How To: Install a Powerstrip to your PC Power supply unit for a Stealth PC Case!

Hey everyone! Mushu hear for another how to for all you stealth computer growers!

In this one i'll show you guys how to keep your computer looking stealthy by being able to plug that PC Power cable into the back of your computer by installing/connecting a powerstrip to the back of your PSU(Power Supply Unit) cover for your computer.

First off... You'll need an old powersupply you can hack apart and tear up. The reason most people would rather have a cut up power supply is because most power supplies take up too much room in your precious PC case. And if your using a regular PSU to power your PC fans.. That PSU can generate its own heat, adding to the temps in your case.

You can find used PSUs on Craigslist.com, Ebay, someone on GC also said their local GoodWill store had PSUs for around 3.50 a pop. Make sure the PSU will cover the PSU hole in your PC.

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This is how the back of my PSU grate, as i call it, looks. I cut away the PSU, took the electronics to an electronic recycle place. Please just dont throw away the guts of your electronics, the gold and other metals used can be recycled! All that I was left with is what you see below.




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The wires to your voltage selector.. Remove those. You dont need them and the Volt selector wont work anyway. Usually the ground wire is connected to the PSU casing, clip that. You should be left with a black, white, green, and one connecting the three prong connector to the on/off switch. It may not be black, mine is blue, but DONT TOUCH THIS!!! This is your hot(positive) wire from your three prong to your on/ff... This is what flows power to electronics when the switch is in the "on" position.

Strip your green, white, and black wires and you'll be left something like this....



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Next, take a powerstrip that you have lying around the house, or go pick one up at practically ANY store... Hell.. I've seen them at grocery stores before lol. You'll want one that has a surge protector, and is in itself, grounded.

Cut off the male end so that you'll have 3 exposed wires. Those should be colored. Black, white, and green. Hot(positive), neutral(negative), and ground(so you dont get shocked ).

Strip the wires and leave room for them to be manipulated. You'll end up with this.



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Then... All your going to do is connect the respective color coded wires together using Shrinkwrap. You can find some at your Home De Pot, lowes, sears, or any other hardware store for DIY home electronics. PLEASE USE HEAT SHRINK INSTEAD OF TAPE!!! Heat shrink will prevent wires from being exposed much more effeciently than just electrical tape. Its also easier to remove if you suspect a bad connection in your wires.

There are many different sizes of shrink wrap and they usually have a 2-1 shrink ratio. I had to use both 3/32 and 3/16 as the wires for the PSU grate were thin, but the powerstrip was thick. I first connected the wires using the 3/32, shrunk it with a lighter. Then OVER that for an even better seal, i used the 3/16. You may want to double shrink wrap it for better seals, and so your connections dont come apart easily.

I did not twist my wires. I simply made sure both wires copper cables were straight, then pushed them into one another... Sort of like pushing a straw broom into another straw broom. Then slide your shrink wrap over it ensuring you get all the wires inside. Shrink, and then slide the next layer of shrink wrap over that... Simple.

I ended up with this:



After I finished all the wires... The back(inside) of my PSU grate looked like this!



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If you did everything correct AND SAFELY!! You should be able to test it out to make sure it works!

PC power cable plugged into the back of the PSU grate... Not plugged in...



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Plugged in and working!! I have a green light to make sure its grounded... I tested by touching... And was nervous, i recommend NOT touching it and just getting a Powerstrip with a surge protector and ground indicator. The red light is the surge protection, its on and working.



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Here is the 2 PC fans connected to the 12v Adapter that I did a little bit ago... The How To for that is alos in my sig. Also a 100(27 actual?)watt CFL, plugged into a timer.



And here it all is shoved into my case! Its not all strapped/secured in yet.. Wont do that till i've gotten 2 more fans and put scrubbers on them... Seeds come next week so i need to get started!



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Thats it ladies and gentlemen! PLEASE be safe when playing with electronics, and happy growing!

