Posted September 11, 2017 Hey folks. I've got a white LED strip (not sure if its 12v or not) and I've been thinking of wiring it to a Molex connector for power (by soldering on 2/4 wires from a Molex-SATA cable). I know I need to solder the red/black (power/ground) wires, but I thought I'd ask here first in case I'm overlooking something. Custom pinewood case, Corsair CX 600W, Rampage 3 Extreme, i7 980x (@4.2ghz) with ML240 Cooler, MSI GTX 970, 24gb DDR3, 240gb OCZ Tr150 SSD + 2Tb Seagate Baracuda. Advocate for used/older hardware. Also one of the resident petrol heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Check where you bought it should say if its 12v or not otherwise dont attempt it because you may fry stuff Im mostly on discord now and you can find me on my profile My Build: Xeon 2630L V, RX 560 2gb, 8gb ddr4 1866, EVGA 450BV My Laptop #1: i3-5020U, 8gb of DDR3, Intel HD 5500 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Usually Molex connectors are 12v-G-G-5V with 12V being yellow and 5V being red. Spoiler Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down. - Adam Savage PHOΞNIX Ryzen 5 1600 @ 3.75GHz | Corsair LPX 16Gb DDR4 @ 2933 | MSI B350 Tomahawk | Sapphire RX 480 Nitro+ 8Gb | Intel 535 120Gb | Western Digital WD5000AAKS x2 | Cooler Master HAF XB Evo | Corsair H80 + Corsair SP120 | Cooler Master 120mm AF | Corsair SP120 | Icy Box IB-172SK-B | OCZ CX500W | Acer GF246 24" + AOC <some model> 21.5" | Steelseries Apex 350 | Steelseries Diablo 3 | Steelseries Syberia RAW Prism | Corsair HS-1 | Akai AM-A1 D.VA coming soon™ xoxo Sapphire Acer Aspire 1410 Celeron 743 | 3Gb DDR2-667 | 120Gb HDD | Windows 10 Home x32 Vault Tec Celeron 420 | 2Gb DDR2-667 | Storage pending | Open Media Vault gh0st Asus K50IJ T3100 | 2Gb DDR2-667 | 40Gb HDD | Ubuntu 17.04 Diskord Apple MacBook A1181 Mid-2007 Core2Duo T7400 @2.16GHz | 4Gb DDR2-667 | 120Gb HDD | Windows 10 Pro x32 Firebird//Phoeniix FX-4320 | Gigabyte 990X-Gaming SLI | Asus GTS 450 | 16Gb DDR3-1600 | 2x Intel 535 250Gb | 4x 10Tb Western Digital Red | 600W Segotep custom refurb unit | Windows 10 Pro x64 // offisite backup and dad's PC Saint Olms Apple iPhone 6 16Gb Gold Archon Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE Gulliver Nokia Lumia 1320 Werkfern Nokia Lumia 520 Hydromancer Acer Liquid Z220 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Author 3 hours ago, Billy_Mays said: Check where you bought it should say if its 12v or not otherwise dont attempt it because you may fry stuff 3 hours ago, revsilverspine said: Usually Molex connectors are 12v-G-G-5V with 12V being yellow and 5V being red. Hide contents 1 It says DC 6v where the negative and positive wires are meant to be connected. I'm presuming that it will only take that much even if I give it 12v? Custom pinewood case, Corsair CX 600W, Rampage 3 Extreme, i7 980x (@4.2ghz) with ML240 Cooler, MSI GTX 970, 24gb DDR3, 240gb OCZ Tr150 SSD + 2Tb Seagate Baracuda. Advocate for used/older hardware. Also one of the resident petrol heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 1 minute ago, ImadKnight said: It says DC 6v where the negative and positive wires are meant to be connected. I'm presuming that it will only take that much even if I give it 12v? Nope. It'll fry the RGB strip. It MIGHT work on 5V. If it doesn't, you'll need either a step up converter to make that 5V be 6V or a step down from 12V to 6V Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down. - Adam Savage PHOΞNIX Ryzen 5 1600 @ 3.75GHz | Corsair LPX 16Gb DDR4 @ 2933 | MSI B350 Tomahawk | Sapphire RX 480 Nitro+ 8Gb | Intel 535 120Gb | Western Digital WD5000AAKS x2 | Cooler Master HAF XB Evo | Corsair H80 + Corsair SP120 | Cooler Master 120mm AF | Corsair SP120 | Icy Box IB-172SK-B | OCZ CX500W | Acer GF246 24" + AOC <some model> 21.5" | Steelseries Apex 350 | Steelseries Diablo 3 | Steelseries Syberia RAW Prism | Corsair HS-1 | Akai AM-A1 D.VA coming soon™ xoxo Sapphire Acer Aspire 1410 Celeron 743 | 3Gb DDR2-667 | 120Gb HDD | Windows 10 Home x32 Vault Tec Celeron 420 | 2Gb DDR2-667 | Storage pending | Open Media Vault gh0st Asus K50IJ T3100 | 2Gb DDR2-667 | 40Gb HDD | Ubuntu 17.04 Diskord Apple MacBook A1181 Mid-2007 