It's a good idea to start by securing your rheostat onto a small clamp or jig. If you don't have one, you can mount them onto the faceplate and use it as support. Get some wires and strip off about 5mm of the protective cover of the wire and solder the wire onto one of the terminals. You will only need to use 2 of the 3 terminals found on the rheostat. You can cut the other one off or just leave it as it is.

After the wires are soldered, you can use a heat shrink tubing for the soldered connection to prevent any short circuit. The tubings also gives it that professional look, or in my case, to hide the crappy soldering job!!!

Use a jig to mount the rheostat Click to enlarge

Connect wire to the terminal Click to enlarge

Both wires soldered to the terminals Click to enlarge

Heat shrink tubing Click to enlarge

Continue to do the same with the rest of the rheostats. I did not solder the wires on the switch as the wire connectors fit perfectly and tightly onto the switch terminals. Once you're done with the soldering, fix on the rheostats and switch onto the faceplate. You should get something like the pics below. The control unit is done.

The Fanbus Click to enlarge

Internal view Click to enlarge

Next is the fanbus. Crimped on the wire connectors onto the wires of the fanbus to connect to the control unit. Make sure you label the wires to prevent confusion when attaching the fanbus to the control unit. As for the power supply, connect a male Molex Connector to the fanbus. This Molex connector will be connected to the PSU for the voltage and ground supply. You might also want to use electrical tape to seal off the connection of the wires to prevent them from short circuit when they accidentally come into contact with one another. Connect the fanbus to the control unit and you're done!!

Fanbus with connectors Click to enlarge

Completed unit Click to enlarge

Now it's time to test your new toy!!

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