i bought a 4-knob nexus fan controller that i will not be using b/c i decided to get one of those that has temperture displays. So with this 4 knobber i have here, i was wondering if it could be modded to control cathode lights?

If i were to convert the 4pin molex of cathode plugs and turn them into 3pins. would the knobs control the lights you think? or are the fan controllers made for only fans, and would require major work done on the pcb?

I have 3 cathode kits, and they all have different type of switches. plus i hate rocker switches. I know i could just rewire them and mount on bay cover but it wont look as proffesional looking as the fan controller if that could somehow work for cathodes.

I think your best bet for getting it working would be to ditch the PCB out of it and keep the fascia and the front panel knobs, then fit some rotary switches in place of the pot's (set the rotaries to 2 pos only) and use them to switch the supplies to your cold cathode tubes.

Quote: Originally Posted by Solarflair i bought a 4-knob nexus fan controller that i will not be using b/c i decided to get one of those that has temperture displays. So with this 4 knobber i have here, i was wondering if it could be modded to control cathode lights? If i were to convert the 4pin molex of cathode plugs and turn them into 3pins. would the knobs control the lights you think? or are the fan controllers made for only fans, and would require major work done on the pcb? I have 3 cathode kits, and they all have different type of switches. plus i hate rocker switches. I know i could just rewire them and mount on bay cover but it wont look as proffesional looking as the fan controller if that could somehow work for cathodes.

I'm not sure exactly what model controller you mean ... it's one with 4 rheostats that output 7v to 12v? I've got a Nexus 3.5" unit & just tried CCs on that - they're a bit iffy about starting at 7v, but once you crank it up there's no problem - I ran it for a couple of hours & nothing exploded anyway.

The only issue is how you connect the things up - as you say, CC invertors use 4 pin connectors, the controller has 3pin jobbies. My Nexus unit came with a bunch of cables - 3pin on one end, 3 and 4 pin on the other ... that would seem like the most obvious solution to me. If not, conventional 3pin connector wayout is red = +12v, black = ground, yellow = speed sensing, so you can always bodge something yourself

You could always buy some switches & build your own - check your PMs in a few minutes.

I hooked my CC's to my nexus with a 3 pin adaptor and they worked great. As J. English said they are a little iffy at 7v but a little higher than that they work fine.

Theres a vantec controller that has 3 fan knobs and one cathode controller knob (off, sound reactive, on). The 3.5" version is avalible in black or silver and the 5.25" version is avalible in silver only. Unfortunatly it only comes with blue cathodes so if you want another color you have to buy them as well (the vantec ones are cheap on newegg, no idea if other brands whould work). That was kind of frustrating building my roomates rig since now i have 2 blue vantec ccfls.