LED's - Exploit there powers

[UV1995]

I was wondering if I could connect a DC Motor to the HDD_LED pins of my motherboard. THen when the computer is turned on, it will turn on the motor, every-time the Hard Drive is accessed. This could then be used to do some cool stuff! Is this possible, and has people done this before?

I want to make sure that I don't fry my motherboard :)

Thanks in advance!

NB. My replies might be a little delayed, as I am currently studying:-/ (procreastinating! :) ) for my mid-year exams!;)

[UV1995]

bump

[UV1995]

I think my heading should be a bit more straight forward

Someone please reply!

[caperjack]

I think my heading should be a bit more straight forward

Someone please reply!

.

Hi, no need to BUMP it will get you no where !I was wondering if I could connect a DC Motor to the HDD_LED pins of my motherboard
Don't think you would hook it to the led pins ,as that is just for turning on the hdd led on the front tower ,and would not supply enough power .

this is a slow time of year [summmer]for help forums ,and you ? is a different one ,as i have never done this before myself ,i can only use common sence to answer ,if you have a motor that is 12 volt you can do it as the max output of a computer PSU is 12 vots

[caperjack]

reread you post and realize i have no idea what a dc motor would do if connected to a LED

[UV1995]

Thanks for the reply. I am completely new to forums and even though my join date was last year, I have been inactive till few days ago. Where I live it is winter (but the coldest it gets is like 6 degrees C)

I read somwhere that the pins provide 5V of power, so I figured that a small motor from an electric toy should do the trick. If I go ahead with it, I would like to mount an LED on the fan, and it would flash as the motor is turning, because it will be touching some metal contacts, mounted on the motor. I think it would be quite cool to replace the light with a motor (which I might then make a fan of), because it is not your everyday modding ideas

Thanks for the reply, I'll post here if I find out anything :)

[Nick Evan]

>>>reread you post and realize i have no idea what a dc motor would do if connected to a LED

It will kill your motherboard.
The led-out will supply a maximum of 10-30 mA, while a dc-motor will gobble up anything from 500 mA to xxx A resulting in smoke, smell and a destroyed motherboard. :) If you really want to this, you need to add some extra components like a transistor to drive a relais. You can hook up the motor to the relais

[UV1995]

@Nick
Thanks, but I am not that electric literate. I just know how a simple circuit works, and I just wanted to find out if this was possible. If it can lead to such disastrous effects, then I think I'll use a USB port to power an all-time fan, and maybe I'll add a switch to it. That abandons the risk os having to buy a new computer
Thanks anyway for the reply

[whipaway]

A simple transistor switch driving a relay will be able to operate an electric motor using the trigger from your HDD LED.

[Nick Evan]

>> A simple transistor switch driving a relay will be able to operate an electric motor using the trigger from your HDD LED

Yeah, that's kinda what I said :)

Anyway, good to see you back after all these years!