Core2Duo T7400 @2.16GHz | 4Gb DDR2-667 | 120Gb HDD | Windows 10 Pro x32 Firebird//Phoeniix FX-4320 | Gigabyte 990X-Gaming SLI | Asus GTS 450 | 16Gb DDR3-1600 | 2x Intel 535 250Gb | 4x 10Tb Western Digital Red | 600W Segotep custom refurb unit | Windows 10 Pro x64 // offisite backup and dad's PC Saint Olms Apple iPhone 6 16Gb Gold Archon Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE Gulliver Nokia Lumia 1320 Werkfern Nokia Lumia 520 Hydromancer Acer Liquid Z220 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Author 8 minutes ago, revsilverspine said: Nope. It'll fry the RGB strip. It MIGHT work on 5V. If it doesn't, you'll need either a step up converter to make that 5V be 6V or a step down from 12V to 6V Ok, thanks for the heads up! I'll try on 5v cause I don't need them too bright anyways. Custom pinewood case, Corsair CX 600W, Rampage 3 Extreme, i7 980x (@4.2ghz) with ML240 Cooler, MSI GTX 970, 24gb DDR3, 240gb OCZ Tr150 SSD + 2Tb Seagate Baracuda. Advocate for used/older hardware. Also one of the resident petrol heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Yep you'll probably need a buck converter their cheap enough if you do My daily driver: The Wrath of Red: OS Windows 10 home edition / CPU Ryzen TR4 1950x 3.85GHz / Cooler Master MasterAir MA621P Twin-Tower RGB CPU Air Cooler / PSU Thermaltake Toughpower 750watt / ASRock x399 Taichi / Gskill Flare X 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz / HP 10GB Single Port Mellanox Connectx-2 PCI-E 10GBe NIC / Samsung 512GB 970 pro M.2 / ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 STRIX 8GB / Acer - H236HLbid 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor x3 My technology Rig: The wizard: OS Windows 10 home edition / CPU Ryzen R7 1800x 3.95MHz / Corsair H110i / PSU Thermaltake Toughpower 750watt / ASUS CH 6 / Gskill Flare X 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz / HP 10GB Single Port Mellanox Connectx-2 PCI-E 10GBe NIC / 512GB 960 pro M.2 / ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 STRIX 8GB / Acer - H236HLbid 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor HP Monitor My I don't use Rig: OS Windows 10 home edition / CPU Ryzen 1600x 3.85GHz / Cooler Master MasterAir MA620P Twin-Tower RGB CPU Air Cooler / PSU Thermaltake Toughpower 750watt / MSI x370 Gaming Pro Carbon / Gskill Flare X 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz / Samsung PM961 256GB M.2 PCIe Internal SSD / EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SSC GAMING / Acer - H236HLbid 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor My NAS: The storage miser: OS unRAID v. 6.9.0-beta25 / CPU Intel i7 6700 / Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite 500 Watt 80 Plus / ASUS Maximus viii Hero / 32GB Gskill RipJaw DDR4 3200Mhz / HP Mellanox ConnectX-2 10 GbE PCI-e G2 Dual SFP+ Ported Ethernet HCA NIC / 9 Drives total 29TB - 1 4TB seagate parity - 7 4TB WD Red data - 1 1TB laptop drive data - and 2 240GB Sandisk SSD's cache / Headless Why did I buy this server: OS unRAID v. 6.9.0-beta25 / Dell R710 enterprise server with dual xeon E5530 / 48GB ecc ddr3 / Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA w/ LSI 9211-8i P20 IT / 4 450GB sas drives / headless Just another server: OS Proxmox VE / Dell poweredge R410 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 9 hours ago, ImadKnight said: Hey folks. I've got a white LED strip (not sure if its 12v or not) and I've been thinking of wiring it to a Molex connector for power (by soldering on 2/4 wires from a Molex-SATA cable). I know I need to solder the red/black (power/ground) wires, but I thought I'd ask here first in case I'm overlooking something. Can you link the LED strip you are using, most LED strips are 12V which can be powered directly off of molex or sata. Updated Modding FAQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Author 1 minute ago, W-L said: Can you link the LED strip you are using, most LED strips are 12V which can be powered directly off of molex or sata. I bought it from a local brick and mortar store so I don't have a link. I tested the strip using a 9v battery, and it worked fine. Custom pinewood case, Corsair CX 600W, Rampage 3 