Peace, Mushu

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EDIT - UPDATE FOR A LITTLE BIT OF SAFETY SO YOU ALL DONT SHOCK YOURSELVES

If you've already gone through the thread then im sure you've noticed smokeys post regarding the exposed leads and the safety problem it poses. Heres a quick little fix for that.

First off... After your done heat shrinking your wires together at the powerstrip point.. For added strenght... Use some electrical tape and wrap that puppy up. Also... If your powerstrip is in danger of FALLING to a point where those wires even have a potential of breaking.. You obviously need to do some case rethinking or rethinking in general about how your going to set it up safely...

Here it is wrapped up:



Also... Make sure your wires that are connected to your switches and your Power cable input are soldered and not just heat shrinked which i think smokey had me confused about...

All these connections need to be soldered!



Now those may not be able to be heat shrinked but that doesnt mean you cant cover them up to prevent your self from being electrocuted...

All you need is some regular caulk.. Picked up a tube of it for 3-4 bucks at a target none the less...

Cover EVERY inch of metal you see stickin out of those connections that has a wired connected to it.... It doesnt have to look pretty.. Just get the job done right and you can touch it all you want... Although thats not highly recommended still


Heres the end product...







If you still manage to electrocute yourself after all this??? I think you pretty much deserve to get electrocuted...

Make sure you cover your leads, and if you get hurt... I take no responsibility for your actions.. This is just information for you all to use... If you've got a better way of doing things... Then by all means.. Post it up your work so we can all marvel... As for me... This suits my purposes just fine.

NO! this is unsafe.
you must have the wires connected in a permanent way, e.g. soldering the powerstrip wires directly to the switches.
you have left the connections exposed on the psu backplate, you should make a small box or something to cover these. (why i reccomended using a full psu case, not a chopped one).
the flex cord for the powerstrip should be clamped down as well, one tug on that cord coupled with wires that arent permanently attached could be very bad for you.

Doh... Your totally right.. I need to redo that... Taking this down and redoing this with a different one... I'll figure out a way to make this safe with a chopped back plate... Damn smokey.. your probably frustrated with me aren't you lol

I just keep relying on common sense for people not to touch electrical wires when theres power being run through them.... But then again.. There ARE some stupid people out there....


Edit... There is a warning... I'll leave it the way it is with the warning... I'll try to do it as soon as i possibly can tomorrow... I'll also be trying to make a cover for the current grate to cover the wires...

Smokey.. If you have any ideas on how to cover those wires up on the 3prong connecter and on/off instead of putting a whole PSU case in there... lmk..

Also.. as for the sodering of the wires.. the wires are firmly connected from the shrink wrap... I just gave them a good tug and they did not budge. The only way they'll come apart if done properly is if you dropped the powerstrip from a good hight with alot of weight on it... I assure you smokey that if put together with the proper heat shrink its ok. But i DO need to fix the exposed wires... and not just with electrical tape, although thats what i'll personally do, but for the safety of others i'll devise a diff method.

no u need to solder the powerstrip wires to the switches, heatshrinking them together is not enough.
seriously you cannot do a half assed attempt when working with mains electricity. the way you connected them is a fire hazard and if they became seperated then also an electric shock hazard.

thanks and ill keep safty in mind while i do this

smokeymacpot said:

no u need to solder the powerstrip wires to the switches, heatshrinking them together is not enough.

Click to expand...

I think you've mistaken what I ment... I didnt heat shrink the powerstrip to the connections... For one, the wires that are coming out of the power strip are too big to be soldered safely to the switches. Second... The wires coming off the switches.. are ALREADY soldered... I simply connected those wires to the PSU...

And if a PSU is in jeopardy of being stressed to the point the wires are going to break.. They shouldnt be doing this and they need to rethink what they're doing.

Now.. I've updated the orginal post with more pictures and a quick fix for everyone... PLEASE include the new steps while doing this.

