[SOLVED] LED advice on a Case Mod

Jun 30, 2018
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I'm working on a Stargate themed case mod. I have never used LED's before and I would like to integrate allot into this build. So I have allot of basic questions.
First the set up.
1) I want a fairly powerful bar LED to light the Mobo and back light a clear acrylic front panel. I'm looking at this light (https://www.moddiy.com/products/Sunbeam-Meteor-Light-30cm-%252d-Blue-%2812-LEDs%2C-8-Speed-Settings%29.html) I'd link maybe 5 of them in the back right corner of the case. I am wondering if it would work. and if it would overpower the LED's 3 and 4.
2) I want to have several acrylic stargate ancient data crystals (https://www.scifidesign.com/2015/12/30/stargate-atlantis-data-crystal-replica-props/) with white LED's inside. Ideally I would like to wire these LED into the HDD so they flicker when I'm using the HDD. I have no idea how to do this. Additionally I would like to have once mounted to the front of a disk drive that would also flicker with the disk LED.
3) The front of the case is supported by two Lantian style pillars (https://jcprops.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/stargate-atlantis-chicklet-light-replica/) with clear yellow acrylic plates on the inside and outside of the case. I want a string of LED's lighting these from the inside and for these to be the most prominent lighting feature. I would like to be able to turns these off as needed. Also the design as of now has a diamond shaped clear acrylic piece going through the support and I'm thinking I could put a single LED through a hole in the middle. Would it be better to have two pieces of acrylic with two separate LED's.
4) With the case design I have two 100mm fans at the top and bottom of the case (wind tunnel sort of set up) I want them to have blue LED's and one of them is supposed to simulate the event horizon of a worm hole. Any idea how i could get a rippling pond effect out of an LED and a fan.
5) On the side of the case I have an ascetic design with clear blue acrylic panels. I'm thinking I can use single bulb LED's placed behind each plate. I would like to be able to turn these off as needed.

On to the stupid questions
A) How do I control all these LED's. What hardware/software might i need. Ideally I would like software control over lights 1 and 4. LED 2 I would like to flicker with the HDD. 3 and 5 I would like push buttons and if possible software control. (Mobo is a ASROCK Z170 Extreme +)
B) I know LED's are low wattage but should i consider separate power sources.
C) Again i know LED's aren't supposed to get hot but has anyone noticed significant heat spikes from LED's. I should have very good cooling but for one thing I want to just use a head sink for the CPU and use the airflow through the case to cool the sink. I may eventually go with water-cooling but for now I have dinky CPU and the heat sink I have looks cool.
D) recommendations on vendors or kits.
E) Are their case mod community sites to post development pictures and get more advice.
F) let me know if I forgot about anything important.
G) What thickness of Acrylic will let LED light through. I'm going to have 2mm and 5mm clear acrylic. I haven't used clear acrylic before is there significant refection or softening from the acrylic.

I'll have design and prototype pictures up once I have them done and a place to post them.
 
Solution
While i'm also a fan of Stargate, i can only give you few answers to help you out.

For controlling LEDs, Rasberry Pi is one of the best ones since you can code and program the LEDs to do exactly what you want, where the result is superb. A good but a bit long video to watch,
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPJQLvw3U44

While you can't get the exact same event horizon effect as seen in TV show, the closest you could get is this,
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfOsPxP-g3Y

That Stargate in the vid is actual PC, here are it's specs and story (it looks really cool btw),
link: https://black-mod.com/wp/kiemelt/stargate-mod/
(while site isn't in English, my browser translated the site just fine into the English)

For...

Aeacus

Titan
Ambassador
While i'm also a fan of Stargate, i can only give you few answers to help you out.

For controlling LEDs, Rasberry Pi is one of the best ones since you can code and program the LEDs to do exactly what you want, where the result is superb. A good but a bit long video to watch,
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPJQLvw3U44

While you can't get the exact same event horizon effect as seen in TV show, the closest you could get is this,
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfOsPxP-g3Y

That Stargate in the vid is actual PC, here are it's specs and story (it looks really cool btw),
link: https://black-mod.com/wp/kiemelt/stargate-mod/
(while site isn't in English, my browser translated the site just fine into the English)

For additional ideas, there's also a PC inside the Cheops class warship,
article: https://www.bit-tech.net/reviews/modding/case-mod/pyramid-by-henk-hamers/1/
pics: https://www.techpowerup.com/gallery/2324/pyramid-htpc

And that's about it from me. Oh, you can upload your images to Imgur site if you want to share them,
link: https://imgur.com/

If you register there then you can create image albums and keep a better track on your uploaded images. I keep there the build log pics of my 3 PCs: Skylake, Haswell and AMD. Full specs with pics in my sig.
 
Solution

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