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Capt-Nemo — Rainbow Dash PS3 - RBDS3
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Published: 2011-12-29 02:50:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 9025; Favourites: 123; Downloads: 175
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Description
Sorry for the crappy photos! I kid you not, this thing is impossible to photograph. My brother has a great camera and is good with photography and we spent a half hour trying to get decent pictures. Couldn't do it, so these will have to suffice.This took 133 LED's and about six hours to make! You can check out a video here: [link]
If you have any questions, ask away cause I don't know what else to put here!
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Comments: 101
Not too hard; drilling all the holes took a while, though.
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How about the planning? Making sure everything fit right.
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That too, actually. I had to chop out some of the disk drive to get the LEDs to fit!
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Ah... So there was some chopping involved. Still running strong? Which model is it and what(if any) other modifications have you made to it? I just recently got a 40Gb ps3 fat (model CECHG01)
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Yep, still works great! It's a 60gb launch model, bought I think literally days after they started selling. It had a bad PSU when my friend gave it to me, that was only a $20 fix!
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gameing just got 20%cooler i would pic those lights getting hot how could you play without the lights over heating the inside also my psn is flamethefox if anyone wants to add me if anyone is reading this
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The LEDs don't get warm at all. 
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lol sweet where can i get something like this done
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No idea, I made this myself.
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man that had to take hours >.<
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The LEDs don't get warm at all.
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Looks great! Are those 5mm or 3mm LEDs? Any idea whether 5mm ones would fit or would there be too much pressure?
Also, any chance you could put up a description or maybe photos on wiring to the PSU 12v line? At the moment, I'm using an external 12V transformer, but I'd prefer not too.
Bit of a n00b, sorry..
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Also, scroll down the page a bit and check out my response to EnigmaticWarrior. There's some good info there, too.
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Thanks! I used 3mm, flat top LEDs. They were pretty thin, but some of them had to be sanded down even more and they still hit stuff on the inside. So I don't think 5mm would be a good choice.
Placement was the most difficult part of this project. If you open your PS3, you'll notice that the power supply and the disk drive are the two things that can get in your way. You want to put as many LEDs as you can over the flat parts, and keep away from the corners. The corners are the closest to the case and it's quite difficult to close if you have too many pressing on stuff on the inside.
The old PS3 has a translucent top that slides off, and then a plastic top under that. All the LEDs were hot glued in to be flush with the top of the plastic top so that the translucent top could still fit on.
My biggest tip would be lots of planning. I took photos of the top, and then of the inside, and marked problem areas to avoid. I overlaid the design I wanted and positioned it on Photoshop. I then printed the cutie mark in the size I needed, cut out everything but the outlines, and taped the whole thing to the top of the PS3 and drilled the holes.
It's a lot of work, but if you plan well you should be all right.
As for the power supply, finding a spot for 12v was easy. You're gonna need to open it, of course. But if you look on the bottom, you'll see two holes for the prongs that are on the PS3's motherboard. Use a multimeter to find a spot inside the PSU that connects to them. You can tell which terminal is ground because it will be shorted to the outside casing.
If you need any more help or pictures, please don't be afraid to ask!
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can you make a photo of where you connected the LEDs whit the power supply
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I don't have any, unfortunately. But if you look at the bottom of this image , you can see where the power supply connects to the motherboard. Right around there is a spot you can connect positive and negative. Just use a multimeter to make sure the spot is connected to the right connectors.
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That's incredible!!! Awesome job!! I wish I could do that!
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I'M THROWING MONEY AT THE SCREEN BUT NOTHING'S HAPPENING!! WHY ISN'T MINE 20% COOLER LIKE YOURS!!!! DAMN IT SOMEONE TAKE THE MONEY AND MAKE MY PS3 AS COOL AS HIS!!!
seriously dood that's freaking awesome, i might not trade in my fat ps3 anytime soon anymore XD
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This totally rocks ^^ I wish I had better skills with LEDs.
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Maybe in several years, after I get bored of it. 
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That is really cool! I have the same PS3 model. Do you think it's possible if you can make a tutorial on how to make a cutie mark PS3? I kind of want to make Luna cutie mark on my PS3. :3
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I could probably give you a few more pictures and some simple instructions, but I don't have time to make a full tutorial. 
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Sure that's fine. I'm a tech nerd as well, so I'll figure it out. lol And yes I understand and I can wait for more pictures. ^_^
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Okay, here's how I drilled the holes:
[link]
Here's a picture of the inside with only the blue LED's done. You can see the other holes I drilled, without LED's in them yet:
[link]
And here's how much of the disk drive's shielding I had to cut out with a Dremel:
[link]
For the template I just printed RD's cutie mark at the size I wanted it on the PS3. I positioned it so no LED's would be under the thicker parts of the top cover, where the clips are, so they wouldn't look dimmer.
The blue LED's had a 3.1-3.3v forward voltage, and the red and yellow ones 2.0-2.4v. So I put the red and yellow ones in strings of five and the blues in strings of four. Each string got a 150Ω resistor, and aaaallll the strings were wired up in parallel and connected to the 12v line of the power supply.
I had to cut a piece out of the disk drive's shielding because the LED's pressed onto it and made it hard to close the case. There's still a little pressure but it's not bad.
The biggest thing to watch out for is clearance. There's not a lot of space near the edges, so it's better if most of the design is in the middle.
I can't think of anything else, any other questions?
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That's pretty cool! Although there is one question I got (well, it's something I want to do with my PS3). I want to make Princess Luna Cutie Mark on my PS3, so what color light suggestion would you say if I were to make one?
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There are tons of LED colors, but none that would really match it exactly, so I'd go with ultraviolet for the purple "splotch" outline and white for the moon outline.
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Okay, thanks for the suggestions. *writes them down* Thanks for the help brony! ^_^
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No problem! I hope you're successful! And don't break your PS3!
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This is probably the coolest thing on the internet right now.
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that is amazing. i would do this with my xbox except my brother would be mad at me because he is not a brony.
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how did you manage to make the L.E.Ds appear through the plastic? also what kind of L.E.Ds are those(Ex:1cm flat tops)? and where did you get them from? would this be possible for an xbox 360? i AM a electronics geek, i have built full surround sound systems and fulling functional robots, so please give me the raw details.
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The top of the PS3 is actually translucent. There's a security screw on the bottom that can be taken out. The top then slides off, revealing another cover underneath. It was in that cover I drilled the holes and put the LED's on.
The LED's are all clear, 3.5mm flat-tops. The blue ones are 3.1-3.3v, the red and yellow are 2.0-2.4v, and they all have a max current rating of 20mA. I ran the blue LEDs with four in a series and the red and yellow ones with five in a series. All of them had 150Ω resistors. So all I had was a bunch of tiny strings of LED's, each with a current-limiting resistor, and all of those strings were connected in parallel to the PS3's 12v line.
The difficult part was making everything fit. There's a VERY small amount of clearance under the case in some areas. I actually had to cut out a large portion of the disk drive's shielding to get it to fit.
The whole thing draws a very low 200mA, so there's really no extra stress on the PSU, especially considering it can put out 32 amps. XD
You could do it on a 360, but you'd see the LED's because there's no extra plastic cover on top. Unless you have the new slim 360, but I'm not even sure if that does.
Any other questions?
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where did you get them?
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About twelve bucks! China stuff is great. 
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my only issue is that the yellow LED's look orange. same issue as the pins you ordered. excellent placement work.
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it is VERY expensive to get true yellow L.E.Ds. these ones appear yellow from head on, but not even from the sides.
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and you think rainbow dash isn't worth it?
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