Extreme, i7 980x (@4.2ghz) with ML240 Cooler, MSI GTX 970, 24gb DDR3, 240gb OCZ Tr150 SSD + 2Tb Seagate Baracuda. Advocate for used/older hardware. Also one of the resident petrol heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Just now, ImadKnight said: I bought it from a local brick and mortar store so I don't have a link. I tested the strip using a 9v battery, and it worked fine. Take a photo of the LED side of the strip it can show the layout of the traces and what's it's designed for. Updated Modding FAQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Author Just now, W-L said: Take a photo of the LED side of the strip it can show the layout of the traces and what's it's designed for. Excuse my crappy pictures, dark room and terrible in low light camera. Custom pinewood case, Corsair CX 600W, Rampage 3 Extreme, i7 980x (@4.2ghz) with ML240 Cooler, MSI GTX 970, 24gb DDR3, 240gb OCZ Tr150 SSD + 2Tb Seagate Baracuda. Advocate for used/older hardware. Also one of the resident petrol heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Just now, ImadKnight said: Excuse my crappy pictures, dark room and terrible in low light camera. That's a 5V SMD3258 strip, don't run it at higher voltages since it causes the resistors to work harder to dissipate the excess power as heat. You can wire it up still for molex since it has a 5V power line. Updated Modding FAQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Author Just now, W-L said: That's a 5V SMD3258 strip, don't run it at higher voltages since it causes the resistors to work harder to dissipate the excess power as heat. You can wire it up still for molex since it has a 5V power line. Wow thanks! I really appreciate the help. Would it be safe to test it first by connecting the molex adapter to the PSU and just touching the 5v + ground cable to the strip? Custom pinewood case, Corsair CX 600W, Rampage 3 Extreme, i7 980x (@4.2ghz) with ML240 Cooler, MSI GTX 970, 24gb DDR3, 240gb OCZ Tr150 SSD + 2Tb Seagate Baracuda. Advocate for used/older hardware. Also one of the resident petrol heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Just now, ImadKnight said: Wow thanks! I really appreciate the help. Would it be safe to test it first by connecting the molex adapter to the PSU and just touching the 5v + ground cable to the strip? I would do it with a PSU not connected to your system ideally but it can be done just be sure you don't short anything. Updated Modding FAQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 11, 2017 Author 2 minutes ago, W-L said: I would do it with a PSU not connected to your system ideally but it can be done just be sure you don't short anything. Okay, great, I've got a few extra ones laying around. Now to just find a paperclip... Custom pinewood case, Corsair CX 600W, Rampage 3 Extreme, i7 980x (@4.2ghz) with ML240 Cooler, MSI GTX 970, 24gb DDR3, 240gb OCZ Tr150 SSD + 2Tb Seagate Baracuda. Advocate for used/older hardware. Also one of the resident petrol heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 12, 2017 21 hours ago, ImadKnight said: Excuse my crappy pictures, dark room and terrible in low light camera. I have similar LED size / Strip. I have wired all mine to Fan headers. AlphaCool Does the same among other companies. Current Build: Project Frost Gaming Rig Build: Project Ice Dragon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 13, 2017 Author Just as a little update incase anyone in the future reads the thread. I connected the red 5v to the positive terminal, black ground to negative terminal and bridged the pins, thus starting the PSU. Everything worked as it should and the strip lit up. Then I happened to short the 2 wires (douh), resulting in a very small flash of light and a PSU that turned itself off. Powered it on again and everything worked as it should. (Note that I also had a small molex fan connected to provide some resistance). Custom pinewood case, Corsair CX 600W, Rampage 3 Extreme, i7 980x (@4.2ghz) with ML240 Cooler, MSI GTX 970, 24gb DDR3, 240gb OCZ Tr150 SSD + 2Tb Seagate Baracuda. Advocate for used/older hardware. Also one of the resident petrol heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now