged it in any way. The "2" people that dissed it are probably the same person, and are "both" definitely banned.

Tenacious Dyl · Apr 30, 2006, 06:18 PM

Tuoder: Yeah, I agree. It just made me angry, thanks for your support

You're right, the G5 case is beautiful, which is why I have the neon in the back right corner. Unless you are under my desk, on all fours, you can't see the neon bulb itself.

For general info / to the banned posters...I didn't put it inside the case because:

1) It was a little too big to fit properly, anywhere...

2) If it did fit well, it would restrict airflow wherever I put it, and the point was to make it look cool, not heat up the comp. Where it is now, *is* covering up a few holes, but the position its in (not near any fans) makes that irrelevant. Just in case, I ran Temp Monitor a lot before, and a lot after, and noticed absolutely no difference. In the case, it would greatly affect airflow, in any position. Don't want that at all...