A little bit of electrical tape... and some caulk.. and if you still manage to electrocute yourself... I think by all means you've desereved to get electrocuted and it'll remove one more idiot from the world
Yea... I know...

Think thats it... Again... If your putting stress on these wires to the point they'll break in the first place... You need to rethink of how your putting your setup together... All this should fit in a case nicely with out any worries.

you said you pushed the wires into each other and then heatshrinked over them, you did not mention soldering them, or using those white connecting blocks.

exposed connections are now much safer

Ahhh... NOO... THOSE wires... Were the wires coming FROM the switches already... THOSE were pushed into the Powerstrip wires... THOSE were heat shrinked and after being shrink wrapped they wont budge unless excessive force is used as it melds itself onto the wires plastic also... Sorry for the confusion

And that "white" connection block is just a bunch of caulk haha

Why no use wire nuts and tape or butt connectors inside the shrink?

Unless you have shrink wrap that can stretch over those, you wont be able to get the shrink wrap around it... Most shrink wrap that you get at ur local hardware store, home depot in my case, didnt stretch so it would have been impossible to get the shrink wrap around it in the first place.

And for me.. The shrink wrap just looks cleaner while still being very effective... KISS

MushuHappiness said:

Ahhh... NOO... THOSE wires... Were the wires coming FROM the switches already... THOSE were pushed into the Powerstrip wires... THOSE were heat shrinked and after being shrink wrapped they wont budge unless excessive force is used as it melds itself onto the wires plastic also... Sorry for the confusion

Click to expand...

you should not be doing that, do you think im joking when i say its a BAD way to do it ?

Did this for a covert PC grow i had and i used the same idea except i substituted caulk for hot glue... it works great! what is really important to understand here is simply make sure the gauge of wire going in the power strip is not thicker than the computer power cord (make all your wires the same gauge if possible and electricity will find the most simple path) I never had heat issues throughout my grow (and if i did there would have been hot glue everyhwere)

thanks alot mushu. this thread made my pc growbox possible,

using two marette-twist connectors instead of the tape (or solder), and replace the (soft) caulk with (hard) hot-glue and you're good to go.

It's not like the cable has to withstand any force. The hot glue is in case you accidentally come in contact with the plug.

nice tutorial, rep+

nice tut...this should really be stickied

dont use regular chalk for that get silicone base water and tile chalking is not made for that app it will dry and fall off in time. Not to mention its gunna get dusty as shit as it degrades. You use normal chalk as gap filler.

So is the consensus that this is a pretty safe hack?

I'm looking into doing something similar...

1. Do you need to solder the connections before heatshrinking them?
2. What's the best material to glob all over the exposed connections on the PSU?
3. How important and how likely is it that the power strip wires and the PSU wires are the same guage?

1. It's a good idea to solder them but OP did not.

2. Hot glue is your friend, seems to look and last a lot longer than caulking.

3. More than likely the power strip wire will be thicker, as long as they are connected securely and wrapped, you'll be fine.

Ac|d

Great thread helped me hack apart my PSU today a few questions though..

This is the only hacked psu thread i could find so please point me somewhere else if you feel this is off topic: Is it possible to run both the lights and fans off the hacked psu without adding a bulky powerstrip? Is it further possible to do so without losing the ability to independtly time the powering of the lights? if so could someone explain the wiring arrangement necessary? (elements involved: hacked PSU, 4 cfls, ac/dc adaptor, fans) Thanks in advance

-StarFox

Starfox, what I did was basically what Mushu outlined, but you should attach the wires firmly as discussed by Smokey.

Instead of a powerstrip I attached a female end of an extension cord. Then I had a double adaptor, and a timer plugged into the double adaptor. That gives you one constant ac supply, and one timed. Then I wired all my CFLs to the male end of the extension cord, and plugged it into the timer. I used an ext cord with a "piggyback" style plug so it still allowed me to plug one more thing into the timer, like a fan that blows when the lights come on, or whatever.

Please be careful too, it's deceptively easy to get zapped if you're not on the ball. Peace.