Best Paint for Case?

[Misinthe]

Hey everyone, so I have 2 questions for you all today, hopefully you can help me.

 

1) Best spray paint for cases? Take in account that it is a Node 202, so it will get hot when under load, I was thinking maybe engine enamel?

 

2) I want to turn the LED on the Node 202 that lights white when you turn it on into a red color. Is there some kind of way that I can achieve this?

 

Thank you all for your answers.

[W-L]

10 minutes ago, Miguel552 said:

Hey everyone, so I have 2 questions for you all today, hopefully you can help me.

1) Best spray paint for cases? Take in account that it is a Node 202, so it will get hot when under load, I was thinking maybe engine enamel?

2) I want to turn the LED on the Node 202 that lights white when you turn it on into a red color. Is there some kind of way that I can achieve this?

Thank you all for your answers.

It doesn't need to be heat resistant paint as it doesn't get hot enough to cause any problem but some of the best paint would be automotive spray paint. Just be sure to properly prep the surfaces for paint. 

As for the LED if it's white you can add a film or sharpie it red or replace it with a red LED and a resistor inline. 

[Misinthe]

3 minutes ago, W-L said:

It doesn't need to be heat resistant paint as it doesn't get hot enough to cause any problem but some of the best paint would be automotive spray paint. Just be sure to properly prep the surfaces for paint. 

As for the LED if it's white you can add a film or sharpie it red or replace it with a red LED and a resistor inline. 

By "Just be sure to properly prep the surfaces for paint." you mean...? And for the LED, there's a white plastic in front of that I was thinking maybe painting that red or something? How hard is it to change the LED? 

[W-L]

6 minutes ago, Miguel552 said:

By "Just be sure to properly prep the surfaces for paint." you mean...? And for the LED, there's a white plastic in front of that I was thinking maybe painting that red or something? How hard is it to change the LED? 

The LED is usually just clipped in place and can be cut out and a new one soldered to take it's place, only reason why it may be a good idea to add a resistor though is because the voltage from the front panel IO is 3V where most red LED's operate right around 2V. 

 

For the paint I have a general guide here under General Painting that goes over painting of different surfaces and such:

 

[Misinthe]

13 minutes ago, W-L said:

-snip-

 

So this is the LED base, how can I replace it?

 

 

[W-L]

12 minutes ago, Miguel552 said:

So this is the LED base, how can I replace it?

Oh that's quite simple then you would need to take off the foam backing it looks like on the PCB and de-solder the LED and replace it with a red one instead, ideally if you can remove that little stand off and add a small inline resistor that would be good something like an ~50Ohm resistors I believe will do. 

Another option I woudl try first since it's a white LED you can color the LED red with a sharpie to see if that works.

[Misinthe]

1 minute ago, W-L said:

Oh that's quite simple then you would need to take off the foam backing it looks like on the PCB and de-solder the LED and replace it with a red one instead, ideally if you can remove that little stand off and add a small inline resistor that would be good something like an ~50Ohm resistors I believe will do. 

Another option I woudl try first since it's a white LED you can color the LED red with a sharpie to see if that works.

I'll try the sharpie, I know next to nothing about de-solder and re-soldering. And I was checking your guide on painting. If I use plastidip I don't need to do much prepping? But how do I make it smooth, you talk about rough or like an orange peel, but that's still pretty rough.

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, Miguel552 said:

I'll try the sharpie, I know next to nothing about de-solder and re-soldering. And I was checking your guide on painting. If I use plastidip I don't need to do much prepping? But how do I make it smooth, you talk about rough or like an orange peel, but that's still pretty rough.

It a rubber coating so it has certain limitations where you apply it but it is hard to get perfectly flat. In my experience applying a thick wet coat but not letting it have runs tends to be the best, it can't be cut back or polished like paint if you want to get a perfectly flat type finish. 

[Misinthe]

1 minute ago, W-L said:

It a rubber coating so it has certain limitations where you apply it but it is hard to get perfectly flat. In my experience applying a thick wet coat but not letting it have runs tends to be the best, it can't be cut back or polished like paint if you want to get a perfectly flat type finish. 

I guess there has to be a con for it to be so easily replaced, I guess I can live with it not being smooth if it means I can replace it all the time.

[W-L]

1 minute ago, Miguel552 said:

I guess there has to be a con for it to be so easily replaced, I guess I can live with it not being smooth if it means I can replace it all the time.

Yeah it's fairly easy to just peel it off and replace it, another option is something like vinyl wrap if you don't want it to be permanent. 

[Misinthe]

1 minute ago, W-L said:

Yeah it's fairly easy to just peel it off and replace it, another option is something like vinyl wrap if you don't want it to be permanent. 

What's cheaper though? Also was thinking about just wrapping the LED in some red cellophane paper or something, so it can be removed.

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, Miguel552 said:

What's cheaper though? Also was thinking about just wrapping the LED in some red cellophane paper or something, so it can be removed.

They provide fairly different looks so it depends on what you like but if you were to do it yourself the Vinyl as long as your case is mainly flat surfaces would be quite easy to work with. The plasti-dip has a bit of a learning curve since it isn't like regualr old spray paint when it goes down. And for the LED if you have a plastic diffuser the LED shines through you can apply a red film to that to see if it provides a deep enough red color. 

[Misinthe]

5 minutes ago, W-L said:

They provide fairly different looks so it depends on what you like but if you were to do it yourself the Vinyl as long as your case is mainly flat surfaces would be quite easy to work with. The plasti-dip has a bit of a learning curve since it isn't like regualr old spray paint when it goes down. And for the LED if you have a plastic diffuser the LED shines through you can apply a red film to that to see if it provides a deep enough red color. 

Where can I find this Vinyl to buy? The Node 202 is fairly flat, I don't think it'd give me too much trouble. Is this the thing you're talking about?

 

 

[W-L]

13 minutes ago, Miguel552 said:

Where can I find this Vinyl to buy? The Node 202 is fairly flat, I don't think it'd give me too much trouble. Is this the thing you're talking about?

 

Yes you can apply a colored acetate or film to that for the LED to shine through, most art stores will have colored acetate or a simple test you can try is using clear tape with some sharpie to do a test. 

 

For vinyl wrap in general places like Amazon or places that do wraps for cars will have this stuff, some of the best is the 3M branded or ViVvid which is also quite nice.